After spending nine years in NASCAR with some success, Juan Pablo Montoya was looking for a change at the pace at the end of the 2013 race season. That change of pace came about when a phone call came from Roger Penske, offering Montoya a ride in the Verizon IndyCar Series for the 2014 season. Montoya …
The Coke Zero 400 is but a distant memory and it is barely a week old. That race often sits as the wonderful spectacle that marks a sense of the midpoint of the season while marrying itself to the country’s holiday party, particularly with its old name, the Firecracker 400. Yet this one fell flat. …
Iowa Speedway is the site of this week’s round of IndyCar action. After a curious race in Pocono last week that shook up the championship landscape, series onlookers enter this weekend knowing that this is a critical event for all of the teams involved in the championship hunt. Certain teams, like that of Juan Pablo …
Last September when Juan Pablo Montoya made the official announcement regarding his return to the Verizon IndyCar Series, many questioned whether he could return to prominence. A driver who has shown a great deal of versatility in his racing career turns 39 this September, an age that is often over the hill in the open …
ONE: THE RACE TEAM ALLIANCE Across the course of a regular NASCAR seasons, there are approximately a billion stories seemingly every day. Some are humdrum, mundane; some are frivolous; some very worthy of consideration. And then some you don’t really know just how big they are until way after the fact — and I can’t …
In a Nutshell: Juan Pablo Montoya continued his stellar form as of late and delivered a convincing victory in what is arguably the second biggest race on the INDYCAR calendar. Montoya won the pole for the race and then proceeded to duel with old CART rival Tony Kanaan in a grueling battle that was only …
Did You Notice?… The road course ringer era is over? Just two right-turn “subs” are on the list for Sonoma: Boris Said for GO FAS Racing and Alex Kennedy for Circle Sport. Said, driving the No. 32, has been in that position for years while Kennedy is a bit of a stretch, considered somewhat of a …
Qualifying for two consecutive pole positions in August (at Pocono and Watkins Glen) was the highlight of Montoya’s year.
If not for a badly-timed tire problem for Jamie McMurray, Martin Truex Jr. wouldn’t be getting my shoutout — because he’d have won the race. Instead, Truex had to settle for fourth after a wild restart. Adding insult to injury, Truex, who has flown under the media’s radar all year long despite being a fixture in the top 10 in points, garnered relatively little television attention compared with the night’s other race leaders.
Although Marcos Ambrose and Brad Keselowski were making the last lap at Watkins Glen one for the ages, another driver was quietly posting his team’s second top-five run of the year. Sam Hornish Jr. followed up his third-place finish in the Nationwide Series race on Saturday with a fifth-place run on Sunday. But the numbers don’t tell the whole tale. Because Hornish has an open wheel background, it’s often assumed that he has extensive road-course experience. But he doesn’t; Hornish’s three IZOD IndyCar Series titles came when the series ran almost exclusively on oval tracks. Hornish had just 11 road-course starts under his belt when he made the move to NASCAR.
In an era where many drivers don’t know how to turn a wrench, it was a refreshing change to see Dale Earnhardt Jr. taking the bull by the horns and helping his crew when the No. 88 suffered a transmission failure. By the time his crew got to the garage from pit road, Earnhardt had the car up on jackstands on the left side and was working on the right. Although handling the jack might not seem like a big deal, it is on a couple of levels. One that a lot of drivers, including some championship-caliber ones, wouldn’t have thought to do that.
Here is who’s hot and who’s not in NASCAR after Sonoma.
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