MONTOYA UNVEILS STORY BEHIND MOVE TO NASCAR ON WIND TUNNEL

SPEED TO RE-AIR GORDON/MONTOYA SPECIAL 'TRADIN' PAINT'

Dave Despain interviewed Juan Pablo Montoya after his press conference during
this weekend's NASCAR Nextel Cup Series race at Chicagoland Speedway. Montoya
will join Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates next year, replacing Casey
Mears in the No. 42 Dodge NASCAR Nextel Cup Series entry.

Montoya's announcement has reverberated throughout the racing world. He will
become the first driver to move full time into Nextel Cup Series competition
from the Formula One World Championship -- and Wind Tunnel was there to
chronicle it for SPEED.

Here is what Montoya told Despain:

Despain: I spoke with Juan Pablo Montoya after his press conference, and
before he headed back to Europe. I wanted to start with the issue of the
contract with new employer Chip Ganassi. How long is the contract?

Montoya: It's multi year.

Despain: I would assume its multi year because it's going to take some time
for you to get a handle on it. Where I'm going with it is, what are your
goals?

Montoya: Here is what I told Chip (Ganassi). We needed to commit because I
was going to swap from Formula One to NASCAR, and I know I'm not going to
perform in my first year. Now, yes, I will have some success in two or three
races or so, but generally, it's going to be a tough season. We're all going
to be learning and there's going to be mistakes made by me. I know that's
going to be part of it. That's why it's a multi-year deal.

Despain: One, two, three races you said in the first year. Meaning what? One,
two or three races you could win? Run out front or what?

Montoya: Well, I'm sure when we go to the road courses we should do pretty
well, or at least I hope so. I think I have more road course experience than
any other driver here (in NASCAR). And I think going to a road course race,
people will expect me to do well. We'll see. At the same time, this is a
different deal and different ballpark and it's a different car -- even though
it's going left and right.

Despain: You have had experience driving a stock car in Tradin' Paint on
SPEED. What do you think will be the most difficult thing to learn in order
for you to be successful in these heavy, under-tired cars?

Montoya: I will need to learn the limits of the car...learning to time your
self and slow your self down. I'm used to cars with a lot of grip and a lot
of tire and you have your foot to the ground. In these cars (Nextel Cup), I
think timing is very important and it's a lot about the tires and being able
to hook up with the tires. In a way, I think (NASCAR) racing is very
technical. It's very competitive. One week you can be running in the top 10,
the next week your 30th and you don't even know why. NASCAR by itself is such
a big challenge. It makes it exciting.

Despain: It caught my attention this morning when you said, 'In Formula One,
when you touch wheels, you're an animal.'

Montoya: Ask anybody. Every time I race with anybody -- and I don't want to
downplay Formula One at all because it's a great sport as well -- but the
close racing is so good (in NASCAR) that it really caught my attention.

Despain: Do you watch it on TV? You know in NASCAR, if you don't bump wheels
you're going to get left behind. What appeals to you most when you watch this
form of racing? What are you eager to do?

Montoya: I think it's just the close racing. And, generally just how clean
all the drivers are and how much they respect each other. You can be driving
a car at 200 mph, with another car two to three inches off of you all the way
around the track. It really got my attention.

Despain: Let me ask you about Indianapolis. When the team feels compelled to
put out a press release saying, 'no, the crash didn't have anything to do
with Juan's future,' we suspicious reporters immediately think there's
something behind that. What is your reaction to what happened at Indy? And
what was your team's (McLaren-Mercedes) reaction to what happened?

Montoya: I think what happened at Indy was just a racing incident. We try to
run as close as we can to try and make up positions -- and we all just got
together. It was just one of those things. If somebody wants to blame me for
the incident, then blame me. I don't care -- you know what I mean. I'm out
there to race. That didn't have anything to do with my future, to be honest.

Despain: What about Formula One just doesn't fit with your lifestyle?

Montoya: I think Formula One has been great to me. I've had six-straight
years there. In looking at the future and how many more years I had there --
and I did have chances to stay in Formula One and everything -- but when
looking at my future, I would have a better future in coming here and this
challenge. And it's a challenge I can look at for another 10 to 15 years. I
love living in the States. I've been living in Europe the last six years, but
I still have a place in Miami and a lot of my family lives in Miami.
Everything works really well.

The wheels of Montoya's move to NASCAR may have been put into motion on SPEED
back in June of 2003 in the network special, Tradin' Paint. The Columbian
Formula One star, and then driver for Frank Williams' factory BMW operation,
swapped vehicles with Jeff Gordon and his Hendrick Motorsports No. 24 Dupont
Chevrolet NASCAR Nextel Cup Series entry at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

On Friday night, July 14, SPEED will once again air Tradin' Paint at 10:30 pm
ET, immediately following a replay of Nextel Cup Series qualifying from New
Hampshire International Speedway in Loudon.

SPEED, celebrating its 10th Anniversary in 2006, is the nation's first and
foremost cable network dedicated to motor sports and the passion for
everything automotive. From racing to restoration, motorcycles to movies,
SPEED delivers quality programming from the track to the garage. Now
available in more than 71 million homes in North America, SPEED is among the
fastest growing sports cable networks in the country and an industry leader
in interactive TV, video on demand, mobile initiatives and broadband services.

www.SPEEDtv.com

---
 * SLMR 2.1a * Home of AutoSportsNet * 502/875-8938 * cco.ath.cx


--- GTMail 1.26