When 23XI Racing president Steve Lauletta wanted to add an extra car and driver for Sunday’s Go Bowling at the Glen NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs race at Watkins Glen International, he quickly thought of Juan Pablo Montoya.
Even though Montoya’s last Cup race was the 2014 Brickyard 400, Lauletta knew Watkins Glen was Montoya’s best track in his NASCAR days, earning one of his two Cup career wins there (2010), as well as three top-five and five top-10 finishes in seven starts.
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“I just called him and asked if he’d be interested in coming back when we zeroed in on Watkins Glen,” Lauletta told SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. “He won one of his two Cup races there, so the story just seemed perfect from all those different aspects. He was super excited and interested to do it.”
Lauletta and Montoya have a long history, dating back to when Lauletta was an executive with Chip Ganassi Racing and Montoya was one of the team’s Cup drivers from 2007 to 2013.
And now, they’re reunited again.
Admittedly, things are a lot different. Lauletta moved to 23XI, while Montoya has been driving sports cars and prototypes in recent years, as well as helping his son Sebastian climb through the racing ranks, currently in Formula 3 and with hopes of advancing to Formula 2 next year.
“I’m at the point in my career where I’m not looking for a job, I’m not looking for anything,” Montoya said. “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?”
When Mobil 1 offered sponsorship for the race, part of its 50th anniversary celebration, plus with it being Watkins Glen’s first-ever appearance in the Cup playoffs, Montoya jumped at the chance to have some fun once again, five days before his 49th birthday.
“I thought, ooh, that would be cool, and that was it,” Montoya said. “Steve explained to me what they were looking for with Mobil 1 and I thought it really just made sense. It was really like a no-brainer.”
It helped that Montoya also has a long history with Mobil 1.
“People don’t know this, but my first sponsor in Colombia when I was still in karting was Mobil 1 and my first open-wheel car in Colombia was sponsored by Mobil 1,” he said. “They were a big part of my early career, so I thought it was a good way of saying thank you in a way.”
Montoya isn’t looking past Sunday. For him, it’s a chance to relive a bit of his past glory and have some fun. But if he was asked to do a few more races in the near future, he’d consider it.
“They haven’t asked me, they haven’t talked about it,” Montoya said, but, he added, “honestly, if it was to do road courses and stuff like that, a couple of races a year, I think it would be fun. If it was more, I would probably say no.”
From Formula One to IndyCar (and two Indianapolis 500 wins) to NASCAR, one of Montoya’s biggest career hallmarks has been his competitiveness.
Even with having been out of a Cup car for a decade, that competitive, optimistic nature is still with him. When asked his realistic expectation for the race at The Glen, Montoya said he’s is in it to win it, period.
“Honestly, if I wasn’t thinking about winning, why would I (do it)?” he said. “Tell me anybody that goes into a race thinking they’re going to suck.
“I’m too much of a racer and too hard-headed. I want to win. For me, I can’t go into a race thinking if we finish 15th, I’ll be happy. Hell no. I want to do well.”
But with his time away from NASCAR, Montoya admits he has some concerns about wheeling the No. 50 Toyota in the 90-lap, 220.5-mile road-course event.
“I think the hardest things are going to be like pit road, pit road speed, the basic stuff where you can just (mess) up and look like an idiot,” Montoya said. “I don’t want to look (bad).”
Two other things Montoya will have to adapt to quickly are a short practice session before qualifying, and he’ll be racing against several younger drivers he never previously competed against. That means he won’t know their tendencies, nor will they know his.
“You just try to race them as fair as possible, and you hope that they race you as fair as possible as well,” he said. “I mean, at the end of the day, I’m doing a one-off. I want to perform well. I don’t want to have big drama with anybody.
“But at the same time, I don’t want to push anybody over, and I’m hoping nobody does (to me). For me, the more quiet of a weekend we have, the better.”
But, he added with a laugh, “I’m sure for the fans, that would be different.”
To prepare for The Glen, Montoya has done some work on a simulator, as well as one shakedown test a few weeks ago at Virginia International Raceway.
“I think we landed in a happy place with everything,” he said. “The sim’s really good. I think the guys were kind of happily surprised with the performance with the sim. So from that point of view, I can’t complain.
“You do what you can. How do you predict what’s going to happen? You can’t. I’m going into a race weekend where everybody’s kind of blindfolded on what’s going to happen. I think the boys have done a really good job with the car, the team has been really competitive lately, so it makes it fun for me.
“For me, this is actually a cool event because it’s racing without the points, the B.S. and the politics. It’s fun getting to drive the hell out of the car. Hopefully, you can do a really good job for the team, and then you go home and say, ‘Thank you very much.’ “