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Last summer, Formula One standout Juan Pablo Montoya announced that he will be competing on the NASCAR races. During his announcement he said that he was excited to bring his aggressive style of driving to the motorsport.

In Formula One, Montoya cemented his reputation as one of the most aggressive professional race car drivers today. While his skills combined with his unique style made him one of the most talented drivers today, he seems to be having trouble making friends in NASCAR as his aggressive style of driving seems to be rubbing his fellow NASCAR drivers the wrong way.

While NASCAR racing is more aggressive than Formula One, there is a limit to one’s aggressiveness on the tracks. And that is what Montoya is still trying to find out. Currently, the Colombian driver has already wreaked havoc on his fellow drivers with the season just starting. In Mexico, Montoya accidentally forced his teammate, Scott Pruett, off the road at the road race in the Busch Series. The road race saw Montoya securing his first win in the new field that he has entered. He has also reportedly “annoyed” Jeff Gordon in Atlanta. Montoya also ran into Ryan Newman and Tony Raines at Martinsville. Aside from those incidents, Juan Pablo Montoya also managed to annoy two-time Nextel Cup Champion Tony Stewart as he tangles with him at the recently concluded Samsung 500 which happened in Texas.

In response to the criticism that he receives over his aggressive driving, Montoya has this to say: “I don’t think Chip (Ganassi) hired me to run 20th every weekend, and I didn’t come here to run 20th every weekend. Is (contact) going to happen? Yeah, it’s going to happen a lot of weekends, but our aim is to run up front.” He added that: “I think anybody that’s seen me race knows that I’m not going to back down.”

In the recent incident involving Montoya and a fellow driver, it seems that the “rookie” will be having a hard time adjusting to the sport. Stewart, the latest victim of Montoya’s aggressive driving style, has this to say: “If you race people with respect, you get respect. You might want to be just a little bit more patient just long enough to learn how everything’s done over here.” NASCAR aficionados have even compared Montoya’s aggressive driving to the skills of NASCAR legends like the late Dale Earnhardt Sr.

The common thinking is that aggressive drivers can have good success in the sport but they have to make sure that their aggressiveness is channeled so that it comes as not to be counter-productive.

Montoya’s start tote season is quite respectable. Being from Formula One, it is expected of him to eventually win in the NASACR races. Currently, the aggressive driving Colombian posted a win at the Busch Series and has already managed to get a couple of top ten finishes in the Nextel Cup. In Texas, the former CART champion managed an eighth place finish. He is driving a Dodge which is yet to win a race at the Nextel Cup. Currently, Dodge, Ford, and Toyota, are being dominated by Chevy at the Nextel Cup series. Equipped with for-race engineered engines which leaves far behind the performance of on-road Chevy vehicles equipped with the Chevy cold air intake system.

While Montoya is yet to show his true worth in NASCAR, drivers in the sport agrees that Montoya has got the talent to be come successful in the motorsport. Even Stewart said that Montoya is the most talented driver in his team. Although admitting Montoya’s flair for the game, Stewart added that: “He didn’t make friends with me [at Texas], so he won’t get any help from me in the future.”

In a tragic accident at the 2001 Daytona 500 cost Dale Earnhardt Sr. his life and the sport of stock car racing has lost one of its best drivers. After that disastrous incident, the governing body of the Nextel Cup Series, NASCAR, has worked on making the sport safer for drivers. They have implemented the use of head-and-neck restraints to protect drivers in the unfortunate case of crashes.

NASCAR also went to great lengths and is supervising the installation of soft walls around tracks. Most of all, the sanctioning body has worked on the development of a universal body template for all cars competing in the NASCAR races. The template is used to ensure equality among cars and to promote safety. The race car is called the Car of Tomorrow or CoT and it is designed primarily for the safety of drivers.

The original plan for the CoT is for it to be slowly introduced to NASCAR races and will be the sole car that will be used come the 2009 season. Recently though, NASCAR announced that the CoT will be used exclusively starting with the 2008 season. This announcement came after teams have expressed their concern about the impracticality of maintaining two different cars for the current season and for the next year.

