I think JPM's having a great time in Nascar, why would he leave? Its challenging, he loves the US anyway, he seems very happy to me.
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I think JPM's having a great time in Nascar, why would he leave? Its challenging, he loves the US anyway, he seems very happy to me.
He is on a mediocre team in Nascar,get over it.Yes he is the top dog on the team,but his cars a lot of times just suck.Otgherwise he would have had better results.
I love when European/F1 fans talk about NASCAR. It really shows a pre-conceieved arrogance that assumes that JPM going to NASCAR is a temper tantrum and that he will come to his senses and come back to f1. What this boils down to is an ignorance to why JPM left f1 and what NASCAR is all about.
It has been said before, and I will note it also, Juan likes the family atmosphere in NASCAR. He as been accepted with open arms by the other Cup drivers, and what is more, he has earned their respect. He has not run anyone off the road this season. He has learned to run in traffic that is unlike anything he would deal with in OW cars and he has had to learn a new oval almost every week.
Contrary to popular belief, it isn't just standing on the gas and turning left. Car setup, learning to push the car to the limit without going over it is actually part of the equation, and while there are lots of yellow's, you are usually under green for over 3 hours in a NASCAR race. What is more, you have 7 to 8 pitstops in some races or more, and you have 40 other guys or so to fight on and off pit road while obeying the pit lane speedlimit. You cant stall, you have no electronics to keep your speed down, and the car doesn't brake really well. F1 pilots really have no excuses for a bad pitstop whereas even getting in and out of the pits in NASCAR is a fight. It is so different to F1 in its approach and so competitive that this thread reveals another f1 attitude towards NASCAR being:
The idea that JPM was going to win races this year. Nothing could be further from the truth. He may not even win a Cup race on the road courses EVER. NASCAR is so competitive and his team is not one of THE top teams. What is more, even if he was racing for Hendrick or Gibbs, he would still have to beat guys who grew up around this type of racing. Road course ringers such as Scott Pruett and Ron Fellows have not been able to win on the road courses in Cup cars despite being very used to this type of car. JPM had to adapt after driving f1 cars with all their technology. So lets drop this snooty F1 attitude that Juan is wasting his talent in NASCAR. Here is the reality. There are about 5 forms of racing that are unique and represent the pinnicle of their branch of the sport. Just because you are a master in one, doesn't mean you will ever be a master in the other. A great NASCAR driver wouldn't necessarily be a lock to win a race in F1 even if you put him in a McLaren in the first year, so who in their right mind thinks JPM will win races in the NASCAR version of a Honda or Toyota f1 car? ( A mid pack runner ). In NASCAR he has a better shot only because the cars are much more closer in performance, but professional grade teams skew the odds and Ganassi's operation isn't in the top tier.
Juan is having fun and likely wont be back because he is doing better than most of the teammates/Dodge runners, so he is fairing very well in simliar equipment. He is respected and included as a star in NASCAR in that the top 20 or so guys are always respected and looked up to. He is a new guy to NASCAR yet with merchandise sales he will make more money likely than he would in F1, and he is safer. There really is no argument for him to go back to f1 unless it is to put up with the politics to drive one of those amazing little cars again, but that said I doubt it will ever happen. He put up the crap that an f1 guy has to put with, the gossip, the backstabbing, the hostile press and the politics of trying to stay with the hot team that may not be the hot team next year. In NASCAR he has none of those issues, and no matter how crappy the US press is, it is a walk in the park compared to the stupidity I read about from European press when a driver is singled out.
Juan is NOT wasting his talent, it is his talent to take where he pleases, and if he is enjoying what he is doing, it really matters little does it? God knows he is making a good living in NASCAR, and when he finally does master ovals he will maybe win a race. Who knows? He may never, but I suspect for Juan, he learned that living life being 20th in the points in NASCAR pays better and is as rewarding as finishing 6th never passing a car in his old Williams as the Ferrari and McLaren boys drive off in the distance...
