Juan Montoya vs. Dale Earnhardt Jr
Montoya and Earnhardt Jr have dominated the headlines
Like Dale Earnhardt Jr, Juan Pablo Montoya has become a media magnet.
Dale Earnhardt Jr dominated the headlines throughout the NASCAR off-season. First, he traded barbs with his stepmother. Now he is right smack in the middle of contract negotiations, and who could forget about his demands of majority ownership of Dale Earnhardt, Incorporated.
Additionally, the DEI engine woes have triggered a lot of media interest.
Well, for those of you who constantly grumble about all the attention that Earnhardt Jr receives, you finally got what you wanted- another driver stealing his spotlight.
ESPN's coverage of the Juan Pablo Montoya 200, sorry, I mean the Telcel Motorola 200 at Mexico City primarily focused on the former CART champion.
It was apparent from the drop of the green flag that Montoya was 'the story'.
A lot of the attention surrounding Montoya had merit. He intrepidly fought back from 21st position after the overflow tube malfunctioned with less than 30 laps to go. He seemed to pass cars with ease. The comeback was nothing short of spectacular, considering that it was a road course. Road courses are typically one-groove racetracks making it difficult to pass.
Then he brought more attention to himself by spinning out his teammate Scott Pruett with eight laps to go.
However, other key moments in the race were practically disregarded. For instance, something must have happened around the bottom half of the top ten in the closing laps because Regan Smith, Greg Biffle, Stephen Leicht, and Michel Jourdain Jr were all in the top ten, and all of a sudden, they were outside of the top 20 on the leaderboard. What happened to those guys?
Montoya will still be the center of attention as we head to Las Vegas, however, it will not be long before fellow media magnet Earnhardt Jr has the spotlight shining on him again.
