End of the affair
Montoya's aggressive driving not winning friends
Lewis Franck/SI
Has Juan Pablo Montoya's honeymoon in NASCAR ended?
Sunday at Martinsville, the Colombian rookie finished a decent 16th, while at the same time managing to anger Tony Raines, who slammed into the wall when Montoya's right front bumper hit Raines' car in the left rear.
"I don't know how he's thinking, or what his thinking is," Raines told NASCAR.com. "[Montoya's supporters] are always going to think he's the greatest thing since sliced bread and I ain't s---, but I don't come out here to wreck people. I didn't wreck him; he shouldn't have wrecked me."
Ryan Newman was a bit more charitable, but no less irritated after he and Montoya jostled for position during the race, prompting Newman to seek out Montoya after the race to ask him if he had turned down on Newman on a straightaway, a charge Montoya denied. Montoya didn't help his case with Newman by hitting Newman's front tire carrier during the first set of pit stops.
"We got three wide on the back straightaway on that last restart, and he (Montoya) overdrove Turn 1," said Newman. "I thought he turned left. He said 'I just ran him out of room.' He was up against the wall. It was just racin'.'"
It's not a stinging indictment, but Newman, who has his own small share of critics, has a good enough reputation in the garage that his comments carry some weight.
And right now, those words reveal the evidence mounting that Montoya's comfort in racing in close quarters may not win him many fans on the track.
This is nothing new for Montoya, who, in his Formula One career, made a habit of not backing off.
At the Canadian Grand Prix weekend in 2001, Jacques Villeneuve said Montoya blocked him numerous times in practice. Montoya replied that the French-Canadian driver brake-tested him (i.e. stopped short). Later that weekend, the supposedly civil international series was shaken when a war of words between the two erupted into a short-lived physical brawl at a driver's meeting.
Montoya's last straw with his McLaren Mercedes team occurred when he hit his own teammate, Kimi Raikkonen, from behind in the first turn of the opening lap of the United States Grand Prix at Indianapolis last June. "It's not my fault," an unhappy Raikkonen said. "It's better that you look from the replay to see. It's pretty obvious what really happened."
And what's been obvious through Montoya's first seven weeks in NASCAR is that he seems to have kept his aggressive style.
In the Busch race in Mexico Montoya spun out Scott Pruett when it appeared he still had time to overtake him cleanly.
And on Sunday Raines said, "I thought I raced him (Montoya) clean for 10-15 laps. I got by him coming off of [Turn] 4 and cleared him, and he just dove under me entering [Turn] 1. We made contact and I backed into the wall."
Considering that what's not acceptable in Formula One is SOP in NASCAR, Montoya made have found a home that suits his style. But that doesn't mean every driver plays by those rules. Just look at the result of Sunday's race in Martinsville when Jeff Gordon said that that only way he was going to win was to wreck Jimmie Johnson, and Gordon refused that option.
NASCAR history is filled with drivers who have made their careers based on being tough competitors who give no slack to their rivals. It will take a little more time to see if Montoya's driving style is a type of a modern day intimidator or merely misplaced temper.
Key moment
The rain showers that brought out the red flag, and sabotaged Dale Earnhardt Jr., who seemed to be in control of the race until then. "If it wouldn't have rained, we would have been hard for the rest of the field to handle," said Earnhardt. But something got into his eye blown from the track dryers and he wasn't the same after.
Surprise moment
After a week of bashing the Car of Tomorrow, especially after some serious problems with exhaust pipes cropped up, the new car design has changed race strategy. In particular, race winner Johnson found out that a hard hit in the rear won't necessarily move another driver out of the way because of the new bumper design. That could be a good thing, as it means the short track bump and run belongs only to the Car of Yesterday. Johnson explained: "These bumpers really hit square and solid. There is no lift, there is just a straight shot in the butt."
Hot numbers
• This was Johnson's third win at Martinsville and third of the year. It was also his 26th career Nextel Cup Victory.
• Hendrick Motorsports has won both Car of Tomorrow races, and on Sunday, had three of the top four finishers.
• Chevrolet Impala SS cars took the top seven finishing spots, at NASCAR's shortest track at .526 miles.
• The margin of victory was 0.065 seconds.