Correction, he did punt Pruett off the road this year....but that was on a road course and that was in the Busch series where he should be up front on a road course. He will find that Cup drivers good on a road course and they are not going to give way and he wont get away with punting them. Tony Stewart knows how to play full contact racing and so do people like Kevin Harvick and the Hendrick boys.... If JPM wants to win one of the road course events, he better hope he can outrun them. Good luck with that, Ron Fellows was about the best GT sports car driver on the planet for a 4 year period, and he couldn't beat Tony Stewart at the Glen when Tony was sick as a dog in the car. I Doubt JPM is going to know something about these cars Ron didn't....
You forgot Tony Raines at Martinsville ;)
I do agree with you though, If I was Montoya that'd be where I want to be.
For the 10,000th time. Racing is racing. There are several different types of racing. If you don't like a certain type don't watch. Have your mother change the channel for you or something if you don't know how. BTW I prefer road/street racing but I watch them all. One is not better than the other. Just different.
First, JPM is not going anywhere soon. Nuff said. Regarding fans of different series, I find there is a bit of arrogance in all of them, and europeans specifically. Me I watch many forms of racing, but get real excitement from ChampCar and Formula 1. Never been to a NASCAR race, but I enjoy them on TV and will go to one someday. I'd go to Infineon next week if I didn't hate the smell of the place so much.
Recently I was on a flight back to California that had a stopover in Las Vegas the weekend NASCAR was at the LVMS. All around me on the plane were NASCAR fans on a pilgrimage so I thought is was a natural to strike up a Racing conversation. They knew and cared nothing for ChampCar, Formula 1 or anything other than NASCAR. Surely I thought we could talk about the pass JPM made on Scott Pruit in the Mexico Bush race...Nope, they hadn't seen it, didn't care. So I tried to talk about the smaller fuel tanks I read they were going to use in Vegas...they hadn't read that either. Now there's some arrogance. So call it arrogance or ignorance, it exists everywhere.
Personally, of all the venues I have attended, I really enjoyed FI at Indy the best. The international crowd was just more invigorating than what I had experienced anywhere else.
Interesting... sort of my same experience. NASCAR fan usually aren't really motor racing fans. The typical real motorsports fan I run into has or wants a sports car, liked CART back in the 80's & 90s, remembers Formula 1 from the time they were very young, and watches NASCAR because it is racing, although they don't like it very well.Quote:
Originally Posted by LTalbot
They both have there good & bad points when compairing the different ways to pass.
To watch Nascars running around the oval from a camera that is to far to see what is really happening out there is a shame, because when they do the in car shots looking out & around , then you can see that just about every driver out there is racing on a knife edge.
F1 GIVES SOME OF THAT BUT VERY FEW & FAR BETWEEN
Now if you really want to see some good passing go & watch the up & commers in a formula ford series, that is where you will see plenty of close racing & passing with lead changes all the way to the finish!
That is where just about everybody that race openwheelers all came from, & before that all of them came from karting!
Heah Mark , i didn't think you would have forgoten how Monty won in Mexico?Quote:
Originally Posted by Mark in Oshawa
Iam a fan of all racing , v8's, cart, bikes , sidecars , hillclimbs, dirt speedway, WRC, Supertrucks, Nascar, F1 & drags. The only one i havn't been to& seen is the WRC rally over here & of course a real nascar race over there, BUT ATTENDED JUST ABOUT ALL THE NASCAR TYPE RACING AT THE THUNDERDOME HERE!
BUT TO ACTUALLY RACE IN A VERY COMPITIVE SERIES HERE ON THE DIRT WAS THE BEST THING THAT I HAVE DONE, & will do me till my dying days.
When i see the in-car views it reminds as to how much on a knife edge we use to race, you are driving a car that is shifting & sliding all the time trying to keep it in control so you can make passes or avoid spining cars, so you will have a car to race in the next heat before even thinking of making the feature final! What an adrenalin rush that was.
& reading & seeing the race pics it looked like all the drivers in that carity race had a great time & got back to there roots!