Montoya’s breaking down borders

FONTANA, Calif. – On Friday, the only driver to score top-five finishes in the first three races of this year’s Chase was asked about his expectations for Sunday’s Pepsi 500.

“I have no idea,” he said. “I really don’t,” before going on to explain that he hopes to do well and that he expects things to be “pretty interesting.”

Then he was asked to repeat his answer … in Spanish.

This is the weekly routine for Juan Pablo Montoya and only Juan Pablo Montoya, the Colombian-born driver who has emerged out of nowhere to become a legit contender in NASCAR’s Chase for the Championship.

That he’s making a serious title run, one that’s threatening to end Jimmie Johnson’s three-year reign, is stunning considering Montoya had just two top-five finishes (and zero wins) during the 26-race regular season.

But here he is, three races in, sitting third in the standings, just 51 points back of Mark Martin. And so the question must be asked: Is NASCAR ready for a foreign-born champion?

Nostalgia being what it is, how can you fault NASCAR fans for holding onto a past that includes chapters on bootleggers, fist fights and drivers nicknamed Fireball and The King? For most of NASCAR’s six-decade history, the sport has been all things American, from the cars to the drivers to the open-door policy that anyone fast enough could enter and win.

NASCAR was homegrown and its fans remain proud of it, just like the Irish are of their Guinness.

But, just as Guinness is now brewed beyond St. James’s Gate, NASCAR now bleeds more than just red, white and blue. A third of the field drives Toyotas, one team, Red Bull, is European owned, and on most weekends the field for a Cup race includes drivers from Italy (Max Papis), Australia (Marcos Ambrose) and Colombia (Montoya).

The immigration of foreign manufacturers, teams and drivers has received a mixed blessing from the hardcore NASCAR fan. There are those who have welcomed Toyota, pointing out that while the company isn’t American owned, many of its cars are built in the U.S. Still, there remain some who don’t want to see a Japanese manufacturer in “their” sport.

Montoya’s reception into the NASCAR world, which commenced in 2007 after open-wheel stints in Formula One and IndyCar, has been similar. On race day, he’s booed more than he’s cheered, though it’s impossible to decipher who’s booing him for being where he’s from and who’s booing him for his brash personality.

In 2007, Kevin Harvick and Juan Pablo Montoya nearly came to blows at Watkins Glen.

(Getty)

On and off the track, Montoya can be a pit bull. He knows he’s good – he has won the Indy 500 and seven Formula One races – so rarely is he willing to back down to anyone. He proved that in his first season in a race at Watkins Glen when Kevin Harvick blamed him for a wreck Montoya didn’t think he caused. The two nearly came to blows.

“Don’t push me around like I’m anybody,” Montoya said afterward.

He meant “like a nobody,” but the point was made – Montoya wasn’t backing down to anyone.

The irony in Montoya getting booed is that, at his core, he is closer to the outlaws of NASCAR’s past – namely Dale Earnhardt Sr. – who were and are celebrated for speaking their minds off the track and using their bumpers on it. In fact, Montoya’s style of driving is more similar to Senior’s than Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s is.

But Senior initially was booed, too, so maybe all Montoya needs is time.

If he were to win the title, the 34-year-old Montoya knows he would make history, yet he insists being NASCAR’s first foreign-born champ means nothing to him.

“No,” he said.

“You know,” he explained, “in a way, Formula One is very European. There was a couple of Brazilian drivers, but for me I felt like I was a foreigner there. When I came to Indy cars it was the same thing. It’s the nature of the sport. It doesn’t really matter where you are from. I think it matters whether you perform or not.”

Right now, there’s no question he’s performing.

Before the Chase began, Montoya didn’t have a single top-10 at New Hampshire or Kansas, and had only one top-10 at Dover. In three Chase races at those tracks, he has finished third, fourth and fourth, respectively.

Now he heads to Auto Club Speedway, where in five races he never has finished better than 11th. After setting the pace in the first practice session, posting a lap more than a mile an hour faster than anyone else, Montoya qualified a respectable fifth.

“I am not surprised,” Martin said of Montoya. “I predicted that he could be a player in this thing. I am more sure now than ever that those guys can be a player.”

It’s clear Montoya is ready to be a player, but the question remains: Is NASCAR Nation ready for him?