Devilishly-fast Montoya awaits first Indy
By Chris Corbellini, ABC Sports Online INDIANAPOLIS -- They gathered alongside the fence across from Chip Ganassi's Team Target pit area on Carburetion Day, hoping to be heard over the circus atmosphere of drills and screeching tires. Go ahead, grab a peek at the devil of the Indianapolis 500 -- he is about to begin his assault on the speedway in that damn red bullet of his.
It was the fans last chance to welcome Indy rookie Juan Montoya until the utter chaos of "the greatest spectacle on Earth" Sunday. Some of the Carb Day onlookers got creative, chanting a Yankee Stadium bleacher creature-esque "USA, USA" to the 24-year-old Colombian. The less imaginative ones just uttered the go-to jeer, "Montoya, you suck!" toward the guy sitting in the red rocket. The lazy ones -- spilling beer on themselves on the pit row fence -- just booed.
Juan Montoya is a rookie, but has some valuable experience under his belt.
The message was clear: Leave our beloved speedway, now. Coach class if you have to. Go back to Motegi, Japan, or Nazareth, Pa., or whatever CART track you came from. It's a compliment really, as his natural talent is fearsome. The last thing they want is Montoya proving this hallowed 2.5-mile track is running a second-rate organization.
"Chip gave me car," Montoya said. "I'll just drive it as fast as I can. Simple.
"You don't have to be in the first corner to win the race here. You just have to cruise the 400 miles, then race. I think it's going to be exciting."
No one's really saying it this week -- competitors never would -- but judging by practice and qualifying times Montoya has a very good chance to embarrass the Indy Racing Northern Light Series. He's a most fearsome rookie. Unlike Sarah Fisher or Sam Hornish Jr., a rookie really only in name -- this being his second year in that "other" league that is considered far superior to Indy's own.
He and teammate Jimmy Vasser -- a four-time Indy 500 participant -- are the first true CART entries into the Indy 500 since the leagues came to blows and split in 1995. Montoya, while getting bumped off the pole by Team Menard's Greg Ray in qualifying, has leaped to the top of the pack the moment he strolled casually into Gasoline Alley. Even Ganassi admits his foreign driver dismissed the grandeur of Indy as just another race.
"He thought winning the pole is big for me," Ganassi said. "But I needed to explain it to him that's it's big for him too."
The 1999 CART FedEx Series champion arrived from Japan on May 15 and promptly drove a respectable 219.213 mph. The following day, he raced to the top of the field at 222.102 mph. The IRNLS cars are less powerful and more delicate than the CART turbos, but it didn't take Montoya long to make the adjustment. He and Vasser ran fourth and seventh, respectively, Saturday in the Bosch Grand Prix at Nazareth, Pa., before flying back to Indy for Sunday's race.
"We spent a lot of long nights this week," Ganassi said last weekend during the last minutes of Saturday's qualifying. "He has always got something in his back pocket. He's a student of the formula. Vasser is on his tale all the time, and it's nice because he creates a little race between the both of them."
After a qualifying speed of 223.246 mph on Saturday, Montoya starts from the middle of Row 1. Vasser begins on the inside of Row 3.
"Jimmy (Vasser) said it was very simple, and it was," Montoya said. "It only took me four laps to do 217. It won't take long to realize who's aggressive and who you can ride side-by-side with."
Montoya also has a reputation of being an overly-aggressive driver. He pushes his car to the edge, even by racing standards, where if you blip the throttle you lose a lap and possibly a few ribs. Despite winning last year's CART title, Montoya hasn't finished a race this year. And he is expected to join Formula One next year to drive for the famed Willliams team.
Indiana's native son, Al Unser Jr., knows all about Montoya's high-wire style, racing him in CART until he switched back to the IRNLS this season. Little Al believes Montoya's frenzied driving could lead him to exit that red bullet in a red-and-white ambulance.
Still, most drivers -- especially Ray -- welcome the challenge Montoya provides. It was the re-occurring theme from Gasoline Alley this week: Great drivers, one race. Please don't make this an Indy Racing vs. CART thing at the green flag. Politics be damned. Bring it on.
"If some new little racing series pops up somewhere, and some guy wins that championship, and he's suddenly a millionaire," Ray said. "But he's in some sandbox way over there ... I would like to see everyone in the same arena every week.
"Juan Montoya has been made out to be a huge superstar because he won all these poles and a championship his rookie year. And indeed he is. But they were measuring him against Jimmy Vasser and Michael Andretti. We have wonderful drivers like Buddy Lazier and Eddie Cheever and Scott Goodyear."
With only Ray to his right and A.J. Foyt-entry Eliseo Salazar to his left on Sunday, Montoya has nothing but asphalt, thousands of bleacher-creature insults, and the reputation of both leagues in front of him.
