MEXICO CITY (AP) - "Viva Montoya!" screamed a euphoric Mexican crowd of 70,000 as Juan Pablo Montoya zoomed past 20 cars in 17 laps and became the first Hispanic driver to win a NASCAR race.

"This is huge for the Latin community," the Colombian said after he climbed out of his No. 42 Dodge and opened a bottle of champagne.

Montoya's win Sunday in the second-tier series Telcel-Motorola 200 was seen as a victory for both the aggressive, fearless driver who switched from Formula One late last season and for Latino drivers and American racing fans in general.

American stock-car officials hope it will open the flood gates to the budding Hispanic market in the United States it has been trying to court.

"It's an important milestone," said Andrew Giangola, director of business communication for the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR). "People get into a sport when they have winners they can identify with. Juan Pablo is one of those winners."

NASCAR has been pushing for a broader fan base as a long-term growth strategy in the last four years, staging events in Canada and Mexico City and running a program to train minority racers.

But inroads into the 40-million-person Hispanic community in the U.S. have been modest. Between 2001 and 2005, the number of Latinos as a percentage of the sport's total fan base grew from 8.1 percent to 8.9 percent, according to Scarborough U.S.A.

Montoya's success could change that.

"Sunday's race is a tremendous turning point. A spectacular and emotional comeback that connects to Hispanics," said Lino Garcia, head of the ESPN Deportes cable television channel, which simulcast the race live. "The moment for Latino NASCAR fans has truly arrived."

Inspired by Montoya's switch to stock cars, Deportes has begun broadcasting NASCAR races in Spanish in the United States this season.

The Spanish-speaking commentators explain the races with more basic details than in the English broadcasts, to encourage viewers who have less knowledge of the sport.

"There are many Hispanics all over the U.S. who used to watch NASCAR without even understanding the commentary," said Mexican racing driver Carlos Contreras, who provides commentary for ESPN from the seat of his car. "Now they can watch it in Spanish, its popularity will boom."

The atmosphere in many speedways is also changing with the inclusion of Montoya. Contreras remembers going to a recent race in the central state of Iowa and expecting to see an all-white crowd. But suddenly a group waving a Colombian flag appeared.

The attendance of a few Hispanics at the races encourages others to go, creating incremental growth, said marketing manager Juan Tornoe, a Guatemalan who has lived in Austin, Texas, for five years.

"When I first went to the Texas Speedway I really stood out as a Hispanic among pure white people. I would have been an easy target for a sniper," Tornoe said. "Now there is more of an effort to cater for a Hispanic crowd, and I feel a lot more relaxed."

Some tracks, such as the California Speedway, have bilingual English-Spanish Web sites.

Tornoe believes NASCAR could become as important to Latinos as baseball, boxing and soccer. The sport's traditional fans live in many of the same states and have many of the same values as Hispanics, he says.

"The traditional racing fans like to go early to church, go home for a family meal and then watch their sport with religious passion," he said. "Hispanic fans have just the same frame of mind."

However, Montoya's victory was bittersweet for some fans.

The last car in his way was his own teammate, Scott Pruett. Montoya passed with an aggressive move on the inside that led to Pruett spinning out of control. Montoya said he was sorry about the incident and would apologize to Pruett, who dropped from first to 18th with the spin and had to do some spectacular driving to rally for a fifth-place finish.

But Pruett's initial reaction was of pure anger.

"That was just lowdown, nasty, dirty driving," he said.

Some fear that while encouraging Hispanic drivers, Montoya also will give them a bad reputation.

"The victory is definitely going to get people's attention," Tornoe said. "But pushing out his partner _ that is giving us a bad name. We don't normally do that kind of stuff."