On Sunday afternoon when Juan Pablo Montoya won the Pocono 500 presented by Sonoco, it equaled one thing – he’s back. Everybody knew it was only a matter of time before Montoya reached victory lane in the Verizon IndyCar Series as he had won before behind the wheel of a open-wheel car. It was all about getting comfortable behind the wheel and figuring out everything that had changed from the last time that Montoya ran open-wheel.
“It’s been a long road,” Montoya commented post-race on Sunday. “It’s a lot harder than people realize because as I said the other day, driving open wheels is so different than what I’ve been driving the last few years, and it’s just ‑‑ it was going to take time. I don’t like jinxing it and saying, oh, it’s coming, it’s coming. I’d rather be let’s just keep working on it.”
In getting back to being a solid IndyCar driver, the driver of the No. 2 Team Penske Chevrolet-powered Dallara is taking some of the lessons that he learned from being behind the wheel of a stock car. Rather than running flat-out every lap, Montoya is keeping himself channeled and running “smart”.
“NASCAR really showed me to look at the bigger picture that you never did, and I think 90 percent of the open wheel guys never look at the bigger picture, and I probably lost formula championships and everything by not looking at the bigger picture,” Montoya explained. “Now that you do, you go, oh ‑‑ you know what I mean? It’s a shame you can’t turn back to be 20 again with this experience, but it’s what it is.”
Now that he has reached victory lane and completed leg one of the journey, the second half begins in working on becoming a champion once again. Montoya recognizes if he wants to catch teammates Helio Castroneves and Will Power, he is going to need to step it up a notch.
“We’ve been having really good finishes and everything, but if we want to win the championship, we’ve got to make sure we perform a little better on the street courses and stuff like that,” he commented. “We haven’t run on short ovals so I have no idea what to expect. Hopefully it’s as good as this.”
Montoya adds that “people know that I’m coming and it’s good” so why change the approach that he has taken so far? For that reason, the Colombian says from here on out, he’s going to continue to be smart about his approach each week.
“With Hawksworth in Houston, I could have been stupid or braver or whatever you want to call it and ended up in tires with him and prove a point, and what’s the point,” Montoya commented. “The point is that would have gave away 20 or 30 points, and then you get to the end of the year, and you go, oh, I shouldn’t be fighting with that dude, you know?”
Perhaps Montoya’s smart approach will lead to the Captain getting his first Milwaukee win.
