Full Throttle

Juan isn’t being beckoned by the late great “The Price Is Right” announcer Rod Roddy, but as the Detroit Free Press reports, Roddy’s famous call isn’t far from that of Michigan International Speedway’s.

“Come on down! You’re the next contestant on ‘The Price Is Right’!” the MIS 2 mile oval!”

MIS management contacted Montoya’s new race team, Chip Ganassi Racing, on Tuesday to invite the Colombian to run both the ARCA Re/Max and Busch Grand National races at the Irish Hills track during the Nextel Cup weekend in August.

Bill Janitz, MIS public relations director, confirmed contact with Chip Ganassi Racing.

“We would be proud to welcome back an MIS champion in August, perhaps in an ARCA or Busch race, or both,” Janitz said.

“Michigan is big, fast and wide,” Janitz said. “It would make a lot of sense for Montoya to race here next month. He knows the track and he’s a winner at MIS.”

It would be hard to argue with Janitz’s premise that MIS would be ideal for someone new to full-bodied race cars. Many of the Cup and Busch drivers praise MIS as one of the better tracks due to the three grooves it provides and its wide sweeping turns.

There have been reports saying Ganassi was leaning towards an August start to Montoya’s NASCAR career which would suit the desires of MIS management. However, there’s an elephant in the room next door to MIS.

The week before the Aug. 19^th MIS Busch/ARCA weekend is the road course event at Watkins Glen. My guess is MIS will have to settle for sloppy seconds (Ouch, did I say that?) and his debut will happen in upstate New York.

In related news: 7-time World Champion has weighed in on the Montoya move to NASCAR. I think it’s a safe bet Michael Schumacher won’t be following Jaun Pablo (not that it was in the cards anyway):

“Personally I wouldn’t do it because I think, what do you do in NASCAR? What is exciting there? I can’t see that, running around in ovals,” the German said at the French Grand Prix.

“I don’t know heavy these cars are, but (it’s) a heavy and very low-developed car to drive compared to a Formula One car,” added the 37-year-old, who has yet to decide his future beyond this season.

“I don’t see the challenge, for me.”

Given Schumie’s background I can understand his position. The odds of him ever having seen an event on TV in Europe is fairly small, much less have the chance to attend an event.

At the moment I can’t think of a track where both series’ have run at least in recent memory, so a comparison of laps times isn’t possible. But some NASCAR tracks produce speeds at or near the 200mph mark which is very competitive with F1 on a terminal speed basis.

Certainly NASCAR doesn’t come close in the technology department. No traction control, ECU’s etc in a NASCAR steed but in the aerodynamics department they come close. Despite Gene Haas’ legal trouble plans to build a $40 million wind tunnel in Concord N.C. are going ahead.

That’s not that far from the new