By Mike Hembree

updated 5:04 p.m. ET Feb. 14, 2007

Of all the grand experiments scheduled for presentation in this crowded new season, the one involving Juan Pablo Montoya could be the grandest.

Montoya, a 31-year-old native of Colombia, is trying to do something no other driver has attempted: move from a full-time ride on the Formula 1 circuit to a similar spot in NASCAR. Other open-wheel veterans have invaded NASCAR -- Tony Stewart, for example, and Mario Andretti and A.J. Foyt, who both had modest success -- but no one with Montoya's exotic world-class racing background has taken the exit ramp to the beer, barbecue and bump-drafting of NASCAR.

Montoya left Formula 1 late last season to return to Chip Ganassi Racing, where he had raced successfully in American open-wheel events, winning the CART championship in 1999 and the Indianapolis 500 in 2000. Ganassi had a vacancy in his No. 42 Nextel Cup car, and he and Montoya quickly came to terms.

There is great wonder, within NASCAR and in the motorsports world at large, about how Montoya will perform in a new and difficult environment.

In stock car racing, Montoya sees a better opportunity to control his destiny and to manage his approach to racing.

"In Formula 1, it's 90 percent the car and 10 percent the driver," he says. "In NASCAR, if the car doesn't handle well, you don't do good but you can fix it the next weekend. If you're in the wrong car in F1, you'll (stink) all year."

He saw his F1 future in precisely those terms.

Montoya got a quick course in NASCAR racing late last season by entering several stock car races in preparation for a full schedule in 2007. He performed better than expected in a series of ARCA, Busch and Nextel Cup events.

Now the fun begins for real -- a full-time grind of 36 races, many at tracks Montoya hasn't even seen, in a heavyweight car that responds quite differently from the touch-and-turn spaceships he raced in F1.

One of the great mysteries of the season will be how he responds, how other drivers react to the presence of a legitimate international star in their midst and how he will be accepted by the NASCAR fan base.

"I'm committed to this for the long term," Montoya says. "Is (success) going to happen this year? I don't know. Probably on the road courses I can get some good results. I think the smaller ovals will be pretty good.

"It's hard to say you're going to be good here and you're going to be bad there. It's sort of about getting comfortable. . . . It's all relative. For me to say I'm going to go out there and kick everybody's (rear) -- of course, I want to do that, but you've got to be a bit realistic.

"You've just got to go out there and do the best you can. It's that simple."

In his hometown of Bogota, Montoya carries the status of international hero. He left his homeland after a successful career in go-kart racing and quickly built a reputation in formula racing in Europe. After his CART championship and a victory in the 2000 Indianapolis 500, he landed an F1 contract in 2001. In only his third race in F1, he announced his presence loudly, shoving Grand Prix star Michael Schumacher in the middle of a turn and completing the pass.

He raced six seasons in F1, in which he won seven races and flirted with a championship. He didn't reach that goal and saw a dim future in the series.

What would a Cup win mean in the grand mix of Montoya's career? "It would be huge," he says. "It would be right up there with Monaco, with Indianapolis, with anywhere else."

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Jorge Cortes, who races in Colombia and who also works as a motorsports journalist, says Montoya's move has been difficult to understand in his home country.

"What Latin Americans think is that if you finish second or third, you're not the best one," he says. "So it's going to take a lot of time to show them how difficult it is to do something in NASCAR. We've been telling them for months that Montoya might win two races this year in NASCAR, that he's still learning."

In fact, it would not be surprising if Montoya went winless, which stands in contrast to those who expect him to contend quickly and lift Ganassi's struggling team into the top 10. The first-year result might be somewhere in the middle as he adjusts.

"I'll guarantee you: You put me in an open-wheel car on an oval right now, I would probably (stink)," he says. "It's a completely different thing (from road courses). I had some basics when I drove the open wheels, but I haven't driven an oval for seven years. It's getting back to the oval things and the race lines and learning what the car is trying to tell you, how far you can really push it and all that. It's all about learning how far you can go with the car."

Montoya has lived in Miami since 2000. He returns to Bogota, where he maintains a residence, several times a year.

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