Montoya Retains Open Wheel Profile in NASCAR

From correspondent John Griffin:

"Professional race car driver Juan Pablo Montoya trades his McLaren MP4-21 for a Dodge Charger as he joins ranks with the increasingly popular North American professional stock car series, NASCAR. With the switch to the heavier Cup car @ roughly 3200 lbs., J.P. will long for the wicked acceleration and dead braking power of the agile open-wheeler, weighing in at about 1320 lbs. But as he proved this weekend in Sonoma, California, home of Infineon Raceway, a 3200 lb car boasting 750 horsepower in the hands of an Indy 500 champion and former F1 driver may have it's upside, especially at a road course."

Juan Pablo Montoya isn't the first open wheeler to attempt the jump to full time NASCAR driver. Several racing icons and hall of famers have proven their ability in any type of car, although all agree the ultimate in a driver's test is the fastest most agile car of all, the "formula" type of car: the open wheeler.

Back in the day, before NASCAR was the 300 lb. gorilla in the room it is now, the best drivers competed in the glimmering jewels of the motorsports world as they do now too: AJ Foyt, Mario Andretti and others began their careers in open wheel, AJ on dirt in the modifieds, Mario in sportscars and formula cars. Then when their careers seemed to plateau, the got into the taxi cabs and had success, both drivers I mentioned are unique that they are the only ones to win the Daytona 500, the Indianapolis 500 and the 24 Hours of LeMans. At LeMans, Mario with Ferarri, AJ with the Ford GT 40.

In modern times, several top notch NASCAR drivers began their careers in Indy cars. Rusty Wallace and Jeff Gordon both began in karts then went to midgets. Having raced the karts gives the equivelant to the dynamic of a formula car: stiff chassis responding to left and right steering input.
Both drivers have garnered considerable success with Rusty retiring in 2005 after a storied career, and Jeff Gordon still winning races and competing for championships to go with his previous four.

Tony Stewart and Robby Gordon are two top notch NASCAR drivers who were in high demand to drive Indy 500 entries in recent years, while still maintaining a full season of Winston/Nextel Cup starts. The Indy 500 and the Coca Cola 600 are usually run on the same day and these two drivers' top notch teams went to extreme lengths to allow their drivers to compete in the "Greatest Spectacle in Motorsports" then fly via chartered jet from Indianapolis to Charlotte, NC to take the start of the Cup race.

Several years ago, Jeff Gordon and Juan Pablo Montoya participated in an experimental show idea put on by Speed Channel. "Tradin' Paint" began life as two driver's exchanging cars to see how they perform in the other's ride. Jeff, a former karter and open wheeler in his youth took Montoya's Williams BMW powered F 1 car out on the Indianapolis Formula 1 track while Juan Pablo took Gordon's Chevy Monte Carlo onto the same track. In the general scheme, it was agreed the Montoya actually outperformed Gordon in his car, and is now an indicator that JPM might be able to operate this bulky, top-heavy, won't freakin' stop TAXICAB!

2006 and 07 were breakout years for open wheel drivers. Mostly because they seemed to want to "break out" of IRL and Champ Car drives! It was a disgusting display of, frankly, greed. AJ Allmendinger, Sam Hornish Jr., Montoya, all seemed to want to try to duplicate the cross-over manouver with success that road course specialists occasionally hired by NASCAR teams to drive their cars on the road course events on the calendar: Watkins Glen, Infineon and in the Busch Series, Mexico City. Drivers like Robby and Jeff Gordon (no relation), Boris Said, Scott Pruett and other full time drivers adept at road courses like Tony Stewart all came from a roadrace if not actual open wheel backgrounds. Of those drivers, only Boris Said is making a go of starting a full time race team in Cup, Robby Jeff and Tony already have full time rides while Robby is an owner/driver.

And while Boris and Robby struggle to remain in the field as newly formerd teams, Allmendinger, Hornish and Montoya drive for second tier teams and are struggling to produce results. Montoya is by far the more successful of these taxicab rookies with a road course win in Mexico and Infineon, and the highest point total of the drivers on his TexacoHavoline, Ganassi/Sabates Dodge Team.
Montoya knows that it is on the ovals that he needs to produce results to truly make his mark in the history books alongside other greats that have attempted the same feat.

By the way, JPM has won in Formula 1, 24 Hours of LeMans, as well as an Indianapolis 500 and a Champ Car Championship. Each year, Juan Pablo coordinates a charitible kart event in his home country of Columbia featuring other elite open wheel drivers such as Tony Kanaan, Helio Castroneves, Vitor Meira and Felipe Massa.

History will judge him as an elite driver regardless of whether he can trade paint with the rednecks in Cup.