Number Juan!

Coming out of Turn 4...

I watched the last 20 laps of the Busch race yesterday. I am not a fan of road races to begin with and this was a Busch race. All the hubbub was about Juan Pablo Montoya. I know he has left his open wheel days to come race with the NASCAR boys, but this boy has some skills. It is interesting to listen to all the commentators, etc talk about Juan. They are so fascinated by him. I am intrigued to see how he will do in NASCAR, but enough already. We know he has somewhat of a learning curve to go through with the bigger and heavier car. We know he has brought a lot of skills with him to NASCAR. Plus he will probably bring newer fans to NASCAR.

Yesterday the ESPN race announcers were stating how impressed they were with Juan being able to make his way back to the front of the pact after some hiccup in the pits. Here's the deal...Juan knows his way around a road course. It didn't surprise me that he was battling with Scott Pruett with 8 laps left. Before the green flag dropped, we all knew Juan was going to pass Pruett. That's why it didn't surprise me that Juan bumped his own teammate to get the lead. Did he take a page of the Jeff Gordon Driver's Handbook? Of course I wasn't driving on the track yesterday so I don't know. Maybe Juan thought there was daylight for him to pass Scott. Maybe Scott wanted to win the race just as much as Juan and threw the block on Juan. I can't say either way, but that Juan sacrificed his teammate for the win. And there was such a big deal about Juan winning...oh my god...Juan was expected to win. I think I will get to like Juan as a driver, but I am waiting to see how he does with the Cup circuit before I can determine anything.

I feel bad for Scott. It's one thing to get spun out with less than 10 laps to go in a race, but when your teammate does it STINGS. You are supposed to respect other drivers on the race track. I know it doesn't happen all the time (i.e. the Stewart/Kenseth incident last year at Daytona comes to mind), but come on Juan....he's your teammate...race him clean. To me I would rather you race him clean for the win. I respect that. You had the faster car. You were going to pass him regardless. PATIENCE...my amigo...PATIENCE.

Some final thoughts from last week...
I know COT testing was going on in Bristol this past week. I also see that NASCAR may move up full implementation of the car in 2008. From what I have heard it sounds like the COT will bring more of the racing back to the driver. I like edge of your seat racing. I think that is why I getting more into Trucks these days. That's some exciting stuff!

Mark? Will he or won't he? We won't know until Bristol is upon us.

Well...VIVA LAS VEGAS! The boys are headed to Sin City where they will encounter a "new and improved" Vegas track. I wanted to be in Vegas this weekend. I love Vegas!