This weekend will mark the return of one of the best to ever jump from open-wheel racing straight into NASCAR.
Juan Pablo Montoya, more than 10 years after his final start in a stock car, will rejoin the Cup Series grid at Watkins Glen International. It will be the final race of the season for 23XI Racing’s No. 50 Toyota, which has been running a number of guest drivers this season to promote sponsor Mobil 1’s 50th anniversary.
The announcement last month should have been applauded. Instead, there were a number of people on social media with same tired, worn-out joke.
Ha-ha, jet dryer went boom.
Montoya is not only a multi-time Indianapolis 500 winner, but also a former Monaco Grand Prix winner. Only Mario Andretti has come as close as Montoya has to the Triple Crown since Graham Hill won at Le Mans in 1972 to become the only in history to complete it.
And yet, here we are.
This is a man who had to wage war against just about every big name in all forms of racing in the 2000’s, with the exception of Lewis Hamilton. He held his own against Michael Schumacher, outright dominated the Indianapolis 500 as a rookie in 2000, and overcame a who’s-who of NASCAR stars to win at Sonoma Raceway in 2007 in his ninth month in stock cars.
But he hit a jet dryer.
Okay, so here’s the reality of what happened.
The 2012 Daytona 500 was a mess of a race to start with. Delayed a day because of rain, the race finally got going on Monday night that year. Our story in the late stages of the race would eventually get the race extended into the early-morning hours of Tuesday.
Something you see a lot in NASCAR at the races are cars speeding up to catch the tail end of the field under caution. Sometimes they had a long pit stop, sometimes they were right on the tail end of the lead lap. Sometimes they even received the free pass for being the first car a lap down at the time of caution, or they were given a wave-around because all the lead lap cars ahead of them pitted.
This may sound very elementary. Well, if these people are going to act like elementary school students, I’m going to make sure they can understand it.
Anyway, Montoya had pitted multiple times under caution after reporting a vibration with the car. A vibration is usually a tire issue, but if it isn’t, it’s really hard to diagnose if the…
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