IN SIGHT Schumacher at the premiere of Cirque du Soleil's new show "Zumanity." Please, Mikey, skip the contortionist routine FOCUS: JUAN PABLO MONTOYA The time is now for Juan Montoya to make a move -- if he's going to this season -- to supplant Michael Schumacher and win his first Formula One championship. Trailing Schumacher by three points, Montoya feels some pressure to make something big happen at the U.S. Grand Prix this Sunday. First, the straight at Indy Motor Speedway calls for 22 seconds of wide open throttle for the Formula One cars; that's the longest stretch of open throttle of any F1 circuit, and the BMW engine handles the power needs well. Second, Montoya knows this track perhaps better than anyone else in Formula One. He won the 2000 Indy 500, and his CART team was based in Indianapolis, making it his "home track" while in the American open wheel series. "I have some great memories from The Brickyard," Montoya said. "The atmosphere is simply fantastic, especially in the grandstands around the oval section which are usually packed with people waving flags and playing music. I consider Indy to be a home race for me so I feel I must give my supporters a good race and hopefully there will be many Colombians in the stands giving me support." Another reason Montoya feels some pressure to do well this weekend? It could be hard to catch Schumi at the final race in Suzuka, Japan. "We need to keep the ball rolling and make the most out of this race becaue Suzuka is a circuit that really suits Michael's driving style," Montoya said. "I'll be heading out to Indy a few days early in order to acclimate myself." Montoya is coming off a second-place finish at Monza, where he gallantly chased Schumi all race. If the BMW has more power than the Ferrari for that 22 second open throttle stretch, Montoya could turn the tables on his German rival this weekend and chalk up another win at IMS. Williams chief engineer, Sam Michael, promises a couple new wrinkles to try and make that happen for Montoya. "We will be taking some new mechanical and aero components to help squeeze the last bit of performance out of the FW25 for these two vital final races," Michael said. PIT PASS When Winston Cup last visited Talladega Superspeedway, Ricky Craven scored his third top-five in the season's first eight races in finishing fourth in the Aaron's 499. That result catapulted Craven to sixth in points. Now, he's 24th. When he's been running at the end of a race, Craven's usually been fine. But the No. 32 car has suffered terminal mechanical failures or been involved in race-ending wrecks in six of the last 18 races. And while Craven was strong at 'Dega in April, the 2.66-mile Alabama monster hasn't been kind to Craven. He has just two top-10s in 14 starts. "This place has a lot of history and tradition, and it definitely deserves a place on the NASCAR schedule," said Craven. Fans agree, as many are drawn to the close, three-wide racing that restrictor plates on superspeedways brings. But the drivers don't necessarily share that love of huge packs of cars running neck and neck. "The only negative thing about Talladega is that one guy can make a slight bobble or lose concentration for a split second, and it ends up affecting 15 or 20 other guys in the field," said Craven. NASCAR has made several changes to the aero packages and fuel cells of cars over the past few seasons in order to string out the field at Talladega and Daytona. But there might not be much more NASCAR can do -- within reason. "Everything they've tried hasn't really changed the complexion of the race that much," said No. 32 crew chief Scott Miller. "What they have now is about as good as you're going to get with the plates on. "If they want to keep the speeds down and change the complexion of the racing at Talladega, my only suggestion is to pull out the bulldozers and reduce the steepness of the banking down to about 20 degrees." OK, race fans. After much buildup and anticipation, Sunday's the day. For here's the one you've been waiting for. (Choose your own race adventure: To select NASCAR at Talladega, turn to page 31. For the F1 U.S. Grand Prix at Indy, turn to page 17. For the Big Enduros event at Speedway 95 in Hermon, Maine, well, ya cahn't get thar from here.) This weekend doesn't quite rival the Memorial Day weekend festivities at Indianapolis and Charlotte, but there are still major events taking place on Sunday. For Formula One fans -- and perhaps more importantly, for your average American race and sports fans -- the United States Grand Prix at Indianapolis Motor Speedway is the place to be. Unlike last season, this race matters ... a lot. You won't be seeing a Ferrari farce at the finish like last year's Indy jaunt. Rather, a tight title race -- featuring defending champ and uber driver Michael Schumacher clinging to a three-point lead over former Indy 500 winner and CART champion Juan Pablo Montoya -- makes its way westward across the Atlantic. And the fact that this penultimate race on the 2003 F1 schedule is crucial to the championship chase plays well into the supposed Formula One mission to expand its American fan base. Sure, getting a closer look at the Schumachers and Coulthards makes the event a bit of a novelty -- but last year, it was little more than that. And Schumacher and Ferrari teammate Rubens Barrichello proved it at the finish. Not so this time around. Expect to see Montoya and Kimi Raikkonen going all out in efforts to track down or hold off Schumacher. Expect to see Ferrari pull out all the stops to bring another championship back to Italy. Expect to see plenty of racing, plenty of excitement, plenty of drama. If there was ever a chance for Formula One to capture the imagination of the American sporting public, this is it. Sure, a familiar American name fighting for the F1 crown would be a substantial draw and make the race even more significant, but Montoya will have to suffice as the name the yanks recognize. Much like soccer, the metric system and David Hasselhoff, Formula One enjoys a bigger following in the Eastern and Southern hemispheres. And the series certainly is not used to playing second fiddle to anything on a given race weekend. But this Sunday, that could indeed be the case. If Winston Cup was heading to Sonoma or Loudon or even Rockingham, it might be a different story. But this weekend, it's Talladega. Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s house. Among NASCAR fans, Daytona comes first -- period. After that, some will argue the Brickyard 400 falls second on the rankings of NASCAR's crown jewels. Others will argue the Bristol night race or the Coca-Cola 600 or even the Southern 500. And plenty will back either or both races at Talladega. As one friend of RPM likes to ask us twice per year, "Are you ready to hold your breath for four hours?!" Of course, this is the same friend that suddenly began to drink Budweiser when the beer giant shifted its dollars to Earnhardt Jr.'s No. 8 ride. Also, ask this fan about his new Nextel phone ... (also, it's safe to say he's never purchased a DuPont product. Not sure whether he shops at Lowe's or Home Depot, though. Maybe he signs on to AOL or NetZero and shops online instead -- we'll investigate). This guy's more than a fan. He's a fanatic. And that's what we're talking about here. The biggest, most diehard NASCAR fans won't be giving Indy a second thought this weekend. And while there are fans of other forms of racing in the U.S. (if you're wondering, there are good CART and NHRA points battles continuing this weekend, while the IndyCar race couldn't be tighter after last weekend's race at Fontana), Winston Cup is the series du jour. And for these fans, racing on Sunday is about a huge pack of cars going three-wide on a high-banked superspeedway where a massive wreck could happen at any moment -- and not about whiny open wheel cars making all those right turns. Some might argue that those fans wouldn't care much about Formula One, anyway, and there might be some truth to that. But there's also something to be said for thinking, "If you race, they will come." It's racing. And this weekend at Indy, it very well could be good, important racing. Schedule such an event against a lesser NASCAR race and perhaps one will find some interest from your run of the mill stock car fan. Bernie Ecclestone and F1, however, might be too arrogant to even take competition from another series into consideration when cooking up a schedule. For F1 certainly could steal some of NASCAR's thunder if scheduled during an Winston Cup off week or even against a lesser Cup race. But not this weekend. It's Talladega, and many race fans won't care about anything else. And that's too bad. Come 2004, the USGP will be up against the June Winston Cup race at Michigan -- a decent race, but not among the best on the schedule. Of course, next year's USGP, being earlier in the season, likely won't mean as much as this year's. Maybe Talladega rain (there's some in the forecast for Saturday, but not Sunday) will give Cup fans a reason to watch Formula One this weekend. Because Michael Schumacher and a great F1 championship battle, unfortunately, might not be enough. Not this weekend. MAILBAG

Five bonus points for leading 10 percent of the laps? What if the race winner led only one lap -- the last one? Under the G&G system, he would not get five bonus points for leading a lap, nor would he get five bonus points for leading the most laps, and potentially he would end up with fewer points awarded than second place, providing that driver leads the most laps. Leave it like it is. This allows the less competitve teams to get some TV exposure to keep their sponsors happy. NASCAR may not be where they are without sponsorships for teams. Here is a change that should be made: award more points for first place. Right now, if second place leads the most laps, they will be awarded the same amount of points as the race winner. Isn't the whole point of the race to win it? I don't care if a race winner leads a ½-inch of a race, HE WON THE RACE! That driver should recieve the most points in the race, no matter how many laps he led or didn't lead. First place should recieve at least five more points than second place -- even if the second-place driver earned every possible bonus point available -- because the second-place finisher didn't get the job done, meaning he didn't win the race. Denis Hergenreter Anaheim, Calif. Under the current system, the second place driver can receive the same number of points as the race winner. We agree with you, Denis. That's totally ridiculous. So let's compromise. We'll give you more points for winning a race and you give us our five-percent of laps led bonus. That way, the winner is awarded the most points in a race (and really, the difference between winning and finishing second should be greater than the gap between fifth and sixth) but only the deserving drivers receive bonus points for laps led. As for sponsors being happy that their cars are out front -- you are correct. But those sponsors will be pleased to get that exposure regardless of whether five points are attached to it. Let drivers strive to lead for the sake of leading (or for the sake of exposure) and not for some handout bonus points. Got your own questions about what's happening in the pits? Ask away, and we'll answer a question or two in the next Gas&Go. Name: E-mail address: City, state: Your comment: OVERHEARD (AND THENSOME) Ryan Newman After his win at Dover. "I just don't want to see guys get their lap back and not earn it. Once we got our lap back it was just sort of a fuel mileage race." Whit Bazemore On taking over the Funny Car points lead. "This took a lot longer than a lot of people think it did." Helio&friends BONUS pic of the week. Let's see, better to get bonus points for winning a pole or just attention from some adoring fans? Tough choice (click pic).

RPM.ESPN.com's Gas and Go appears each and every Tuesday on ESPN.com.