AUGUST 3, 2002

Montoya to drive NASCAR?

NASCAR's biggest star Jeff Gordon has confirmed that there is a plan for him to drive a Formula 1 car in a demonstration at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and that this would include Juan-Pablo Montoya having a run in Gordon's Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet.

NASCAR's biggest star Jeff Gordon has confirmed that there is a plan for him to drive a Formula 1 car in a demonstration at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and that this would include Juan-Pablo Montoya having a run in Gordon's Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet. Details of the cross-promotion are being discussed by BMW, Williams and Rick Hendrick and there is no doubt that somewhere in the background is the hand of Tony George, the owner of Indianapolis, who is trying to build up interest in F1 in the United States of America.

Gordon is the sport's biggest star in the US, bigger these days than all the Andrettis and Unsers who ruled the roost in the days before the split between CART and the Indy Racing League. While the two open-wheeler series have hurt one another, NASCAR has continued to grow at an impressive pace.

Cross-promotional schemes have been tried before on occasion with rally drivers and motorcycle racers trying out F1 machinery and vice-versa but none of them have ever made any real impact, although one or two of the cars have been crashed!