At 48 years old, Juan Pablo Montoya isn’t looking to make some miraculous comeback to NASCAR.
At the same time, an opportunity from 23XI Racing to run the NASCAR Cup Series race at Watkins Glen on Sept. 15 was too good for him to pass up.
“Steve Lauletta (the president of 23XI Racing) called me and said, ‘Hey, would you be interested in doing Watkins [Glen]?’” Montoya said in an Aug. 8 article from Racer Magazine. “And I thought, ‘Oh, that would be fun.’ Honestly, it was pretty much that. I thought it would be pretty cool. … I thought it would be a fun thing to do, you know?
“I’m in the point in my career that, honestly, I’m not looking for a job. I’m not looking for anything. But an opportunity like this comes along, and I think I can still be really competitive and have a shot at it. So why not?”
It’s fitting that a single phone call brought Montoya back to NASCAR after a decade-plus since his last start in stock car racing. Back in 2006, in the midst of a brutal season in Formula 1, Montoya made a call to his former NTT IndyCar Series owner, Chip Ganassi. Montoya, frustrated by the politics of F1, was offered a ride in NASCAR.
A week later, Montoya signed with Ganassi and began his training toward a full-time ride in the Cup Series in 2007. The next six seasons saw Montoya become a punching bag and a punchline before ultimately punching above his weight.
Defying Conventional Wisdom
Open-wheel drivers dipping their toes in stock car racing wasn’t a new concept by any means, but few dove into the deep end of the pool before they learned how to swim like Montoya did.
The likes of Mario Andretti and AJ Foyt had picked up wins in the NASCAR Grand National Series in decades past, but neither had run a full-time season in the series. Tony Stewart won a NASCAR championship just a few years after an IRL title, but not without several dozen NASCAR Xfinity Series starts before his rookie year in Cup.
For every driver that made the transition and flourished, there were even more that floundered or fizzled out.
His first start in a stock car was in the ARCA Menards Series at Talladega Superspeedway in October 2006. Montoya started on the front row, led nine laps and finished third after spending most of the day working with Steve Wallace. The driver from Colombia was hooked.
“This experience is unique,” Montoya said…
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