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Montoya has a chance to make the NASCAR playoffs
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Published: May 11, 2008
DARLINGTON, S.C. -- Hey, Juan Pablo, how's life? It's going well.
Yessiree, after that close second at Talladega a few days ago, suddenly Juan Pablo Montoya finds himself back in the limelight. Not only that, but he and new crew chief Jimmy Elledge left Alabama 12th in the Sprint Cup standings. If the two can keep up that pace, it would put them in the Chase for the Sprint Cup this fall.
Well, it probably won't go down that way, because team owner Chip Ganassi and the Dodge guys are still struggling for championship-level consistency, and that crash-and-32nd at Richmond didn't do anything good for their average.
Still, the idea of Montoya in the running for the NASCAR championship is intriguing.
Not a big crowd in Mexico
And stranger things have happened lately on the stock-car trail.
Maybe NASCAR execs should have hauled Montoya and Co. back down to Mexico City a few weeks ago for that big soiree.
Robbie Weiss, NASCAR's international boss, put the spin on it: "An impressive run in Mexico City by (winner) Kyle Busch, and it was a nice finish from the international perspective, with Marcos Ambrose (from Australia) in second and Patrick Carpentier (from Montreal) in fifth, and with Carl Edwards up there too."
Still….
"You could clearly tell from the main grandstands that there were some empty seats, compared to other years," Weiss said. "But if you looked around the track at other parts, the promoter said it was solid. Maybe 50,000 people altogether. That's a little off from other years, but still a nice crowd, a good atmosphere, and from the corporate side, it was pretty good.
"There is a lot of work still to be done, to build our presence in that market. Overall we left a little disappointed, in that we'd like to see record attendance each year … but it was a good, safe race, and a decent crowd."
With a city of 25 million, how do you market Mexico City? Particularly considering the demographics of the traditional racing crowd.
"It's a challenge," Weiss said. "We can frame it -- when we take the Corona series to smaller states in Mexico, it's a lot easier to make a product noise and reach a lot of people.
"In Mexico City we can bang our drum very loudly and it's still hard to be heard.
"But from having been down there for a lot of events, from the NFL-ABC days and Champ-car days, the nice thing about our NASCAR events is you see a much different blend of people in the crowd. Even in Montreal too, our race crowd is much different than the Formula One crowd.
"Our events are not isolated to just one group of demographics. You still get the upper market but you also get the masses, the working class people and their families, more so than at other events. And yet you still get the racing enthusiasts and the Who's-Who of Mexico.
"How do you market that event in Mexico City? It's very tough. I can tell you that any given weekend in Mexico City there is a lot going on. Just like in Boston, New York, LA, any big city.
"But we do a pre-sell with the credit card company Banamex; tickets to a lot of events in Mexico are packaged by sponsors, who can then reach out to their own consumers.
"So you can see particular sections, like the Corona section. That's very traditional in the Mexican market."
Montoya eyeing the playoffs
On the other side of NASCAR's Hispanic initiative, Montoya has become the kingpin, although between last summer's Sonoma win and his strong runner-up run at Talladega two weeks ago, he hadn't shown that much.
But that Talladega run and a string of consistent finishes (an average 18.4 finish, dragged down by his 32nd at Richmond and a 32nd at Daytona) have him looking at a possible playoff spot, if he can make the top 12 by the September cutoff.
But still not good enough, not for a Formula One star.
So car owner Chip Ganassi swapped crew chiefs and brought over Jimmy Elledge, to try to add some spark to the Montoya camp.
Montoya, with a carefree spirit, that borders on nonchalance, nevertheless bristles when pressed about his long doldrums.
Does Montoya think he can win a championship right now? "Somebody would be dreaming if somebody tells me that," Montoya said with a laugh. "As a company we're getting better. I think we need a little bit more time."
And as a driver? "I think I'm pretty good. I still got to learn a little bit, to understand what the car needs. But that's part of the whole experience.
"I think the racing part I'm pretty good at. I think it's more, ‘Do I need a track-bar adjustment? Do I want to pull a spring rubber out? Is it the wedge? Is it the track bar on the left or right?'
"It's all kinds of things.
"When the car is really good, then it's very easy to adjust like that. But when the car is bad, it's very hard to decide which is the worst pick."
So, his NASCAR learning curve has been erratic, not unexpected for a guy, however talented, coming over from light-weight, lithe open-wheel cars.
■ Mike Mulhern can be reached at
mmulhern@wsjournal.com
.
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N.C. Politics
Federal Politics
The Downtown Summer Music Series will begin on Thursday. Ed Bumgardner talks to some of the organizers of the Downtown Jazz lineup, in which a form of music known as "smooth jazz" will play a more prominent role this year.
Thursday's relish stories will appear in the Entertainment section.
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