Montoya leaves F1

[smuttleydfs]

(mirimark @ Jul. 11 2006,17:09) Dana, the female driver for Letterman/Rahal racing team is also trying to jump ship to Nascars Nextel Cup.

Taht would be "Danica" Patrick Mirimark and she needs to reconsider that move, NASCAR is too brutal for her and although there are two women currently in stocks they are both far below the Nextel circuit.

Danica needs to win where she is at before she trys to jump.

[Guest]

Danica is not going to win anywhere. If she gets a ride in NASCAR it is for a sponsor and tv ratings only. I can see where it would be a lucrative deal for some car owner, but it won't result in wins.

[Guest]

To tell the truth, I would much rather see Beau get a NASCAR ride.  That I could get behind, or vice versa.

[Guest]

IRL nascar, oh goodie...two races where the boys actually have to drive, and if you'll check the line-ups more than half the "drivers" bow out and make room for "road course specialists". Going back to the Gordon/Montoya switch a few years ago. Gordon loved it, Juan hated the stock car. We all know Juan and he doesn't mince words. So tell me what's changed in nascar in the past few years to make Montoya do a u-turn...unemployment.

[Tomcat]

Nascar is pretty good, i was at the first  Las Vegas event about 6-7 years ago. awesome machines for sure and ive been to a lot of F1 meetings to compare notes.
Real beasts and sound great- no silencers.

Its  was a bit  artificial though. If a  driver gets to good they sandbag the car down for the next race....maybe this has stopped now....im not sure how i feel about sandbagging?...perhaps its a good thing.

[Guest]

As to the replacement drivers there are only 4 brought in, generally to replace inexperienced or rookie drivers.  Curiously though, none of these replacement drivers has ever won a NASCAR race.

I did a little surfing today to try and get some F! fans response to Montoya's move.  I offer you the following link:

http://www.planet-f1.com/News....00.html

[Guest]

I get it. You like Juan, and you are certainly entitled to your opinion. I've had the priviledge of meeting a lot of drivers...Mario a great and very accommodating man, his son is not as nice, but Michael will stop to sign an autograph and pose for a pic. My fav is and probably always will be Zanardi, a great champion, a superb athlete with more heart than any ten of us put together. I don't know if Juan was having a bad day but in my one and only meet and greet with him he was rude and very inconsiderate of the fans that were there to meet him. This was in Vancouver quite a few years ago during the Cart race there. I get that everyone has a bad day, but he was there to meet his fans (me included), he came out shook a few hands and ended a very short interview session. The drivers I mentioned above along with many more realize that they are there for the fans first, I never felt that from Juan. I wish him luck with his left turn signal.

[Guest]

Hello call guy,

Actually I don't particularly like Juan, for the simple reason that I don't like arrogant people in any situation.

And everything I know or have heard about him is that is he is very arrogant. But that is true of many F! drivers. I think his experience in F1 may have humbled him a bit. And I believe he is about to be humbled even further in his initiation to oval track racing.

But if he is patient, does not lose his temper and does not piss off the other drivers he will ultimately do very well, because he is an excellent driver.

I think most of us are arrogant in one way or another when we are young, and the experience of life humbles us over time. I think he has chosen the best place for his style of racing, and though he will make far less money he will have more success. And I suspect that by now money is not a big issue with him anyway.

[Guest]

Like I've already said, my only experience with juan was pre F1. And yes, a professional athlete in any sport has to have a confidence in himself that he is the best at what he does. Are Schumi, Alonso, Andretti, Zanardi arrogant...of course they are, but there is a difference between arrogance and rudeness. And with very few exceptions, when was the last time you met someone with "enough money"? He begged Chip for a job, was fortunate to get one and if he isn't careful will burn this bridge too. Good driver, of course, great driver, we may never know. I will tell you this, F1 needs more personalities like Juan, just to keep people like us talking about the sport and maybe drawing a few more in.

[Guest]

And a related sidebar, until Champ Cars and the Irl mend thier fences the US will have a hard time finding it's open wheel audience and more importantly our best drivers will opt for Nascar

[Guest]

<>

As long as Tony Hulman Jr. controls Indy I don't see a merger happening.  He is into oval only, which is foolish as the teams and the drivers should be able to do both well.  If there was merger he could do two open wheel races at Indy, one on the oval and one on the F! circuit.  Then he could take the F1 boss to take his race elsewhere.

The Indy 500 is no longer the race it once was.  I think the Brickyard 400 is a bigger race now.

[katoeylover]

Oval racing is just so boring!!

[Guest]

Oval racing is just so boring...

<<...Juan Pablo is making the right move. The NASCAR boys actually overtake each other - more than that they race side by side inches apart at 200+ mph. Hopefully the series will go global in the near future - that should prove a marketing challenge to F1.       Keith Gibbins>>

<
Being, an engineer, that's what I crave and hence follow F1. But from an entertainment and pure spectacle point of view, F1 is as boring as it gets. NASCAR, though not even half as sophisticated as F1, understands the need to put on a show at whatever the cost. Hence, you see drivers making kamikaze overtaking moves even when one does not exist. F1 penalizes this kind of attitude (the points system has to be changed) where as NASCAR encourages its drivers to put on a show.          Sid Reddy>>

It appears some F1 fans disagree with your assessment.

[Guest]

I'm not so sure Juan had a choice. The only owner that would give him a ride right away was Chip, and you can bet that if Juan isn't a winner b4 the end of next season he'll be looking for another ride. Chip likes proven drivers whether it's nascar, or cart, and he's a bottom line guy. Shit of get off the pot, so to speak.

Same sport different item, anyone think Schumi can catch Alonso? or is it too late for the prancing horse? and more importantly who will his teammate be next year??? And who else besides me is impressed with Rosbergs rookie performance? Sorry...getting carried away

[mirimark]

(katoeylover @ Jul. 17 2006,04:31) Oval racing is just so boring!!  

I use to think the same thing until I actually did it myself.
Racing on a Dirt Oval is Fregg'n,
RIGHTEOUS,,,,,RIGHTEOUS,,,,,RIGHTEOUS.

Sprints FLipp'n Rock.