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Even without Montoya's release from McLaren he could have made 9 Busch events before the end of the year.

As it stands Ganassi better get in gear and send out some entry slips for the rest of the Busch season so Juan Pablo can get acclamated.

And BTW, contrary to popular belief Montoya does has "tin top" experiance dating back to 1993 when he won a Series championship in a sedan.

Thanks for the McLaren link. I had not thought about Bruce McLaren and Denny Hulme in many years. They were two of the top Can-Am drivers in the late 60's and early 70's. Those were some great battles with the Porsches of Mark Donahue and George Follmer.

Montoya at Martinsville?? I bet before Sunday no one ever thought they would say that in a sentence. If it turns out to be true it will probably remind Juan Pablo of the streets of Bogata at rush hour.

That Danica story seemed awfully speculative. At least I thought so when I saw it yesterday. I know her father is being quoted throughout, but it also had him saying she wasn't sure about NASCAR. I took the whole thing as an attempt to up the ante with one of the other IRL teams, presumably Penske or Andretti-Green, as she gets ready to leave Rahal Letterman this fall.

If she did come over to stock cars, that'd be two huge marketing breakthroughs for NASCAR -- as if they don't have enough already -- at the same time with her and Montoya. Say what you will about Danica not having won a race yet in IRL, but in my opinion, she's done a darn good job racing in sub-par equipment this year.

Montoya's great for NASCAR. Well, at least if they want to keep attracting people like me. I never paid much attention to any races beyond Daytona and the Brickyard until Tony Stewart came over. Montoya gives me one more reason to watch.

Well I'm certainly pleased that apparently the Jeff G team have figured out one of those 1.5 mile tracks in a BIG way. There for a long time I was beginning to wonder.

I don't believe any open wheel driver transition to NASCAR has been all that successful has it? I'm not aware of any drivers that were even moderately successful.

I am firm believer that it takes greater skill to drive an almost full sized family car inches apart for a duration 3-4 hours in a crowd of 43 determined guys who are sometimes 4 abreast than it does the INDY cars. Just my opinion.

Montoya, and if she takes the leap, and Danica will have trouble making the transition.

I like Montoya's chances. He has won races wherever he's been, and driving open-wheel cars seems to be a ticket to stock-car racing success, as odd as it sounds.

Danica's dad is stepping back from his comments, Jonathan. (The Indy Star has a story today; Dustin will have a version in tomorrow's paper.) I don't know the dad well enough to know if he let his mouth run ahead of his brain or if he's some sort of Mary Pierce tennis dad who's just plain nuts.

I think Danica's Mom & Dad were doing a little posturing at Chicagoland, trying to get her the best IRL ride possible for next year because I doubt Tony George wants to lose her. She said over a year ago she is not interested in racing 38 weekends a year.

We'll see. I wonder if she notices that the Truck races draw as big a crowd if not more than the IRL races when they are on the same weekend. That very fact frustrated the powers that be of the old CART series years ago at Homestead and they vowed to never allow the Truck series back as the Saturday support race.