Robin Pemberton, the NASCAR’s vice president of competition, has this to say about the full implementation of the CoT next season: “We are proud of how the new car has performed at multiple tracks. NASCAR, with the support of team owners, agreed that the new car is ready to compete at all NASCAR Nextel Cup Series events in 2008. Beginning next year the Car of Tomorrow is officially ‘the car,’ a Chevrolet, Dodge, Ford and Toyota.” Originally, NASCAR planned to race the CoT for only 26 races next season. But due to the cost of maintaining two cars, the current car and the CoT, team owners and drivers alike are keen to the idea of using the Car of Tomorrow full time for the 2008 season. These cars are deemed safer than passenger cars, even those equipped with Powerstop brake parts.

As for the driver-friendliness of the Car of Tomorrow, drivers have been expressing their willingness to race the CoT full time next season. Jeff Green, one of the drivers who seem to be at ease with the CoT, has this to say: “As far as the racing, to me the COT puts things back into the driver’s hands more. With the cars we’re using now, either you hit the setup or you miss it. If you miss it, there’s not a lot a driver can do to make up for that. With the COT, even if the setup’s not perfect, a driver can still make things happen and have a good run. It reminds me of the way the cars drove six or seven years ago. I like that, and I’m excited to get back to that.”

Last month, the most popular NASCAR driver today announced that he will be leaving his father’s team at the end of the season. Dale Earnhardt Jr., voted as the most popular NASCAR driver today by fans, publicized that he will be leaving the Dale Earnhardt Inc. after the 2007 Nextel Cup Series. The NASCAR team was put up by his late father – the legendary seven-time champion Dale Earnhardt Sr.

After the announcement, the NASCAR community has been speculating which team Junior will be racing for next year. For weeks, fans of the superstar have waited for his decision. Recently, he announced that he will be racing for Hendrick Motorsports next year.

With Junior joining Hendrick Motorsports, he will replace Kyle Busch. For the next season, Junior will still be driving a Chevy which is currently dominating the Nextel Cup Series. Chevrolet cars with their Chevy door handles shaved have already won ten of the fourteen races so far this season.

Brian France, son of the late Bill France, the Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of NASCAR, has this to say of Junior’s jump to Hendrick: “Today’s announcement of Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s move to Hendrick Motorsports is indeed an important announcement for this season and beyond, and it should be noted that high-profile partnerships have always been a part of NASCAR’s competitive history. There have been so many great partnerships involving people of great character and ability. We’re proud of what they have brought to our sport. Dale Earnhardt Jr. has always said that first and foremost, he wants to win a NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series championship. We wish him the best of luck.”

There are questions surrounding his sponsorship with Budweiser. The company has been the most notable supporter of the 34-year old NASCAR driver. Tony Ponturo, the Vice-President for Global Media and Sports Marketing for Anheuser-Busch Inc., has this to say after Junior’s announcement: “Anheuser-Busch has enjoyed a remarkable relationship with Dale Earnhardt Jr. since our sponsorship commenced back in 1999. Dale Jr. is an excellent ambassador for the sport and our company, and we look forward to exploring options with Hendrick Motorsports and JR Motorsports to continue Budweiser’s relationship with him as he enters this new stage of his racing career.”

Ironically, Junior will be joining the team which knocked off his father from the top spot of the motorsports in the 1990s. His new teammate Jeff Gordon led the uprising of young drivers which took the place of Dale Earnhardt Sr. and his contemporaries at the pinnacle of the sport. Aside from Gordon, Junior will be joining defending champion Jimmie Johnson and Casey Mears.

Analysts saw the jump to Hendrick by Junior as an excellent decision. Tim Brewer, an analyst for ESPN, says: “I think it’s a great decision because he wants to go and win races and win championships. He’s going to make the change for himself, get in a good race car and he’ll get the job done. He’s been saying all along that he really wants to drive the No. 3 car at the end of his career so I think that’s the reason he didn’t go to Richard Childress yet. They are proven winners and proven champions at Hendrick. The combination he’s had hasn’t been working, and that’s no disrespect to anyone. If I were him I would show up, not even take my helmet, and just ask ‘which car do you want me to get in?’ If I’d implemented a change and gone this far, I believe I’d make a big change.”

