NASCAR Rivals: Juan Pablo Montoya Intentionally Wrecks Kyle Busch
July 2, 2008 by Tim Zaegel
Filed under Racing
After the caution on lap 279 of Sunday’s Lenox Industrial Tools 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Juan Pablo Montoya was mixed up in a back-and-forth battle of “love taps” with the Sprint Cup Series points leader, Kyle Busch, which ultimately led to Montoya taking a dive at the no. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing machine with every intent of spinning him. The end result? Both cars wound up wrecked on the frontstretch and the race was called for rain just moments later.
Video footage of the wreck between Montoya and Busch:
Following the race, reporters caught up with Montoya to discuss the incident. The Colombian native insinuated that the feud between the two drivers had been brewing for fifty laps when Kyle was pinching him up against the wall as he tried to make the pass, and then that Busch was beating and banging on his car.
“He runs good? Yeah. He has great cars? Yeah. I thought we had a decent car today, and I don’t appreciate when people race me like that,” Montoya said. Marty Snyder then asked Montoya if he intentionally spun Busch, to which the driver responded, “Well, yeah. The same way he did to me.”
Despite the fact that Montoya may have won some fan votes for his brutal honesty, Kyle Busch was none too pleased with the outcome of the altercation.
“We came to that caution flag, and he thought he beat me to the flag. I was just trying to get around who was in front of us, touched him on the door, and he turned left and spun me out. I don’t know what his beef is, but NASCAR should probably fix it,” Busch said.
Montoya later responded, “I think they are giving me a penalty, and it’s okay for what I did. He hit me under caution, he hit me under green, and I retaliated. Did I go too far in retaliating? Yeah. The only reason I did that was that I was just defending myself.”
While it was refreshing to hear a driver actually speak honestly about his intentions on the track, perhaps Montoya would have been a bit better off to stay quiet on the situation. NASCAR wound up penalizing Juan two laps, taking him from what would’ve been a 26th place finish and dropping him to 32nd.
By gawd, if Montoya spins Busch just one more time, … I’ll have to buy his diecast and put it on the mantle!!
Those two deserve each other!
Why don’t they handle their business off the track?! Why ruin it for yourself and others? But I will admit, though, that I like seeing a little bit of action and the drama in nascar.
lol … Bruce, that may be the funniest thing I’ve heard all day.
WINN3R, I think it’s kinda funny considering the two guys involved. When we were watching the race, my brother was yelling at JPM through the tv for being an idiot. I was just like, “Dude, if it was anyone else …”
Ryan’s #1, without these types of feuds brewing out there on the track every now and again, the racing world could become very dull very fast.
Sadly I had to buy a jimmy spencer diecast a few years ago just because of the other Busch brother… those kids are costing me bucks!!
I dont get how nascar fines some people for cussing on the radios but all they do to juan is penalize him two laps for intentionaly wrecking another car. Only reason is because it was busch that he recked and nascar knew the fans would love it.
Geez, Bruce … a Jimmy Spencer diecast?
Adam, I can’t say that I necessarily think that was the motive behind NASCAR not handing out a stiffer fine against Montoya, but I do believe that the penalties should have been much more harsh … whether monetary or in points.
I couldn’t help myself. Anyone popping Ku Busch deserved some kind of support.
Who was it that got into it on pit road at Bristol, and the fans started sending him money to pay his fine? – I don’t remember because I didn’t buy that diecast… But it was a popular decking in the pits, for sure.
Just not popular enough for me to remember…
Dangit, Bruce … now I’ve gotta go do some research to figure out who the heck that was at Bristol. For some reason it’s a foggy image in my head.
I wanna say Robby Gordon was the fan favorite in this one… I don’t know why. It’s fuzzy. Age sucks.
Atlanta History: Juan Pablo Montoya will be making his sixth NSCS start at Atlanta Motor Speedway this weekend. He has an average starting position of 16.8 and an average finishing position of 24.4 in his five prior NSCS starts. Montoya’s best finish of fifth came in his first NSCS start at the 1.54-Mile Quad-Oval. Earlier this season, Montoya qualified fourth but battled an ill-handling car before coming home 27th. In the NNS garage, Montoya has one start which resulted in an eighth-place finish.
Montoya Holds Benefit Concert: While many in NASCAR used the off week to relax, Juan Pablo Montoya took the opportunity to continue with his philanthropic efforts. Juan Pablo and his wife Connie held a benefit concert in Panama City, Panama, called Formula Latina, last week to benefit his Formula Smiles foundation. Formula Latina was a private concert, held to benefit nearly 5000 underprivileged Colombian children to whom new opportunities are offered through sports and healthy recreation. Nearly a dozen popular stars of the Latin music scene participated in the benefit concert including Latin pop sensation Luis Fonsi.
About Bristol: Juan Pablo Montoya maintained his position inside the top-12 of the NASCAR Sprint Cup standings after a 25th-place finish at Bristol Motor Speedway. Montoya had a fast car all weekend and qualified 11th for the start of the Sharpie 500. He battled inside the top-10 for the majority of his day, often appearing inside the top-5. Montoya moved into the second position as a caution fell for rain with only 40 laps remaining, but after the restart he started falling back and was eventually forced to pit with a right rear tire going down. The pit stop put the Target Chevrolet two laps down, relegating Montoya to a 25th-place finish.
In the Points: With only two races remaining before the Chase cutoff, Montoya sits ninth in the NSCS standings. He is now 64 points in front of 13th position and just 20 points out of seventh. Just 89 points separates 7th through 14th position in the standings.
2009 In Numbers: Montoya and the Target team have one pole award, one top-five, 11 top-10 and 15 top-15 finishes in the 2009 season. In the 24 Cup races run this season Montoya has earned 19 top-20 finishes. He has led 133 laps and averages a starting position of 12.4 and a finishing position of 14.0 for the season.