From the Pulpit

Formula One drivers don't do NASCAR, do they? Well, they don't, do they?

Okay, yes, Christian Fittipaldi did. But Christian Fittipaldi was different. Yes, Emerson's nephew had been a Formula One driver (1992-1994) before chancing his arm in NASCAR - but he'd also tried his luck in Champ Car (1995-2002), and not done that well, before opting for the Winston Cup in 2003.

So he'd tried everything that his uncle had breezed through before him, and had serially given it up, series by series, because it hadn't proven quite as easy as Emmo had made it look.

In those days - and only a decade has passed since those days - there was a clear hierarchy to the three series. Formula One was clearly at the pinnacle. CART was in the silver medal position. And NASCAR, well, NASCAR was still more or less what fat good ol' boys did instead of runnin' moonshine. Well, that's what we all thought on this side of the pond, in them there days, anyways.

Now, though, what are we to make of the fact that Juan Pablo Montoya will race in NASCAR next season? Well, first of all, it goes without saying that, of the three series, CART (or, today, Champ Car or IRL; take your pick) is unequivocally the least popular, the least successful, the least prestigious, the least exciting and the least, well, everything.

But NASCAR has grown up. And when established F1 drivers such as Juan Pablo and, for that matter, Jacques Villeneuve say they regard it as a sideways move (from F1) rather than a downwards one, well, you have to sit up and take notice.

Juan Pablo Montoya and Chip Ganassi © Getty/NASCAR Media

Even so, the series for which JV's and JPM's utterances constitute a final death knell are Champ Car and IRL. Why so?

Over the Montreal Grand Prix weekend, it became clear that (a) Juan Pablo had about as much chance of landing a competitive F1 drive in 2007 as does Alex Yoong, and (b) BMW had fallen so head over heels in love with Robert Kubica (and were so contractually committed to Nick Heidfeld) that the prospects of Jacques racing for BMW in F1 next year were beginning to look almost equally slim.

Yet neither Montoya nor Villeneuve said a dicky-bird about wanting to driving in either of America's 'premier' open-wheeler series. And neither did anyone who had more than a couple of brain cells to rub together seek to persuade them otherwise.

Truth be told, if BMW do the sensible thing and give Jacques another year, well, he'll take them up on their offer. And, although Juan Pablo has recently mumbled various platitudes about having had "F1 options for 2007", we know he had none. Well, not ones that anyone with more than a couple of brain cells to rub together would have advised him to consider at all seriously, anyway. No, Montoya will drive in NASCAR in 2007 because F1 has chewed him up and spat him out, that's why.

How, and why, did it happen? Was it the fault of Ron Dennis, who in early 2004 boasted - sorry, Ron, but there's no other word - that, forearmed with years of relevant experience gleaned during his Ayrton Senna period, he knew just how to handle difficult South Americans and would therefore be able to draw more from Montoya than Frank Williams had ever been able to?

Well, maybe it was and maybe it wasn't, but the situation should never have come about in the first place.

During his 'honeymoon' period with Juan Pablo, Ron admitted that one of the reasons he had hired the feisty Colombian was that, in doing so, he had prevented arch-rivals Ferrari from getting their hands on him - which avowal, to be blunt, seems an absurdity now, especially as it is and doubtless ever was Ron's beloved 'son', Kimi Raikkonen, whom Ferrari's crafty team principal Jean Todt had always had his avaricious eye trained on.

But, more grievous to McLaren's long-term fortunes was the fact that, in hiring Montoya, Ron would be bringing to his party a driver (a) who would be guaranteed to discombobulate Raikkonen, and (b) whom Ron didn't need.

Yes, that's right: need. Just as in 2007 Fernando Alonso will win the world drivers' championship for McLaren if their MP4-22 is good enough, whoever his teammate may be, so also has Raikkonen shown that, however demotivated he may be, he can still make his teammate look about as rapid as, well, Alex Yoong.

Juan Pablo Montoya and Ron Dennis © XPB/LAT

And, that being the case, a non-boat-rocking stablemate such as, well, David Coulthard, who had ably supported Kimi in his (near) championship year of 2003 (and to a lesser extent in 2004, too), would have been a far better bet in 2005.

But don't shed a tear for McLaren. Ron may not be as good at handling drivers as he thinks he is, but there's no one better at hiring them - which is why he was able to prise Alonso from the jealous grip of his personal manager and team principal Flavio Briatore even as Fernando was becoming the world's youngest ever F1 world champion, driving for a team run by Flavio. It was an astonishing coup - and one for which Ron should be applauded. Now all he has to do is hold on to the brilliant young Spaniard.

And Montoya? Well, he'll live in Miami, he'll win races, he'll stuff his face with hot dogs - and he'll become a NASCAR gigastar overnight. In short, he'll live high on the hog. He had the pace for F1 - he proved that plenty of times, if not with enough regularity - but he didn't have the inner gumption. And that's why he gave up on F1 just as it was about to give up on him. NASCAR was his only feasible bolt-hole.

Oh, and don't be surprised if Bernie Ecclestone, who is unquestionably piqued that Montoya has been depicting his move out of F1 and into NASCAR as a voluntary choice made between two equal alternatives, makes that point all too forcibly when in the Magny-Cours paddock he's asked by the world's press for his reaction. Bernie may often be hard to fathom, but sometimes he's nothing if not predictable.