NASCAR going global with Montoya

Step off the elevator and into Juan Pablo Montoya's plush penthouse suite and the first thing you notice is the breathtaking view of Miami's Biscayne Bay beyond the floor-to-ceiling windows.

The view is so spectacular that if you look to the south — there, beyond the horizon — you can almost see to Colombia, where Montoya's father began teaching him to drive race cars about the same time he was teaching him to read.

But Montoya isn't the only one looking south from Florida these days. The hierarchy at NASCAR, which had an off year in 2006 after a decade of phenomenal growth, is also looking to Latin America — and elsewhere — in an effort to get stock car growth back up to speed.

All of which makes Montoya's decision to leave open-wheel racing to join Chip Ganassi's Nextel Cup team full time this season something of a godsend.

"Montoya choosing to run in the Nextel Cup series gives us a great moment to revel in, quite frankly," says NASCAR President Mike Helton. "The opportunities for us, they transcend borders. They're huge."

And timely. NASCAR kicks off its 2007 Nextel Cup season with Sunday's Daytona 500 after a year in which TV ratings rose for only three of the series' 36 races, dropping 6.5% overall on Fox, 5% on TNT and a whopping 10% on NBC. And although NASCAR tracks don't release firm attendance figures, fewer than half of last year's races sold out, and crowds for at least 12 races decreased. More at LA Times