Montoya's aggressive driving not winning friends
Lewis Franck/SI
Has Juan Pablo Montoya's honeymoon in NASCAR ended?
Sunday at Martinsville, the Colombian rookie finished a decent 16th, while at the same time managing to anger Tony Raines, who slammed into the wall when Montoya's right front bumper hit Raines' car in the left rear.
"I don't know how he's thinking, or what his thinking is," Raines told NASCAR.com. "[Montoya's supporters] are always going to think he's the greatest thing since sliced bread and I ain't s---, but I don't come out here to wreck people. I didn't wreck him; he shouldn't have wrecked me."
Ryan Newman was a bit more charitable, but no less irritated after he and Montoya jostled for position during the race, prompting Newman to seek out Montoya after the race to ask him if he had turned down on Newman on a straightaway, a charge Montoya denied. Montoya didn't help his case with Newman by hitting Newman's front tire carrier during the first set of pit stops.
"We got three wide on the back straightaway on that last restart, and he (Montoya) overdrove Turn 1," said Newman. "I thought he turned left. He said 'I just ran him out of room.' He was up against the wall. It was just racin'.'"
It's not a stinging indictment, but Newman, who has his own small share of critics, has a good enough reputation in the garage that his comments carry some weight.
And right now, those words reveal the evidence mounting that Montoya's comfort in racing in close quarters may not win him many fans on the track.
This is nothing new for Montoya, who, in his Formula One career, made a habit of not backing off.
At the Canadian Grand Prix weekend in 2001, Jacques Villeneuve said Montoya blocked him numerous times in practice. Montoya replied that the French-Canadian driver brake-tested him (i.e. stopped short). Later that weekend, the supposedly civil international series was shaken when a war of words between the two erupted into a short-lived physical brawl at a driver's meeting.
Montoya's last straw with his McLaren Mercedes team occurred when he hit his own teammate, Kimi Raikkonen, from behind in the first turn of the opening lap of the United States Grand Prix at Indianapolis last June. "It's not my fault," an unhappy Raikkonen said. "It's better that you look from the replay to see. It's pretty obvious what really happened."
And what's been obvious through Montoya's first seven weeks in NASCAR is that he seems to have kept his aggressive style.
In the Busch race in Mexico Montoya spun out Scott Pruett when it appeared he still had time to overtake him cleanly.
And on Sunday Raines said, "I thought I raced him (Montoya) clean for 10-15 laps. I got by him coming off of [Turn] 4 and cleared him, and he just dove under me entering [Turn] 1. We made contact and I backed into the wall."
Considering that what's not acceptable in Formula One is SOP in NASCAR, Montoya made have found a home that suits his style. But that doesn't mean every driver plays by those rules. Just look at the result of Sunday's race in Martinsville when Jeff Gordon said that that only way he was going to win was to wreck Jimmie Johnson, and Gordon refused that option.
NASCAR history is filled with drivers who have made their careers based on being tough competitors who give no slack to their rivals. It will take a little more time to see if Montoya's driving style is a type of a modern day intimidator or merely misplaced temper.
Key moment
The rain showers that brought out the red flag, and sabotaged Dale Earnhardt Jr., who seemed to be in control of the race until then. "If it wouldn't have rained, we would have been hard for the rest of the field to handle," said Earnhardt. But something got into his eye blown from the track dryers and he wasn't the same after.
Surprise moment
After a week of bashing the Car of Tomorrow, especially after some serious problems with exhaust pipes cropped up, the new car design has changed race strategy. In particular, race winner Johnson found out that a hard hit in the rear won't necessarily move another driver out of the way because of the new bumper design. That could be a good thing, as it means the short track bump and run belongs only to the Car of Yesterday. Johnson explained: "These bumpers really hit square and solid. There is no lift, there is just a straight shot in the butt."
Hot numbers
• This was Johnson's third win at Martinsville and third of the year. It was also his 26th career Nextel Cup Victory.
• Hendrick Motorsports has won both Car of Tomorrow races, and on Sunday, had three of the top four finishers.
• Chevrolet Impala SS cars took the top seven finishing spots, at NASCAR's shortest track at .526 miles.
• The margin of victory was 0.065 seconds.
