July 3, 2008
By Doug Demmons
Juan Pablo Montoya has never been a fan favorite in his season and a half in NASCAR.
Part of that’s due to being an open-wheel refugee who didn’t pay his dues driving a late model on dirt tracks. Part of it is his reputation for burning bridges in Formula One and elsewhere. Part of it is a NASCAR reputation he has acquired for being a dirty driver who wrecks somebody every week.
But a lot of it is the fact that his name is Juan Pablo Montoya, not Johnny Paul Montana. And he’s from Colombia the South American country, not Columbia the capital of South Carolina.
Add it all up and Montoya gets more boos than cheers during driver introductions each week. In fact, until a certain incident at a certain track in Virginia, Montoya was probably the least popular driver in the grandstands.
That might just change this week. Don’t be surprised if you hear a rousing cheer go up when Montoya is introduced at Daytona on Saturday. Don’t be surprised if there is a line at the souvenir trailer waiting to buy No. 42 hats.
With his left front fender Montoya delivered what many fans in general -- and Junior Nation in particular -- have been dying to see -- NASCAR justice for a young punk kid.
When he sent Kyle Busch spinning under caution at New Hampshire Montoya went from Dirty Driver to Dirty Harry.
And that’s rather ironic considering Montoya and Busch ran together as a two-car freight train to finish 1-2 at Talladega just a few months ago.
Of course, Montoya’s image rehab won’t last long. He’ll do something to earn the boos again. But for the time being JPM is Buford Pusser swinging a mean stick, defying the politically correct types in the NASCAR hauler who have turned the rest of the garage into cowering corporate shills too afraid to say anything.
But it wasn’t just turning Busch that has made Montoya the toast of the talk shows this week. It was his admission of guilt.
Very few drivers will admit that they intentionally wrecked someone. Bobby Hamilton Jr. wrecked Landon Cassill in the Nationwide race at New Hampshire as payback for an incident at Nashville and then blamed it on his brakes.
Usually drivers tell reporters that they just have no earthly idea how they got into the back of that guy and they’ll have to check the replay later. Translation: "He had it coming, but I can’t say that cause I’ll get hauled into the hauler."
Not Montoya.
“Yeah,” he replied when asked if he did it intentionally. No faulty brakes or broken sway bar to blame. It wasn’t a tire going down or a loose car. "He crossed the line with me and I crossed it back."
He told the judge and jury in the NASCAR hauler as much -- "Yeah, I did it. I know I broke the rules but I was defending myself." To the hauler’s credit all they did was penalize him two laps.
The guy known as Rowdy, on the other hand, was acting like the aggrieved victim. Who, me? Aside from his Mom and maybe a few folks at Gibbs, it is unlikely anybody bought what he was selling.
Busch is probably going to have to just eat this one. He has, no doubt, been reminded that the points leader does not have the same luxury of paying someone back and risking a 40th-place finish.
And the newly formed Montoya Nation will have to just enjoy this while it lasts, because while JPM has no hesitation to put the guy in the black hat into the wall, he’s also just as likely to put a fender to Dale Earnhardt Jr. or Mark Martin.
Doug Demmons is a writer and editor for the Birmingham News ~ he writes weekly auto racing columns ranging from NASCAR to open wheel to Formula One, local tracks and more... you can read Doug's columns online at Blog of Tommorow
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