Tracy: Montoya's style not NASCAR friendly

TSN.ca Staff

7/13/2006 9:33:58 AM

Paul Tracy says Juan Pablo Montoya is in for a rude awakening as he prepares
to switch gears from Formula One to NASCAR racing.

The Champ Car driver says Montoya will have to dramatically change and adapt
his driving style to bulkier stock cars he'll be using next season.

"I've followed him and, even on ovals, you see how quick he is with the
steering," Tracy tells Autosport magazine. "He's got good reactions, quick
hands and he drives on instinct, but a NASCAR doesn't respond to that. It
responds to finesse, and he's not exactly known as a finesse driver, is he?"

"It's tough to make the transition because coming up the single-seater ladder
you reach corners faster, brake harder, turn in harder, get on the throttle
earlier - the whole experience gets more intense the higher you go.

"You get into a NASCAR, and you suddenly have to go back to almost Formula
Ford levels of corner speed and braking performance - the whole process slows
down."

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"(He) can't just go as fast as he can the whole time or he's gonna kill the
tires," said Tracy.

Tracy, who has competed in several Busch Grand National races this season,
says one of the traits of a NASCAR car is understeer or "tightness",
something he believes the Colombian is not used to dealing with from his F1
days.

"(Stock cars) have so much understeer dialled in that to get the optimum
balance for qualifying they fill the fuel tanks up and stick a load of
ballast in the trunk to get the tail to move out on the turns, just in order
to get the front end to turn in. It's the absolute opposite of what a single-
seater racer is used to," explained Tracy.

"But the important thing is that when it's loose at the start, even if that
suits Montoya's driving style, he can't overplay it otherwise he's gonna just
burn those tires off, especially with that heavy fuel load. By the end of the
stint he won't have grip front or rear, so he's just going to be floating out
to the high line and the marbles mid-turn and into the wall on the exit."

Montoya's departure from the McLaren F1 team has opened up the possibility
that he may get an early start to his NASCAR career, competing in a few Busch
Series events before the end of this year.

In rec.autos.sport.f1 Harry Chest <harrychest (AT) yahoo (DOT) com> wrote:

http://www.racing-reference.com/driver?id=tracypa01

I wouldn't call that fat bastard much of a stock car expert.


sam

Tracy's driving style is not conducive to ANY form of racing, with the
possible exceptions of Demolition Derby or Battle of the Monster Trucks.

In article <97FF88F0Dwb322 (AT) 130 (DOT) 133.1.4>, harrychest (AT) yahoo (DOT) com says...



Bumper-Car-Friendly???


-Bob

Sam Hayes Merritt, III sam (AT) themerritts (DOT) org wrote:

Sounds like the kind of comment that would come from an ignorant American
fuck who weighs 270 lbs, is 5' 6" and watches NASCAR races, peeing in a
bucket beside his easy chair while stuffing his fat gob with fast food and
sucking back Coors Lite.

"Sam Hayes Merritt, III" <sam (AT) themerritts (DOT) org> wrote


Since you obviously are, where do you want to start with your expert
refutation of Tracy's comments in the article?


I won't hold my breath waiting for you.

On Thu, 13 Jul 2006 18:13:23 -0000, "Sam Hayes Merritt, III"
<sam (AT) themerritts (DOT) org> wrote:

Which fat bastard?
;-)
--

Ian

In rec.autos.sport.f1 Droid <droid (AT) droid (DOT) com> wrote:

We'll let his record speak for itself as to his poor
acclimation with stock cars.


sam

"Sam Hayes Merritt, III" <sam (AT) themerritts (DOT) org> wrote

Well seeing as he has had the experience of coming from OW to "stocks", he
has a pretty good idea of the differences. I would say at least more
experience than Cup champion that has *never* driven in OW.

On Thu, 13 Jul 2006 18:13:23 -0000, "Sam Hayes Merritt, III"
<sam (AT) themerritts (DOT) org> wrote:

Compared to open wheelers, those stock cars are in slow motion.
As in, if you watch the drivers especially on the bigger ovals, when
they make a correction there is a huge lag in response time.
Whether Montoya can get used to that remains to be seen, i still
reckon he'd have been better off going back to Champcars.

Incidentally, can anyone here following Nascar tell me what's
happening to the Aussie guy who went over there ? His name is Ambrose.
The occasional times i tuned into our very rare telecasts, i didn't
see his name anywhere. So he either drops out very early or doesn't
even start anymore ? That would be funny.. he was not the most liked
person here in our V8 touring car series.

--

Regards, Frank