NASCAR driver Juan Pablo Montoya is having an outstanding 2009 race season so far. Sponsored by Target (driving the No. 42 Target Chevrolet) and part of the Earnhardt Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates team, Montoya recently finished sixth at Infineon Raceway on June 21, 2009, after battling from the 17-starting spot in the first road course race of the season to earn his seventh top-10 finish for the year. He moved up two positions to 12th place in the NASCAR Sprint Cup standings, the cutoff for the “Chase” and is now ready to take on the rest of the races scheduled for the year head on.

“I’m really excited to be in the Target car,” he says. “It’s a great brand, and they care about their people and program. We really want to prove a point this year and are working hard to have good races”

For Juan Pablo, racing has always been in his blood. Born in Bogotá, Colombia, he grew up learning the techniques of karting at an early age from his father Pablo, an architect and motorsport enthusiast. “I’ve been racing all my life,” he says. “It’s all I know how to do.” Juan Pablo began competing in the Colombian Formula Renault Series in 1992, and while racing there, he won four of eight races and had five poles. The same year, he also participated in the U.S. Skip Barber driving school, and was hailed by driving instructors as being one of the best pupils to ever come through their school at 17.

Fast-forward to 1997, when Juan Pablo received an opportunity to advance in his motor racing career when hired by the RSM Marko, Formula 3000 team that began his journey to eventually becoming an acclaimed Formula One driver. In 2001, Williams-BMW announced a two-year deal for Juan Pablo to partner with Ralf Schumacher, which was very much anticipated by the Formula One community due to the talent and raw speed he demonstrated in his racing career at that point in his career.

After six years driving in Formula One, Juan Pablo made the switch to NASCAR and is enjoying every minute of his NASCAR career. The transition for him wasn’t very drastic, but he did notice differences between the two racing competitions. “There are more fans of drivers in NASCAR,” Juan Pablo points out. “They are very loyal fans. Also, racing is a lot more fun in NASCAR. In Formula One, the best thing about the driving is the technology of the car.” Juan Pablo’s wife of more than seven years, Connie Montoya, also enjoys his shift to NASCAR. “With Formula One, we had to travel a lot,” she explains. “We’d be gone for months at a time, and it’s hard when you have kids since you can’t travel with them everywhere. With NASCAR, you still have to travel, but you’re not gone for long periods of time. You get to go home during the week after races. I prefer him driving in NASCAR.”

Another big allure for the Montoya family is that NASCAR is very philanthropic, just as they are. Both Juan Pablo and Connie were born in Colombia and set up their Formula Smiles Foundation to help the children of their native country. The foundation helps children in poor Colombian neighborhoods by building or improving sports facilities and infrastructure. It also encourages sports participation in a country that doesn't have physical education programs. The foundation also hires instructors, provides athletic equipment and gear and encourages children to stay in school. “We started Formula Smiles back in 2003 and started it to get kids off the streets by getting them involved in extracurricular activities,” Connie describes, who deals with the fundraising events for the foundation. “It’s very rewarding for us to give back to our country and create better opportunities for the children.” Before establishing the foundation, Juan Pablo also worked with the United Nations as a Goodwill Ambassador, so NASCAR’s charitable efforts fell perfectly aligned with his own philanthropic efforts.

“We’re always trying to find ways to help make our foundation expand,” Juan Pablo says. “Kids in Colombia really need our help and donations, so we try to come up with whatever we can to make a difference in their lives.” Since Juan Pablo races for Target, he is also very much involved with the Target House program and is part of this Fall’s campaign program that focuses on “realizing your dream,” he adds.

Although, Juan Pablo lives and breathes racing (Connie considers his driving style to be “very aggressive”), he still enjoys living a regular life with his family in Miami, where they currently call home. “We do the normal family thing,” Connie says. “He likes to hang out and go windsurfing, which is his latest hobby right now. He’s like a big kid, who really gets into his hobbies.” Juan Pablo attributes golf as his main hobby, but likes windsurfing because he enjoys the challenge. “I’m not great at it yet,” he says. “But, I’m decent, as I continually try to get better at it.”

Obviously, as a racer, one would expect Juan Pablo to have a passion for cars on and off the track. When he first started out in the business and started winning races, Juan Pablo was fixated on yellow cars and bought many of them in the bright color. “When I was younger, I thought the coolest car was a yellow Lamborghini,” he says. “When I started making money, I bought a yellow Ferrari, and had five or six yellow cars after that. I think yellow looks a lot nicer and makes the car that you buy really stand out.” Although his love of yellow cars will never leave him, Juan Pablo is currently enjoying gray cars at the moment, according to his wife. “For Christmas, my kids and I bought him a Nissan GT-R,” Connie says. “He kept looking at it and looking at it, but he never got it, so I bought it for him. He’s the type of person that will buy lavish gifts for everyone but himself, so I wanted to give him something he’d been wanting.”

For the rest of this year’s NASCAR season, Juan Pablo has his heart set on wining a championship, and Connie and their kids will be there for support all the way. However, he’s not looking to really become a legendary racer. “To tell you the truth, I don’t care about legacy,” he says. “I care about what I did today and how I did today, as I balance both my professional and personal life.” Explaining that her husband was born with natural racing skills, Connie says her husband is a humble man despite so many accomplishments in his racing career. “Juan Pablo just wants to be respected for what he’s done as a driver,” she explains. Montoya’s accomplishments include: becoming a crossover race winner by taking race victories (staring in each case in his rookie year) in Formula One, CART, IndyCar, Grand-AM and NASCAR equaling in that respect Mario Andretti's caliber of success (except for the F1 World Championship); and shares honors with Dan Gurney in being a IndyCar/F1/NASCAR race winner. Montoya is also the only driver to have competed in all three major events at Indianapolis, finishing fourth or better in each event. He finished first in the Indianapolis 500, second in the Brickyard 400, and fourth in the US Grand Prix.

Originally planning to retire at 33 (he turned 34 this year), both Juan Pablo and Connie agreed that he was too young to stop racing and decided that he should keep doing it until he gets bored with it. “Right now, I can’t predict when I’ll quit and retire,” he says. “I’m just enjoying every minute of it while I can right now, looking to win as many races as I can.”

While Juan Pablo looks forward to winning more races, DUB is looking forward to have him and Connie Montoya appearing at the DUB Tour display on the Daytona International Speedway Midway at 4:00 pm ET on Saturday, July 4, 2009. The Montoya’s will be on-hand for a special Q&A session with 102 JAMZ FM personality and mid-day host Ronda Jordan, and to accept a donation on behalf of their charity, Formula Smiles. “On behalf of more than 5,000 children part of Formula Smiles, we want to thank Daytona International Speedway for their generous donation,” Juan Pablo says. “They have been a supporter of our foundation since we first started racing here. Formula Smiles, through sports and recreation, complements the academic education of thousands of Colombian children permitting them to have a more integral education, a healthier lifestyle and a brighter future away from drugs and violence. Connie and I are fully committed to our foundation and to the children who are part of it. This is a way to help our country and thank them for all the support they have given me during my career.”

Photos: www.earnhardtganassi.com