Juan Pablo Montoya will switch to Nascar next season as CNN reports:

McLaren’s Juan Pablo Montoya will leave Formula One at the end of this season to drive in NASCAR, reuniting the Colombian with car owner Chip Ganassi, it was announced on Sunday.

Montoya excited a lot of people when he came to F1. After all, he was already a mini star. From Wiki:

While Zanardi had a miserable year in Formula One, Montoya, with Honda power and a great Reynard chassis at his disposal, took the American motorsport scene by storm. He took the 1999 title in his rookie year, something accomplished six years earlier by former Formula One Champion, Nigel Mansell.

The season that saw Montoya crowned as the youngest ever CART FedEx Championship Series Champion at the age of 24 was closely fought, especially with Dario Franchitti who led the championship going into the final race in California. Both drivers finished the season with equal number of points but having won seven races to the Scotsman’s three decided the title in the Colombian’s favor. Montoya’s tally of wins, pole positions and fastest laps meant that he was considered the fastest driver in a series which lacked electronic aids such as traction control, adaptive suspension or automatic gearboxes. However, the CART rookie also attracted criticism - notably from Michael Andretti and his team - for his aggressive style of driving.

For all it is worth, Montoya has had a disappointing F1 career. The style of Montoya’s racing is built on risk taking. While it was criticised by sections in CART as well, he was very much successful. In F1, overtaking doesn’t happen as much while on track. Most of the over taking takes place when some one is having a pit stop. So more than the risk taking, the strategies are crucial.

The Nascar style suits Montoya much more and this is a very good move from him in my opinion. There have been other recent moves to NASCAR in recent times as independenti sums up:

First, it was Toyota, announcing that they would run 6 or 7 cars for the 2007 season. Then Team Red Bull announced that would join the Nascar ranks. Now, Juan Pablo Montoya announced that he will drive for his former owner, Chip Gannasi, in a cup car for the 2007 season. For a sport that 10 years ago was only watched by southerners, this is going to be a big pill for a lot of people to swallow.

Nascar doesn’t enjoy as diversified an international audience as F1 does. Nascar and F1 have different fan bases and different things needed for a driver to succeed. A Montoya will definitely draw a few Montoya fans to Nascar among the other recent moves. That, can only be good news.

An extreme scenario - if Formula 1 slips up a bit, a Nascar can cash in on some of the fan base. As they say, any competition is always good.

Update: TSN reports that Danica Patrick, America’s top female driver, might come to Nascar. Excellent news as it should draw in more crowds. Critics may doubt whether she can match up to the acid test. To them, I ask - why not?! This should be another big acquisition if it does happen.

Update 2: Montoya is released with immediate effect.

This entry was posted on Monday, July 10th, 2006 at 8:42 pm and is filed under Formula 1, Misc. Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.