Brickyard Owes Montoya One

Juan Pablo Montoya: Racecar Driver. If there’s ever a biography written about current NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver Juan Pablo Montoya than that should be its name. I have the utmost respect for Montoya because he’s proven throughout his illustrious career that he can drive and win in anything he pleases. He’s a true racecar driver. Give him something with wheels and a motor and he’ll kick your ass.

Montoya has won in many major forms of auto racing. In his one and only Indianapolis 500 in 2000, he won. He was a champion in the CART Series. He was a champion in the Formula 1 Series. He’s won the Rolex 24 @ Daytona twice in the Grand-Am Series. He’s also won twice in NASCAR’s top series, which is the most popular motorsports series in the United States.

Not only is Montoya a fantastic wheelman, but he also has that true racer persona, like many greats that came before him. He’s going to do whatever it takes to succeed and win, even if that means knocking another out of his way. Some people just can’t stand Montoya because of his driving style, which many wrongfully call “reckless”, because he’s relentless when racing their favorite drivers. Fellow Sprint Cup racer Kyle Busch is “reckless”, he loves to win, but he also loves playing the heel. This bad guy act that he loves so much leads him to want to do reckless things. Montoya loves to win, but he doesn’t give a damn what you think about him. He’s not intentionally trying to ruin your day (unless he thinks you deserve it); he’s just trying to make the most out of his.

That’s why I like Juan Pablo Montoya. Now, here’s why I really want to see him in Victory Lane on Sunday after the Brickyard 400 at the famed Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Sometimes in racing a track just owes you one.

Despite Dale Earnhardt winning at Daytona more than any driver that ever competed there he never had a Daytona 500 win prior to 1998. The track owed him one. He finally got it. Like Earnhardt, Tony Stewart has won in almost everything at Daytona, but not the Daytona 500. Daytona owes it to him.

Montoya, as previously mentioned, has won at Indianapolis in his truly dominating Indy 500 victory. However, the Brickyard, desperately owes him one. 

Despite winning at both of the Sprint Cup Series road course races (Watkins Glen and Sonoma) in his career, Montoya has yet to win on a NASCAR oval track (in this his sixth full season), However, Indianapolis, has arguably been his best track in the sport. He’s never had the finishes at the track that he’s truly deserved (other than a second place finish in his rookie season of 2007) with an average finish of only 22.4 at the track, but as far as I’m concerned Montoya should’ve won the Brickyard 400 twice by now.

In 2009, Montoya had likely his finest performance in his NASCAR career, thus far, when he thoroughly dominated the race. Not only did he kick the rest of the field’s asses, he also kicked the track’s ass. The Colombian native led a race high 116 of 160 laps and he was going to lead a lot more. Nobody could beat Montoya that day, except for depending on how you saw it: himself or NASCAR. On a late pit stop Montoya was penalized for speeding on pit road. Montoya was adamant that he didn’t speed, as all drivers always are. However, I actually believed him then and still believe him today. I know he still believes himself today, too. The penalty caused him to fall back in the running order and he drove his ass off to one of the most dominant 11^th place finishes in NASCAR history and by far the most dominant I’ve ever seen. Jimmie Johnson would win the race.

The next season, in 2010, it looked like Montoya was going to put that misfortune to rest with another dominant performance. Again it looked like he couldn’t be beaten. Unfortunately this time his crew chief Brian Pattie didn’t do him any favors. After leading 86 of 160 laps, again a race best, Montoya made a late pit stop in which Pattie called for four tires. Many other drivers took two tires instead and this placed Montoya in the middle of the pack where he would get caught up in a wreck and finish 32^nd. His Earnhardt Ganassi Racing teammate Jamie McMurray would go on to win the race.

Two years in a row Juan Pablo Montoya had both the competition and the track licked. He had nothing to show for it.  

Last season Montoya started toward the front, but didn’t have a good race finishing in the 28^th position. Even though it’s arguably his best track in the sport, his only top 10 finish was his second place as a rookie.

Montoya is frankly struggling pretty badly this season. In 19 races he only has a measly two Top 10s and his average finish is 20^th. His year started with him crashing into a jet dryer at Daytona in maybe the oddest accident in NASCAR history and it hasn’t gotten much better from there.

However, as we embark on the Brickyard this weekend I just know that Montoya’s going to dig down deep and find a little something extra that he hasn’t had all season. It just remains to be seen if he has a capable car underneath him.    

Yes, this magnificent two and a half mile cathedral of racing with its famed yard of bricks owes Montoya one. It owes him big. Hopefully it pays out on Sunday afternoon; I know Montoya’s damn sure going to do his best to collect.

  

Double Duty at Indy, Charlotte Should Be Back in Play

Tony Stewart scored top 10s in both races in 1999.

This upcoming Sunday is my favorite sports day of the year with the Indianapolis 500 in the afternoon and the Coca Cola 600 (NASCAR’s longest race) in the evening. That’s 1,100 miles of great racing action in one day. 

It wasn’t all that long ago when drivers could attempt both races in the same day and the likes of Tony Stewart, Robby Gordon and John Andretti did. The most spectacular result was win Tony Stewart scored top 10 finishes in both races in 1999 (meaning he completed all 1,100 miles).   

However, a few years ago the Indy 500 pushed back its start time to where it would pretty much be impossible to run the Indy 500 in Indianapolis, Ind. and then get in a helicopter or plane and fly to Charlotte, N.C. in time for the NASCAR Sprint Cup race. 

Since then people have been talking about how great it would be to see drivers compete in both races on the same day again and how the Indy 500 should move ahead the race in order to entice drivers to do so. 

There are many drivers in both sports with seat time in both IndyCar and NASCAR: Stewart, Robby Gordon, Andretti, Juan Pablo Montoya, Danica Patrick, Sam Hornish Jr. and Dario Franchitti among the notables. Seeing one or more of those big names try the double duty would be well worth getting up a little bit earlier for the Indy 500. 

Hopefully sometime in the near future we’ll have the opportunity and pleasure of seeing the double duty at Indy and Charlotte completed again. 

Kasey Kahne Needs to Man Up

Late in Sunday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup road course race in Sonoma, California Juan Pablo Montoya spun out Kasey Kahne and naturally Kahne was irritated by it. However, it’s what Kahne said about Montoya in a postrace interview that really bothered me. Kahne said: “last year when his cars were good he still couldn’t win a race; shows about what he can do in NASCAR.” Well, I know Kahne was talking in anger, but in the real world Montoya has been more successful than Kahne since the start of the 2010 season. Montoya, in fact, did win a race last year at Watkins Glen, which is one more race than Kahne’s won in the last year & a half. Montoya also had a higher points finish and more top 10s than Kahne last year. In fact, since Montoya has come into the sport in 2007 Kahne has only had 2 more wins, 2 more top fives and 5 more top 10s than Montoya (who took a few years to get acclimated to stock cars), and Montoya who finished 8th in the points in 2009 has a higher points finish than Kahne in any of the last 4 ½ years. Kahne is basically still living off the one really good season he had in 2006, when he won 6 races. He continues to be an overrated driver and continues acting like the princess he really is. Kasey Kahne you need to seriously man up.