A racecar driver’s primary job is to go as fast as possible during competition to claim victory. However, the very essence of being a competitor in motorsports can sometimes become a double-edged sword as Juan Pablo Montoya found out during his racing days in NASCAR.
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The former McLaren F1 driver who made the surprise switch to American stock car racing during the heyday of his career was on his way to win one of the sport’s crown jewel events back in 2009 when being too fast on pit road unraveled what was a definitive victory for the Colombian driver.
Montoya was leading the 2009 Allstate 400 at The Brickyard for 116 of the 160 total laps at the quad-oval when his final pit stop saw the #42 Chevrolet driver incur a pass-through penalty at the time.
Such was the Indy 500 winner’s pace behind the wheel of one of Chip Ganassi’s cars that neither of the stock car racing royalty such as Jimmie Johnson, Tony Stewart, or Mark Martin had an answer for his pace on track.
15 years ago today, Montoya's heartbreak at the Brickyard 400. After leading 116 of the first 124 laps, Juan was caught speeding on pit road by the narrowest of margins. He would finish 11th. pic.twitter.com/P3Xl41jnHU
— nascarman (@nascarman_rr) July 26, 2024
However, since NASCAR penalized him for going 60 miles an hour on pit road at Indy where drivers are limited to a 55-mile-an-hour limit, the Colombian driver could not regain the lead of the race.
In typical NASCAR Next Gen car fashion, Cup cars at the time were also limited by running in dirty air as drivers followed other cars, and Montoya’s Chevy incidentally was only super fast up front in clean air.
The now 7-time Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson picked up the pieces and won the race, with a dejected Montoya realizing he lost one of the biggest races of his international racing career. He finished in P11.
“Thank you, NASCAR, for screwing my day. We had it in the bag and they screwed us because I was not speeding. I swear on my children and my wife.” he told ESPN.
“I know what he’s feeling”
Another IndyCar driver who made the switch to stock car racing and was racing with Montoya at the time, Tony Stewart could relate to how the former F1 driver felt as he lost the chance of winning at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Stewart touched on how it would not matter to Montoya as to what the reason behind his eventual mistake on pit road was and said, “I know what he’s feeling. It must just make him sick inside. He had the car and the team to do it today. He just made a mistake and it cost him.”
Despite Juan Pablo Montoya going on to win the Indy 500 at a later stage in his career, the loss he suffered at Indy in 2009 must have left a sour taste in his mouth, at least at the time.
