Learning curve
Posted by Bill Thomas at 2:10PM on Monday 22 January, 2007 2 Comments
Hope you enjoy the Juan Pablo Montoya NASCAR feature in the latest issue of BBC Top Gear magazine.
If you're in the wrong country to buy the mag, sorry - if I could send you a copy I would. If you are in a country that stocks it, great, check out the latest issue.
This particular feature is an eight-pager about JPM's debut in the Nextel Cup, NASCAR's premier division, in the last race of 2006 in Miami. He raced against guys like Dale Earnhart Jnr, Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson for the first time and did pretty well, running as high as 13th before being tagged viciously by another driver and turned into a fireball.
The real problem Montoya's got - and it's something I didn't allude to in the feature - is that Chip Ganassi Racing has never fielded a competitive car in NASCAR racing. They dominated Champ Car when JPM raced for them a few years ago, but real speed in NASCAR isn't quite there yet, and it's not all the fault of the drivers.
Brad Parrott, Montoya's crew chief in the Busch races he did last year, was honest about it, saying that it was first and foremost the Ganassi team's responsibility to give JPM a quick car, because once he was up to speed there'd be no stopping him as a driver.
It's a new and weird discipline for the Colombian, and he's been humble about his chances.
No open-wheeler driver has ever succeeded in crossing over to NASCAR, not even American oval racers like Scott Pruett. The racing is very different.
The cars are incredibly difficult to set up and the differences between them are tiny. Montoya is learning everything again, but he's learning fast and the guys in his team have no doubts that he'll get there in the end.
Definitely worth watching his progress in 2007. It all kicks off at the Daytona 500 on February 18.
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I do have to point out that Tony Stewart, a two-time NASCAR Nextel Cup Champion, successfully crossed over from open wheel racing. He first gained national recognition as a driver on the Indy Racing League. For a few years, he even pulled double-duty by racing both the Indy 500 and then racing on the Coca Cola 600 the same day. While he never won the Indy 500, he was considered one of the IRL's top drivers before crossing over to NASCAR.
They say that no Open Wheeler has succeeded in NASCAR. well its true....to a point. However they do happen to be rather good at it. The driver i want to point out to the World is Robby Gordon. (no relation to Jeff) who recently put in a top ten finish in the Paris Dakar in a Hummer! He has repeatedly been fast enough to win races and leading quite a few laps last year. Sadly due to engine failure or just plain bad Luck he has yet to transfer this pace to a Win. So Montoya may well not be the First open wheeler to Win in NASCAR, But if he is as good as i know he is then he will defiantely be a Contender in the years to come.