September 26, 2009
By Brenda Benedict
Juan Pablo Montoya has had an up and down week with the press but I want him to show his stuff on the track and I’m not worried about how he speaks to the media.
His past week began with his very fast car for the race at Loudon last weekend. He captured the pole after having the fastest car in both practice and qualifying. He also set a track record with his qualifying run. You can watch a recap of his qualifying performance at...Juan Pablo Montoya sets Track Record for Qualifying.
He went on to finish third in the race after battling with Mark Martin in the final three laps which Martin led. Martin held his lead and blocked Montoya by slowing his car to prevent Montoya from passing him. Montoya was upset with the strategy -- he accused Martin of "stopping" his car as they cleared the first turn.
"I thought I had him," Montoya said. "I was running beside him, I was like, I think I'm losing power but I think I can get enough just to hold the line. He cleared me coming out of 4, and then when he went to 1 and 2 he just stopped on the bottom. He just ran very defensively, and I just got caught by surprise. It's one of those days."
"What he did, not cool at all. I could have wrecked him," Montoya radioed his crew after the finish. "I didn't expect that," Montoya said. "I was expecting him to run pretty hard. He just ran very defensively, and I just got caught by surprise. I think if I would have would have been prepared I probably would have jumped to the outside."
Montoya went on to say, "You've got to learn from it. I haven't fought for enough wins."
He also spoke of Mark Martin and said, “I think he's the most dangerous guy. He's the guy with the most experience. He hasn't won a championship, and he wants one, pretty bad."
I am sure that Montoya had the fastest car at New Hampshire and could have won. Montoya’s reaction to Martin’s blocking of him in the final laps angered some fans.
Additionally, Montoya was also in the news for walking out on a scheduled interview earlier this week. Montoya was doing a series of short interviews with various media outlets. The interviews went longer than had been planned and Montoya stood up and walked away at 5 PM, which was the scheduled time to the end. A NASCAR employee is heard trying to convince Montoya to complete his work but he couldn’t be convinced and simply walked away from the interview. Here’s the report filed by a California sports anchor that had been waiting his turn with Montoya...NASCAR Driver Walks Out On Jim Crandell's Interview.
I think the TV sports anchor is making a big deal out of nothing. Sure NASCAR drivers need to court the media. The whole sport depends upon the media but the media is not the only ingredient in NASCAR’s popularity. It was not a wise move on Montoya’s part and seemed impolite at best but not enough to get so worked up about.
NASCAR’s TV ratings were abysmal last weekend. ABC's broadcast of Sunday's race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway earned a 2.5 overnight rating from Nielsen Media Research. The ratings are 21.9% lower than the 3.2 ABC earned overnight for the race in 2008. That is a significant decrease which needs to be taken very seriously. If this trend continues, we should be seeing NASCAR scrambling to make some wholesale changes to the Chase format.
Many fans see the Chase format as artificially structured and contrived. This year I’m beginning to see their point. When the winningest driver has no chance to win the championship, you can lose some of the excitement and reason for watching the race.
I am not so concerned about Montoya’s press relations but I’d rather see him let his driving do his talking. I want to see races with some excitement and drivers who are willing to put it on the line to win.
The race at New Hampshire was exciting for the most part but if the big NASCAR stories for the week, outside of the Jeremy Mayfield saga, are going to be Montoya’s press interviews or lack of press interviews, then we are in for a long conclusion to the NASCAR season.
You can follow me at Twitter @nascarfaithful
The thoughts and ideas expressed by this writer or any other writer on Insider Racing News, are not necessarily the views of the staff and/or management of IRN.
