Juan Pablo Montoya is set to make a shock return to stock car racing as he pilots the No. 50 in NASCAR at Watkins Glen.
The Colombian is better known for his time in Formula 1, grabbing seven wins, 13 pole positions and 30 podiums across seven seasons as he drove for Williams and McLaren.
After he was sacked by McLaren midway through the 2006 season, Montoya moved over to the US to race in the NASCAR Cup Series, making his debut at the final race of the season that year at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
The 48-year-old would race full-time in the series from 2007 to 2013 with Chip Ganassi Racing (2007-2008) and Earnhardt Ganassi Racing (2009 to 2013), before making one-off appearances with Team Penske in 2014.
Now, after a 10-year hiatus, Montoya is returning to NASCAR, and speaking on the Missed Apex Formula 1 Podcast, the Colombian admitted where he may struggle after such a long time away.
Juan Pablo Montoya set for NASCAR return at Watkins Glen
Montoya will be running at Watkins Glen in the No. 50 car for 23XI Racing. Corey Heim and former F1 and current Toyota WEC driver Kamui Kobayashi have previously driven the car.
Watkins Glen is interestingly the site of the 46-year-old’s second and last win in NASCAR – the first coming in his first full season at Sonoma in 2007. In his full-time spell in the series, Montoya registered 50 top 10 finishes and 9 poles.
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But despite those nine results in qualifying, Montoya believes that is where he may struggle on his return.
“I have this opportunity with the 23XI [Racing] and Mobil 1 and I want to make the most out of it.
“I mean I don’t think they call[ed] me because it’s cool to have my name on the car. I think they call me because they think I can do a good job, or I hope they call me because I can do a good job, and my mentality is to do a good job. My mentality is to figure out what I need to do to do a good job.
“If I was a betting person I would say we might struggle in qualifying in a bit, on the one lap pace, because, and even when I race[d] NASCAR back in the day there was so little grip there it’s very little you can do as a driver to [say]: ‘oh yeah I found four tenths’.
“But in the races I seem to have quite a bit more pace so honestly, I’m cautiously optimistic about it. Honestly if I was gonna run like s—, I wasn’t gonna do it.”
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NASCAR heads to Darlington before the playoffs
The next round at Darlington is the final round of the regular season before NASCAR heads to the playoffs.
Tyler Reddick leads the standings over Kyle Larson by 17 points, with Chase Elliott being just a point behind him in third. Reddick and Larson both had a difficult race at Daytona as they got caught up in ‘the big one’ and finished outside the top 20.
Harrison Burton made history as he won his first Cup Series race over Kyle Busch to qualify for the playoffs, despite currently being 34th in the standings.
Following the race at Daytona, the championship has been blown wide open as the playoffs near ever closer.