Juan Montoya To Exit EGR (Does This Spell Doom for Patrick?)

If you had not heard the news from SiriusXM, Juan Pablo Montoya will not be renewing his contract with Earnhardt Ganassi Racing, when this year comes to a close.

Per Felix Sabates.

I'm not surprised.  He's been marginally successful with two wins, and drives like a man possessed, no matter how many laps down he is.  Juan... this is not Formula 1!  But I think he's figured that out by now.

At the moment, Montoya is 22nd in points on the Sprint Cup driver roster, which by the way, is five spots ahead of Danica Patrick.

I've always compared Montoya's journey in NASCAR with Danica Patrick's present attempt to gel with the ranks of some of the best auto racing drivers in the world.

I've watched Montoya struggle, with a straggle win here and there, much like Patrick has done.

But I've also seen where he is outperforming her.  (Actually even her boyfriend is kicking her ass in the standings right now.)

Many folks have said she wasn't ready for Sprint Cup racing yet.  Hell, she barely broke the top-10 in the Nationwide series and consistently got trounced by any visiting Cup driver when they came to the series to race.

The ONLY thing she has going for her is that huge fan support and expectations of what she could possibly do.  Or maybe, more to the point, what they hope she will do.

But at 411 points out of first, (more than 100 behind Stenhouse Jr. and Montoya), if she didn't have the big green sponsor or fan hopes, I have to wonder just how long she'd last as a regular Joe driver?

Just sayin'!

But back on subject, I wonder, now that Ryan Newman and Montoya are free agents for 2014, who will land the better ride?  It will be weird to see Montoya in a car that's not red.  That's for sure.

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