Now an established member of the NASCAR community after just one season Juan Montoya goes into his sophomore year as the leader of the Chip Ganassi team, which continues to bubble under, rather than over and out into the winners circle. Like Ganassi, Petty Enterprises showed an upturn in fortunes last year with Bobby Labonte and the famous #43 but still has some way to go before it can think about tasting the victory champagne, or Gatorade.
Following the non-event that Montoya vs AJ Allmendinger was in the rookie of the year stakes last season, once again there will be an interesting side-battle between the growing number of single seater converts stepping into the stock car ring.
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F1 World Champion Jacques Villeneuve, triple Indycar Series Champ Sam Hornish Jr, reigning Indy 500 champ Dario Franchitti and Champ Car race winner Patrick Carpentier are all among this seasons ‘fresh meat.' All will want to replicate Montoya's feat of winning a race in his rookie year but all will be equally mindful of Allmendinger's torrid debut season at
Red Bull.
For Ganassi Racing's Franchitti and Penske Racing's Hornish Jr the path to potential success is somewhat easier thanks to their teams position among the top 35 in the 2007 owners standings while Bill Davis Racing's Villeneuve and GEM's Carpentier firstly have to overcome the qualifying gauntlet in the first five weeks of the season in the hope that they can get their #27 and #10 teams among those who are guaranteed a starting spot each week.
