Everyone a rival in his eyes

By BRANT JAMES
Published March 6, 2007

Juan Pablo Montoya had said and done all the right things. His transition from comparatively genteel open-wheel racing to NASCAR had been made without the kind of dustups and intrigue that made his time in Champ Car and Formula One so interesting.

But this was the same driver who bumped wheels with champion Michael Schumacher - a dastardly offense in F1 - and punted Michael Andretti during a CART practice, then chastised him in their ambulance ride.

Brazen, for sure. That it took only 10 NASCAR races for his competitiveness to rankle someone is not surprising from a guy who'll unload a paintball gun on his wife if the situation dictates.

It's JPM being JPM. Nothing necessarily wrong with that. The long list of stock car drivers he will soon infuriate begins with teammate Scott Pruett and will snake down pit road. This might have happened earlier had mechanical problems at Daytona not curtailed impatient, yet stunning moves toward the front of the field in Nextel Cup and Busch cars.

What makes him a special driver also makes him an irritant: his mix of talent, impatience and competitiveness.

This is the man who channels his need for competition in the offseason into full-scale paintball war at his home in Colombia. He buys 100 cases of pellets at a time for his personal ammo dump, has inflatable obstacles placed around his battlefield and arms as many combatants as he can for fast-paced Ghost Recons. The faster everyone is hit, the more games they can pack into an afternoon. Sure, getting pegged at close range hurts a bit, he said, but those welts are encouragement to be the last man standing.

"You get to unload all your bullets on the last one killed," he grinned maniacally.

When he spoke at a preseason dinner after noted hunter and driver Elliott Sadler, Montoya was asked in jest what he'd shot during the offseason. He answered, "My wife," and grinned. Connie Montoya, like Pruett, just happened to be in the way.

Team owner Chip Ganassi said before the Daytona 500 that he hoped Montoya, who seemed more mature than the man he knew as an unmarried 24-year-old in the CART series, would prove more patient this year. He had his doubts.

"He really surprised me by telling me he took up golf, which I still can't believe and I still haven't seen him on the golf course," he said. "I'm waiting to see that. Does he strike you as someone who has enough patience to be on a golf course? No."

Homer

Scott Sharp is a Connecticut Yankee by birth but a Jupiter resident and converted Gator fan by choice. He just hopes his Hilliard, Ohio-based Rahal Letterman team has forgotten all about Ohio State's loss to Florida in the Fiesta Bowl by the time he arrives at Homestead-Miami Speedway for the Indy Racing League opener March 24. There's little hope of that, though, because his No. 8 Honda will bear a Gators' national championship logo.

"I sort of fell in love with following (coach) Urban Meyer when he was kicking butt out in Utah," said Sharp, the 1996 series co-champion. "Then they brought him to Florida and I sort of liked Florida anyway."

Should he rekindle sour memories in the guys charged with making his car go fast, though?

"Hopefully we have the same goal now," he said, laughing, "even though we were split there for a while."

Fast Facts:

Three of a kind

The Nextel Cup leaders after two races in average driver position (the sum of driver position on each lap, divided by laps run in a race). Points standing in parenthesis.

1. Matt Kenseth 6.226 12th

2. Kyle Busch 7.103 9th

3. Jeff Burton 7.676 2nd

[Last modified March 6, 2007, 00:55:30]