Get ready, South Florida: Montoya Mania is headed to Homestead.

Noisemakers, Colombian flags and loud, celebratory singing -- all trademarks of a big-time soccer match.

But NASCAR? Never before.

Yet that's what the organizers of next Sunday's Ford 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway are expecting when Juan Pablo Montoya returns home to close out the 2009 Sprint Cup Series season.

``We expect a whole new atmosphere, which is great,'' said speedway president Curtis Gray. ``We've never seen interest like this in the Hispanic community.''

However, Montoya's impact on the sport stretches far beyond this weekend.

Montoya's three years on the stock car circuit have produced NASCAR's most successful outreach campaign yet to Hispanic sports fans, who have not been traditional racing fans. Interest is up in terms of both attendance and intensity.

But tell that to Montoya, the 34-year-old Bogotá native, and you'll just get a shrug.

``To tell you the truth, I didn't come here for NASCAR,'' Montoya said. ``I don't do it because I'm Colombian or Latin. I'm doing it for myself.

``It's great that people are paying attention, but the only way you succeed at something, you don't do it for someone else. You do it for yourself.''

Hispanics make up the second-largest ethnic class in the United States and are among the most fervent sports fans -- especially in support of some of the most dynamic athletes in American sports. From the days of Roberto Clemente, baseball has long been a home to Latin athletes and their fans, with two-time MVP Albert Pujols and Miami's Alex Rodriguez among today's brightest stars.

For years, boxing had the Golden Boy, Oscar De La Hoya. Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez has emerged as the Latin face of the National Football League, while Brazilian-born Coral Gables driver Helio Castroneves has made inroads among South Americans with IndyCar.

But NASCAR, long considered a niche sport in the South, has largely been an afterthought for Spanish-speaking sports fans.

Until now.

While he has no shot at the Cup championship -- he trails leader Jimmie Johnson by 236 points heading into this Sunday's race in Phoenix -- Montoya will be one of the Homestead race's marquee attractions, both for his proficiency on the track and his connection to the region's diverse Hispanic community.

Race organizers expect a strong turnout of Montoya-supporting Latinos. As of early last week, hundreds of tickets had already been sold through his charity, Formula Smiles, and many more through deals with Spanish-language media.

The local reaction is just the latest indication that NASCAR's Hispanic appeal is up. The sport has gone mainstream, ranking second behind the NFL in terms of overall television ratings. Upwards of 200,000 people fill Daytona International Speedway, and every year the crowd looks more and more like a cross-section of America.

MONTOYA'S IMPACT

Among Hispanics, interest has grown every year Montoya has been on the circuit, according to TNS Sport, a research outfit that monitors demographic shifts. Among Latino sports fans, 9.9 percent consider themselves avid NASCAR fans, up from 7.9 percent in 2007, Montoya's first season on the Sprint Cup Series.

This increase runs counter to NASCAR's broader trend lines. It's the only mainstream sport whose total number of fans has declined in recent years, said Robert Fox, vice president of TNS Sport.