A decade later, Juan Pablo Montoya He puts on his overalls, boots, gloves and helmet again to sit behind the wheel of a Nascar car. With the Toyota No. 50 goes out on the track this Sunday Watkins Glen International (2 pm) to, at 48 years of age, have a special run in the play-offs of the Nascar Series Cup.
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“It’s going to be fun and I’m very excited. I like the opportunity and I’m not racing full time,” the Colombian runner told this newspaper after the news was confirmed.
His phone rang a few months ago, it was the team president 23XI Racing, Steve Lauletta, who contacted him to return to racing in the category in which he was happy. They proposed him only one race to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Mobil-1, that first sponsor when he was in Colombia that allowed him to reach Formula 1.
“They asked me if I would be interested in doing The Watkins Glen race with Mobil for the 50th anniversary, and I thought it was cool. Steve explained to me what they were looking for and I thought it really made sense,” he said.
Montoyawho always liked challenges, agreed to be in a race Nascar 10 years after his last outing on the track, in Indianapolis 2014, with the Penske Ford car. “I like the opportunity, I thought it was quite fun to do because it is just one race, one weekend.”
Juan Pablo Montoya
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From the moment he said yes, he began preparing for the race, intensifying his physical training in the gym, working on the simulator and finalizing every detail with his team so that this kind of tribute to his career would be perfect.
“I’ve lost weight and I have to get organized because the race is tough,” he said in light of the challenge he faces this Sunday in New York.
There are many changes that you encounter Montoyathe tire degradation is different, the track layout is different, although he still has fresh memories of his first victory in Nascar, because it was there, in Watkins Glen International, where he first climbed to the top of the podium in 2010, after trying for 113 races.
Juan Pablo Montoya
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Five days away from his 49th birthday, the driver from Bogota wants to taste the sweetness of victory again, which is what he has been preparing for over the last few weeks, so he will have no problem being aggressive on the track.
“I hope things go our way. I’m going to run clean because I don’t want any problems with anyone, but if I have to show my ‘gaminada’, I do it. You feel like you’re on Avenida Caracas and the problem is over,” he said before the race in an interview with the newspaper As and The W.
“I’m not going into this race to do bodywork with everyone. You have to be smart and if you have good speed, you have to take advantage of it. If I wasn’t thinking about winning, why would I do it?” he added.
Juan Pablo Montoya
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There is one detail that favors the Colombian, the track is very different from the oval, something not minor because his best races in Nascar were on these tracks, he did not do very well on the ovals, sometimes he suffered.
“It’s a road race, a circuit that is very different from the ovals. There he performs better than on the ovals, a road circuit is more traditional in its style,” he told this newspaper. Jose Clopatofskydirector of MOTOR magazine.
Montoya He will start in 34th position, after yesterday’s qualifying in which he clocked a time of 1 minute, 13 seconds and 204 thousandths. There will be 90 laps, 220.5 miles, a stop to fill up the gas tank and a race to once again touch glory, even though his personal challenges are different now; he does not want to run a full season, just these one-weekend tests to feel that adrenaline in his veins again.
Juan Pablo Montoya, Colombian pilot.
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HAROLD YEPES
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