Stars Coming to NASCAR

This past weekend Chip Ganassi surprised a lot of folks in the NASCAR garage when he announced that Formula 1 star Juan Pablo Montoya will drive his #42 Texaco Havoline Dodge in 2007. Montoya has little or no fendered racing experience that I'm aware of, and despite his years of open wheel racing, he'll have to run a number of races in stock cars this year before NASCAR will license him to run at Daytona in February. Once the F1 season is over he'll probably be seen in some Busch or ARCA races.

Why the move to NASCAR where he'll probably make a lot less money? One driver suggested that Montoya was probably tired of playing follow-the-leader which is pretty much what F1 is. As Brian Vickers said on TV last night, F1 is more about technology than it is about real racing. In NASCAR, Montoya will get to race...a lot.

His first practice at Daytona when he finds himself three wide and 14 rows deep at 185 miles per hour is certainly going to be an eye-opener for him.

There's also speculation about a star (or possibly THE star) of another racing series (from The Washington Post):

Danica Patrick , who has been an Indy Racing League sensation since nearly winning the 2005 Indianapolis 500, took a step toward joining a NASCAR team this weekend, a newspaper reported yesterday.

T.J. Patrick , Danica's father and manager, told the Orlando Sentinel that he is "trying to get her" into NASCAR and that he fielded some inquiries from NASCAR team officials about that possibility while at the Chicagoland Speedway for the USG Sheetrock 400. T.J. Patrick and his wife, Bev , were there as guests of NASCAR's Roush Racing team.

Attempts to reach T.J. Patrick yesterday were unsuccessful.

"Danica right now is doing what any other athlete would be doing in their leave year of a contract," said John Griffin , vice president of public relations for IRL. "She's seeking out whatever opportunities may be there for her. We feel good about Danica and her longtime passion for open-wheel racing."

Asked what kind of blow it would be for IRL to lose Patrick, the circuit's most marketable star, Griffin said, "I think you're asking me a premature question."

It's not like NASCAR is short on marketable stars, so while there will be a big push to promote her should she make the move, she's not going to set NASCAR on fire anytime soon. Cheesecake shots do not win 500 miles races, so she'll have some work to do.

In the IRL, she was just about the only driver whose name the fans could pronounce, so it's no wonder the marketing mavens flocked to her. If she leaves the IRL, you can expect to see their TV ratings finish tanking (they were on their way there anyway) and interest in the series drop like a stone (with the obvious exception of the Indy 500 which still has a huge audience).

One thing Patrick will have to get used to: Racing past stands jammed with fans, unlike the empty seats she saw at most tracks on the IRL circuit. You have to know that that fact certainly must be playing into her decision.