Get ready, South Florida: Montoya Mania is headed to Homestead.
Noisemakers, Colombian flags and loud, celebratory singing -- all trademarks of a big-time soccer match.
But NASCAR? Never before.
Yet that's what the organizers of next Sunday's Ford 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway are expecting when Juan Pablo Montoya returns home to close out the 2009 Sprint Cup Series season.
``We expect a whole new atmosphere, which is great,'' said speedway president Curtis Gray. ``We've never seen interest like this in the Hispanic community.''
However, Montoya's impact on the sport stretches far beyond this weekend.
Montoya's three years on the stock car circuit have produced NASCAR's most successful outreach campaign yet to Hispanic sports fans, who have not been traditional racing fans. Interest is up in terms of both attendance and intensity.
But tell that to Montoya, the 34-year-old Bogotá native, and you'll just get a shrug.
Comments