Loving every second of it
October 27th 2006
Montoya's made his move – he's now into the third week of getting behind a NASCAR car and throughout, he's shown great attitude and respect for NASCAR. Juan Pablo Montoya contends that he has made the right move by moving from Formula One to NASCAR. For the first three runs he's had at testing, he gone from wrecking the car to doing so good that it almost ends up on pole position. What one would notice about Montoya is that he's is ultra-confident. A man who knows what he is doing – but minus the conceit and arrogance. In an interview, he revealed that he is happy with whatever he is doing now and realizes that whatever he is doing IN NASCAR now, it's all part of the learning process.
Montoya, during one of the NASCAR interviews says that this learning and testing process is going to take some time. “…some days are going to be good, some days are going to be bad. It is part of the learning experience”, says the 31-year-old former F1 driver.
So, with this attitude and willingness to take whatever's coming at him, he will turn out alright for his NASCAR racing debut this Saturday in Sam's Town 250 Busch race. After having gone through the intensive training he's had, Montoya realizes that he needs to work on his qualifying and that Memphis is not the place for him to make his Busch Series debut.
2007 will be so much a testing ground for Montoya that he is sure that his experience for the following 365 days will be nothing short of a vacation on a rollercoaster. But he's really to go through the mill, have fun, struggle through it and he promises his fans that he will take full advantage of the good car that he has.
Montoya loves NASCAR more than anything now because he sees more than just rivalry and competition in NASCAR as compared to Formula One. The fact that Kevin Harvick dropped by his pit and gave pointers to his crew about Montoya's car shook him a little. He says that in Formula One, you're on your own and other people just don't help each other out in the pit.
We can see that Montoya's feeling all at home already in NASCAR.