Montoya helps drive Team Penske to championship heights
LOS ANGELES — When asked what teammate Juan Pablo Montoya meant to Team Penske's attempt to win the Verizon IndyCar Series championship, Helio Castroneves went full Forrest Gump.
"He's like a box of chocolates; you never know what you're going to get," Castroneves told USA TODAY Sports. "Sometimes it's a bitter chocolate, but sometimes it's super sweet. It's always an adventure. He's a talented son of a gun. No question. He's an amazing driver, and I'm happy to have him around."
Montoya, who joined Team Penske this season after seven years in NASCAR, isn't a player in the battle between Castroneves and Will Power for the championship, which will be settled Saturday night at the MAVTV 500 at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Calif. Instead, Montoya is sixth in the standings, 107 points behind Power, who leads Castroneves by 51.
The three contenders — Power, Castroneves and Simon Pagenaud — gathered Thursday afternoon at The Grove, an open-air mall west of downtown Los Angeles, to meet fans, answer questions from the media, and oversee pit stop competitions. It was their final public appearance before practice and qualifying Friday.
Montoya's presence was hailed Thursday by both his teammates for the anticipated return of the IndyCar championship to Roger Penske's team for the first time in eight years. Power needs to finish sixth or better to clinch the championship; Castroneves needs to win and see Power finish seventh or worse to claim the crown.
Montoya not only provided the essential data of a third car — something Team Penske didn't have after Ryan Briscoe was let go in 2012 — he also brought 16 years of experience from his days in CART, Formula One and NASCAR. And he won one of the three 500-mile races on the schedule — at Pocono Raceway in July.
Saturday's finale also is 500 miles, worth double points.
Montoya also brought a unique personality. He hasn't always been known to bond with teammates, but he's also brutally frank, disarmingly witty and willing to share what he knows.
"A lot of people said he was difficult to get along with and a hard teammate," Power told USA TODAY Sports. "He was a little bit like that when I first met him, but within a few days we were good to go. He's pretty easygoing. We all get along with him pretty well."
For his part, Montoya is satisfied with his first Indy-style season since departing CART for F1 after the 2000 season.
"Honestly, I think we deserve the championship this year," he said earlier this month. "It's not like we've just been scoring points. We've been good everywhere we've been, ovals, street courses, road courses, we've always been there. We've always given ourselves a chance to win. To me to be fifth the first year back, I'll take it."
So will the boss.
"Both drivers have done a terrific job this season, and Juan has as well in his first year with the team," Penske wrote in an email to USA TODAY Sports. "Will has continued to be one of the best road and street course drivers in the Verizon IndyCar Series and he has really established himself as a good oval racer as well this year. We saw what he could do last year at Fontana and at Milwaukee this year but he was battling for wins at a couple more ovals this season.
"Helio has really been the model of consistency, really over the last two seasons. He has been very solid wherever we have raced and he continues to produce and deliver for the team."
For Pagenaud, it will take a lot of luck to pull what would be an historic upset. He needs to win and have Power and Castroneves finish far back in the field to have a chance at the title.
Pagenaud already is pushing, spinning and crashing late Wednesday night during an open test session.
"If you want to try something as a driver like I did, you can try it (in an open test) because you have time to fix the car," Pagenaud said. "I'm all for it. I thought it was really good that we had time to do that. ... I tried to do too much coming out of pit lane trying to set myself up for the race. It didn't work out for me."
Castroneves said IndyCar's current package is similar to Formula One in 2006, Montoya's last season before joining NASCAR.
"He came into this with great information," Castroneves said. "Our technology is about seven years old and very similar to where Juan was when he last raced in Formula One. I'm not saying that's a bad thing. I'm just saying that our rules keep us at this place technology-wise. It's like we stopped in time and he caught up to us with great ideas. At the end of the day, its a total team effort."
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PHOTOS: Juan Pablo Montoya's racing career