Montoya following same successful rookie blueprint (cont'd)

Juan impressed many with each advancement up racing's hierarchy, and his rookie success didn't stop when he reached the top. In his first season in CART, he not only won seven of 20 races in a Chip Ganassi-prepared Reynard Honda, he also won the closely contested series championship over a determined Italian-Scotsman named Dario Franchitti.

Montoya's second season in CART also featured his rookie debut in the Indy Racing League. As was the fashion then, CART teams would on occasion field a team for the Indianapolis 500. When Ganassi decided to do so, he and Juan put a beat down on the IRL regulars by leading 167 of 200 laps and won the race going away. That was his first and only IRL race.

Next stop for Montoya along auto racing's top tier was Formula One. Driving a fast, but woefully unreliable BMW-powered Williams, Montoya's rookie season was capped with a stunning victory at the Italian Grand Prix at Monza over that season's all-conquering home team of Scuderia Ferrari and -- notably -- eventual (seven-time) World Driving Champion Michael Schumacher.

In July of 2006, two days after announcing he had signed with Ganassi to drive in the Nextel Cup Series for 2007, Juan was told by his McLaren-Mercedes bosses that he will remain under contract with the team but will not compete in any more grands prix.

Formula One's loss is our gain.

What at welcome relief it must be for Montoya, or any driver for that matter, to go from the hyperbolic world of F1 -- where politics play nearly as important a role in competition as does driver skill and technology -- to NASCAR where there is, by comparison, very little politics and driver skill rides shotgun with a team's technological acumen along the road to racing success.

As if his rookie-season portfolio wasn't complete, between his Formula One and full-time NASCAR gig, Montoya managed to rack up yet another first-try victory when he won the Rolex 24 at Daytona in February with Scott Pruett and Salvador Duran.

With a victory already to his credit in his first Nextel Cup (and Busch Series) season, Juan Montoya has shown the world that there are very few motorsports challenges he cannot master in short order. Perhaps more significantly, he has also managed to show the world that NASCAR is a worthy and worthwhile destination for auto racing's elite.

Not bad for a season's work, rookie.

The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer.