Montoya a breath of fresh air for NASCAR

[sydude]

Juan Pablo Montoya is surprised that the Nextel Cup garage is such a friendly place. Credit: Getty Images for NASCAR Montoya a breath of fresh air for NASCAR Much-hyped debut comes this weekend in Busch race at Memphis By Dave Rodman, NASCAR.COM October 27, 2006 07:28 PM EDT (23:28 GMT) ATLANTA -- Juan Pablo Montoya has only begun to show stock car racing fans what an eye-opening delight his move to NASCAR will be, after a career of more than 25 years almost exclusively focused on open-wheel racing. Why? Attitude is a good starting point. DAVE RODMAN • E-mail Dave • Opinion archive Dale Earnhardt and Montoya are obviously vastly different people, light years different in upbringing and background, but you could seriously contend that not since the late great Earnhardt has anyone been in the presence of a man so supremely confident, yet showing not a hint of arrogance, conceit or ego-gone-mad. And that, good people -- despite the fact that Montoya has yet to turn a lap on stock car racing's biggest stage -- is perhaps the ultimate refreshment. He knows he's gonna take his lumps. He already has, when he trashed a car at Kentucky in his third day in stock cars. He's over it. "I think the main thing [to remember] is, this is all testing, to me, or practicing, or whatever you want to call it, for next year," Montoya said. "All that is going to take time and some [days] are going to be good, some are going to be bad -- it's all part of the learning experience." So get ready. If you thought Montoya chapters one, two and three -- Talladega, Iowa and Homestead -- were something, you ain't seen nothing yet. Montoya has no idea if his Nextel Cup debut will come outside his adopted hometown of Miami, or up I-95 next February at Daytona. Either way, no worries, he says. "As much experience that we can get in the next couple of weeks, in testing and whatever we do in racing, if it goes well we may try Cup," Montoya said. Juan Pablo Montoya raced six seasons in Formula One Credit: AP Inside the Numbers Juan Pablo Montoya in F1 Year Starts W T5 T10 2001 17 1 5 6 2002 17 0 12 12 2003 16 2 10 12 2004 18 1 10 13 2005 17 3 7 10 2006 10 0 4 5 Totals 95 7 48 58 MONTOYA TO DRIVE NO. 42 Formula One driver Juan Pablo Montoya will drive the No. 42 Dodge in 2007, team owner Chip Ganassi announced. • Complete story, click here • Montoya completes first Nextel Cup test session • Montoya's Busch debut to happen at Memphis So he had the right idea when it came to preparing for his NASCAR racing debut, set for Saturday afternoon's Sam's Town 250 Busch race in Memphis by the Mississippi. That's not to be confused with Monaco by the Mediterranean. Montoya, 31, took a vacation in his native Colombia. After a whirlwind three-week "stock car 101" introduction, he didn't feel compelled to test a Busch Series car, which he's never driven, or to return from Colombia for a Car of Tomorrow test at Iowa. "It's my choice and I'm not sure I want to get into a different car," Montoya said. "If I did the Car of Tomorrow on a short track, I wouldn't be sure how it would feel. "So to get a completely different feel for a car and then when I got in the Busch car, I'd be like, 'what the heck?' So I want to try to keep it more consistent." Montoya himself said he 1) needs to work on his qualifying and 2) wouldn't have picked Memphis as the place to make his Busch Series debut. Yup, he's got a handle on things, all right. In little more than three weeks' time, from taking his first laps in a stock car on Sept. 25, Montoya spent 12 days in stock cars -- behind the wheel of either a Nextel Cup Dodge or its first cousin, an ARCA RE/MAX Series Charger -- and 12 out of them. In the process he's wrecked 'em and nearly put them on pole position. It adds up to exactly what he says he expected when he called Chip Ganassi, the man who previously fielded Indy cars with which Montoya won the CART championship and the Indianapolis 500, and said he wanted a shot at driving his No. 42 Dodge in Nextel Cup. "Next year, I think, is going to be a bit like a roller coaster -- there's going to be ups, there's going to be downs, there's going to be everything," Montoya said. "Hopefully there's more ups than downs, but being realistic, you know there's going to be some races where we're going to struggle, some races where we're going to run real strong -- so we just have to take advantage so that when the car is good, to have good results." So far he's undaunted by the peaks and valleys of his move from the pinnacle of worldwide motorsports, Formula One, to stock cars because this is what he expected. Juan Pablo Montoya has gotten a fast introduction to NASCAR. Credit: Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images for NASCAR PHOTO GALLERY • Juan Pablo Montoya What he didn't expect was the reception he got at his first en masse test of NASCAR stockers, the three-day open session held Oct. 16-18 at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Oh yeah, the circus aspect of hangers-on and video and still photographers -- not to mention writers who were either wide-eyed or cross-eyed at the scene -- was a continuation of what everyone had seen at each stop on the "Montoya Welcome Tour" so far. But if Juan Pablo had any doubt about his decision to attempt the Nextel Cup Series in 2007, and what that decision involved, leave it to Kevin Harvick, of all people, to convince him he'd made the right decision. "Kevin Harvick came by the pits and he talked to my crew chief and he said 'I think Juan's car is a little low here and you should try this,'" Montoya said. "You wouldn't see that in Formula One." In an interview session, Montoya showed he's a man of a million faces -- though if he's got the moods to match, that's still unknown in these parts. He put one on us, then. "In Formula One you'd see that and you would be laughing at them," Montoya said, making an evil laugh and a face that depicted pure ridicule. "You don't get help from anything [in Formula One]. "If you see somebody struggling in Formula One, you're never going to go and say, 'you're making this wrong.' You actually go to your guys and you say, 'you see what they're doing wrong?'" Harvick's reaction, and the fact his Ganassi Racing teammates, Reed Sorenson and Casey Mears, each got in his car at Homestead to give him tips, only makes Montoya secure in his decision. "It's great to see that and it's one of the reasons I came here," Montoya said. "Everybody's so friendly. When you go down to business it's down to business -- but everybody is so open and so relaxed and everybody wants to help [so] it's a lot nicer." In the end, and despite all the bumps, lumps and questions Montoya will undoubtedly feel and field in the next year, he says there was no question NASCAR was the right decision. "It was the right move because I wasn't enjoying racing [at McLaren Mercedes]," Montoya said. "I do this because I love it -- I don't do this for the money. I'm not going to say the money's bad -- the money's really good. "But to perform, you've got to enjoy it. And if you don't enjoy it, you're not gonna perform. And I think I needed to have more fun -- I needed to get the love back, of the racing. "I thought I could get that here and so far, I have." And in time, Juan Pablo, a bunch of people might be sending the same emotion back to you. Just get through Memphis, first. The opinions expressed are solely of the writer.

[Mr.Quik]

Juan Pablo? What is that? Like two first names or something????