In 1996, legendary NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt Sr. created the Dale Earnhardt, Inc. (DEI) to compete in NASCAR-sanctioned races. In 1998, Dale Earnhardt Jr. drove the No. 8 car of the team at the NASCAR Busch Series where he won the championship for two consecutive years – 1998 and 1999. Currently Dale Jr. is racing at the 2007 Nextel Cup Series for the team that his late father started. The next season though will see Dale Junior racing for another team if he pushes through with his announced plan to leave DEI. Juniorâ??s departure came after he failed to wrest the ownership of the team away from his stepmother Teresa Earnhardt.

In a recent press conference Dale Junior announced his decision to leave DEI pointing out his relationship with her stepmother as a cause. â??We weren’t really close with what they had in mind,â? says Dale Junior. â??We decided it was time for us to move on and seek other opportunities for 2008,â? he continued in the press conference broadcasted from his JR Motorsports racing shop located in Mooresville, North California. This team is being speculated to be where Dale Jr. will be racing for the next season.

The decision to leave the organization becomes even more interesting since his contract to DEI will expire after this season. This announcement has led racing enthusiasts to speculate where Dale Jr. will go from here.

Although there are talks that he might race for the team his father raced for, he maintained that he is still undecided as of the moment. â??We’ll see who wants to hire me,â? said Dale Jr. â??I don’t ever want to make this decision, or change, again. I want to drive for a long time, and I want to be successful at doing it,â? he stressed.

Meanwhile, his sponsor Budweiser is expected to follow Dale Jr. wherever he goes for the next season. The company though is yet to confirm or deny the said speculations. Instead, the companyâ??s vice-president Tony Ponturo maintained that they will still have to talk with Dale Jr. before making a decision. â??Budweiser and JR Motorsports have an agreement in place to ensure Dale Jr. will continue to personally represent Budweiser through 2008, and we look forward to discussing our future with Dale Jr. and DEI in the weeks ahead,” said Ponturo in an e-mailed statement.

Juniorâ??s popularity is unquestionable and DEIâ??s compromise to let him go is a decision many frowned at. For the last four years, Dale Earnhardt Jr. is voted as the most popular NASCAR driver by fans. For his popularity, Budweiser has received major exposure in sponsoring Dale Jr. and his No. 8 car with power comparable to a high performance engine equipped with Jet Chips cold air intake system. A research conducted by Joyce Julius and Associates estimated Budweiser to have received $68.8 million worth of exposure in just the first eight races of the Nextel Cup Series. This exposure is based on the number of times the Budweiser logo appears during a race more prominently on Juniorâ??s No. 8 car. This is seen as a possible reason for Budweiser to go with Dale Junior wherever he might go for the next season.

The fact that Earnhardt wanted to control the organization and his stepmother not letting it happen is seen as a bitter pill for the most popular driver. Late last year, Teresa made comments in an interview which questioned Dale Juniorâ??s commitment to the sport. This statement from Teresa sparked a feud between her and Dale Jr. On the other hand, Dale Jr. and sister Kelley Earnhardt Elledge complained about the way the team is being run by Teresa. The teamâ??s inability to win a championship is also blamed at the ineffectiveness of Teresa in running the company.

After Dale Jr.â??s decision to leave the team, Teresa has this to say: â??While we are very disappointed that Dale Jr. has chosen to leave the family business, we remain excited about our companyâ??s future. Our aggressive expansion and diversification plans have not changed. This company has continued to thrive since Dale left us in 2001, and it will thrive following todayâ??s announcement. Dale and I built this company to be a championship-contender, and those principles still apply. Dale Earnhardt, Inc. will win, and we have other extremely talented drivers and hundreds of employees that are dedicated to the programs we founded. This company has a great legacy and a bright future, built on loyalty, integrity, and commitment.â?

As to how the team will fare after Dale Jr. departs, experts in the sports agreed that the team will get on well. Marc Ganis, president of Sportscorp Ltd., a sports marketing company expressed his opinion as to where DEI will go for the next season without Dale Jr. â??DEI is a known quantity, they’re not going anywhere,â? Ganis said. â??It’s going to be odd not having the son of the founder staying with that team. I see a lot of questions about that. They’ll continue to be one of the major racing teams,â? he added further.

How Dale Earnhardt Jr.â??s leaving DEI will affect the team will be seen next season. Meanwhile, the auto racing community is anticipating where Jr. will go. There are still a lot of questions that needs to be answered and hopefully answers will come shortly.