Breakout week for Montoya?

[R. Mears]

Tony Stewart took NASCAR by the horns. Winning the CUP his 2nd year I believe?

[Hoss Ghoul]

Stewart's rookie year was remarkable at the time, but has since been duplicated-several times over(Earnhardt Jr., Kenseth, etc, etc).

He was a rookie of the year in 1999, champion in 2002.

[R. Mears]

Stewart's rookie year was remarkable at the time, but has since been duplicated-several times over(Earnhardt Jr., Kenseth, etc, etc).

He was a rookie of the year in 1999, champion in 2002.

And in 1997 Tony won the IRL championship.

[RaceFanStan]

Stewart's rookie year was remarkable at the time, but has since been duplicated-several times over(Earnhardt Jr., Kenseth, etc, etc).
He was a rookie of the year in 1999, champion in 2002.

You are correct on Stewart & somewhat correct on Kenseth but I have to call you on Dale Jr.

I'll give you Matt Kenseth was the 2000 ROTY & became the 2003 CUP Champion.

In Tony Stewart's rookie year, he won 3 races & ROTY.
In Matt Kenseth's rookie year, he won 1 race & ROTY.

In Dale Jr's rookie year, he won 2 races but lost ROTY to Kenseth
Dale Jr didn't win ROTY & hasn't won the Championship either.
So ... clearly Dale Jr isn't on the same page as Stewart & Kenseth.

[wedge]

JPM, will suffer a lot in tracks like Bristol and Richmond, he has no experience there at all, even in his CART experience, there are no short tracks !

The 1mile tracks are classed as short tracks and you need a car that's loose enough to go round the flat corners and go pass traffic.

The exception to the rule being Bristol and Dover because of their fierce banking.

Bristol will be tough - no doubt about it. Richmond should be OK because its wide and has multiple grooves.

The only think JPM needs to worry about is his temper and his patience wearing thin so he doesn't start wrecks.

Another guy worth mentioning is Rusty Wallace - who I supported when I first followed NASCAR because he was so awesome on the short tracks (including Bristol) and road courses.

[Cole_Trickle]

Don't forget Denny Hamlin, 3rd in his rookie year.

[wedge]

JPM:

"I don't know. He [Tony Stewart] just got really close to me," said Montoya. "He got me loose. I went into him and he spun. I tried to pass him 3 or 4 times and he never gave me room..I don't think Chip [Ganassi, owner] hired me to run 20th every weekend..it's going to happen a lot of weekends, but our aim is to run up front."

Tony Stewart:

"He just got inside of us and wrecked us. It's just racing I guess ... maybe Ganassi doesn't pay him to run in the back but you might want to be just a little bit more patient just long enough to learn everything and how everything's done over here. He didn't make friends with me today so he won't get any help from me in the future."

[e2mtt]

So far it seems like Montoya has a knack for driving away from incidents like that. You want to play rough with him, be prepared for him to get the better of it.