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Montoya has more than proved he belongs

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Updated Sep 29, 2009 4:18 PM ET
     
 
Trade Monaco for Darlington? Some people assumed Juan Pablo Montoya had a few screws loose — and not in his race car. There were puzzled expressions all around — except, notably, on the faces of Montoya and car owner Chip Ganassi — when Ganassi announced in the middle of the 2006 season that Montoya would drive for his NASCAR team beginning with the 2007 Sprint Cup schedule. Yes, Ganassi assured everyone, this was the same Juan Pablo Montoya who had blitzed the racing capitals of Europe and other continents as one of Formula One's lightning rods. He won races on some of world's most famous F1 courses and in front of kings and queens and sheiks, and now he was going to race "taxicabs" at such exotic locales as Talladega and Martinsville? Yes, Ganassi said. And, yes, he would do it well.

Of course, there were doubters. Open-wheel drivers — even super-studs in the same vein as Montoya — have a weak history in trying to make the transfer to NASCAR and its heavyweight vehicles and marathon races. For most, it's an apples-and-oranges — some would say lemons — difference. It just doesn't work. So what's happened? Take a look at the Sprint Cup standings with only eight events left, and the guy sitting there in the No. 3 position, only 65 points out of the lead in the country's most-watched national motorsports points race, is none other than Bogota's pride and joy, Juan Pablo Montoya. He didn't light up the series when he first stepped onto NASCAR asphalt, but that was not expected. There was a transition to be experienced, and there were growing pains. The people working with and for Montoya had to help him figure out the nuances of "tight and loose," the unusual differences of the turns at Darlington, the best ways to put his engine power to the ground. It was a learning exercise for everybody, for it is not always easy to determine which factor — driver or car — is not up to snuff.

Go inside

Montoya What's a race weekend like for a NASCAR driver? Take a behind the scenes tour with Juan Pablo Montoya at Dover.
He caused a few wrecks. He was yelled at occasionally. He got boos from the stands. He was an interloper. He was from Colombia, South America, not Columbia, S.C. And that's a big difference to many NASCAR fans. Now, though, it is more than appropriate to give Montoya his props. In his third full season in Sprint Cup racing, he has received his official degree in the school of stock-car point racing. He has learned the game so well that, to the astonishment of many, he has a legitimate shot at winning one of auto racing's most important championships, and to say that he has done it against the odds is the understatement of the year. Will he win the championship? The odds — there they are again — say no, and no small reason is the looming presence of Jimmie Johnson, who is a step above Montoya in the standings and who seems to win these things mostly as a matter of course. It seems safe to conclude that if anyone other than Johnson wins the championship, it will be at least a mild upset.
In Montoya's case, it would be one of the most spectacular and stunning moments in NASCAR's six decades of running souped-up cars around and around in circles. Not only does he not have the stock-car pedigree that used to be required to win these things, but he also doesn't have the team most would require to succeed on the level he currently is trying to play on. When it comes to Sprint Cup championships, Hendrick Motorsports — home of three-time champ Johnson and four-time title winner Jeff Gordon — is like the big dog guarding the porch. No one else gets through. Ganassi knows this all too well, as he has struggled for almost a decade trying to duplicate his power in IndyCar racing on the NASCAR side of the fence. To the surprise of many, the driver who has carried Ganassi to the doorstep of the top floor is Montoya. If they reach the ultimate trophy room, the firmament of the sport will be shaken. A world once controlled by guys like Richard Petty, Junior Johnson and Dale Earnhardt will be led by a guy with an unusual accent and a wacky, out-of-kilter racing background. It will have been a long, strange trip over a long and winding road. Mike Hembree is a writer for NASCAR Scene, which is published weekly, 46 weeks per year. Visit www.scenedaily.com for more information.
Tagged: Juan Pablo Montoya, Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson

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