Track Smack: Bristol and the COT, top 35 and Juan (cont'd)

David Caraviello: Because you know Johnny Sauter is huge over there.

Mark Aumann: Big in Japan? That's an old Alphaville song.

Joe Menzer: Don't they make some pretty good TVs over there, too?

David Caraviello: They do, Joe. Some bigger than 13 inches.

Joe Menzer: Sauter in big-screen HDTV. It doesn't get much better than that -- unless you go with Sauter in HDTV in a COT ASAP.

3. Other than Mark pining about his TV, will anyone have worse nightmares than Juan Montoya on Sunday night?

Mark Aumann: You think driving on the street course at Monaco is any easier than Bristol?

David Caraviello: Let's see how the guy does before we bury him. I don't think anybody expected the kind of effort we saw out of him at Atlanta. He learns very quickly.

Mark Aumann: Monaco is pretty damned narrow, and you certainly don't want to touch wheels.

Joe Menzer: I think Montoya might surprise some folks on the short tracks, but probably not in his first try.

David Caraviello: And from my vast experience on PlayStation, I would say Monaco is tougher than Bristol.

Mark Aumann: Well, if you're playing it on a 13-inch screen, Talladega is about the same size as Bristol.

Joe Menzer: The thing about Montoya is, he has that bullish tenacity. If he were running up front toward the end, he wouldn't hesitate to knock somebody out of the way at Bristol -- as evidenced by what he did to a teammate in Mexico.

David Caraviello: The next two weeks are going to be big for the guy. If he can get through Bristol and Martinsville relatively unscathed -- dare I say we might be talking about a guy who could contend for a Chase berth?

Joe Menzer: And then look out! He'll really know what he's doing by then.

Mark Aumann: The big thing for him will be patience. If you get rooted out of the bottom groove, you can't panic and try to squeeze yourself back in line. You have to wait for an opening. That's going to be a key.

Joe Menzer: That's where his naturally aggressive driving mentality could work against him.

Mark Aumann: And then there's just sheer dumb luck at missing the wrecks.

David Caraviello: We've seen nothing from the guy thus far that leads us to believe he's going to panic. But Bristol is going to be a totally new experience for him. Of course, so has everything in NASCAR been, thus far.

Joe Menzer: I don't think he'll panic, but there is a difference between not panicking and not having the patience required at a place like this.

Mark Aumann: Plus, he drives every lap like he's short-tracking it, all sideways and stuff, so who knows?

David Caraviello: That's the way they do it in Monaco, my man.

Mark Aumann: Maybe there's a whole Saturday night dirt half-mile series in Colombia that nobody knows about.

Joe Menzer: That's what I'm saying. I don't think we should just assume he's going to stink.

Mark Aumann: Well, if he tries to run the high groove at Bristol, he won't last long.

Joe Menzer: One thing's for sure. It will be fun to see JPM in a COT at BMS.

The opinions expressed are solely of the participants.