Montoya the Equal of Andretti and Foyt?

This is the Statt Mann  Baby.  Time to Scatt a little bit.

The remnants of Hurricane Patricia caused delays in the F1 broadcast at Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas Saturday.

One of the interviews was with Juan Montoya.  Now what I think of Montoya isn’t important.  He’s driven at the highest levels of global racing.  But after the interview the commentators, I think it was Leigh Diffey, compared Montoya to the likes of Mario Andretti and A.J. Foyt.

A couple segments later, after I stopped laughing, there was a commercial featuring Jeff Gordon, the four-time NASCAR champion who was on his way to an open-wheel career when the American open-wheel industry fell to pieces, literally.

In fact it was back in 2003 that Gordon swapped cars with Montoya at Indianapolis Motor Speedway and Gordon wowed the crowd, even Montoya.  All came away saying Gordon could have had an incredible career in open-wheel maybe even F1.

Gordon’s often left out of those comparison thoughts that include Andretti and Foyt.  I’m one of those who think Gordon should be on a Mt. Rushmore of American drivers even though most of his career was spent in the rudimentary world of NASCAR.

Man, I wish we could have seen Jeff at Indy or Monaco.  His intensity could have changed racing history.

Peace.