The
2014 season starts Sunday at St. Petersburg, Fla., with an especially
intriguing storyline: Juan Pablo Montoya’s return to open-wheel cars in the newly
named Verizon IndyCar Series.
A
former Indianapolis 500 winner and open-wheel champion, the Colombian is back
in the form of racing that launched him first into Formula One, then a
much-too-long foray into NASCAR.
With
victories in Indy cars, Formula One, NASCAR and sports cars, Montoya’s span of
accomplishment in different types of race cars rivals that of Mario Andretti
and Dan Gurney.
Pretty
heady company.
Now
that Montoya is done wasting some of the prime years of his career plodding
around in NASCAR, we’ll see how fast he can return to form in open wheel.
If
it’s anything like his initial go-round, it should make for an exciting season.
Montoya came out of nowhere as a rookie in 1999 with Target Chip Ganassi, beating
Dario Franchitti for the CART title on the basis of more wins (seven to three).
The
last person to win the CART series title as a rookie was Nigel Mansell in 1993.
Again, pretty heady company.
The
next year he dominated the Indianapolis 500 as Ganassi became the first of the big-name
CART teams to return after the split in 1996. Montoya was barely challenged over
the last three-fourths of the race, leading 167 laps.
Montoya
adds an interesting dynamic to Team Penske, which has been solid by most
standards, but underwhelming by Penske’s the last few years. Perhaps his
arrival will spur Helio Castroneves to win that record-tying fourth
Indianapolis 500, which seemed likely after starting his career two-for-two,
and/or Will Power to claim the series title that has eluded him on several
occasions.
Elsewhere:
·
Defending Indianapolis 500 champ Tony
Kanaan is finally at Target Chip Ganassi, his rumored destination some years
ago. Kanaan and Castroneves are the only current drivers who raced against
Montoya in 1999. Ganassi now will run Chevrolet engines after several years as
the leading Honda team.
·
Kanaan replaces Franchitti, who was
forced to retire after his frightening crash at Houston late in the season. The
Brazilian will pair with reigning series champ Scott Dixon, by far the best
all-around driver in IndyCar.
·
Former race winners Ryan Briscoe and
Charlie Kimball make up the Ganassi satellite teams
·
Andretti Autosport swapped being the
No. 2 Chevrolet team (behind Penske) to be the No. 1 Honda team. The trio of
Ryan Hunter-Reay, James Hinchcliffe and Marco Andretti looked strong at times
last season before fading. Carlos Munoz, who finished a
surprising second in last year’s 500, replaces E.J. Viso.
·
Graham Rahal will try to jump-start his
career running for his father and driving for the National Guard. Oriol Servia
will be Rahal’s teammate at select events. The loss of the National Guard
sponsorship led Panther Racing to shut down its operation and bring a lawsuit
against Rahal and the league.
·
IndyCar’s oddest pairing – A.J. Foyt
and Takuma Sato – is back, hoping to regain their early season form. Rookie
Martin Plowman has a ride for Indianapolis … Fan-favorite teams Sarah Fisher
Hartman Racing and Ed Carpenter also will expand in May. Fisher adds Alex
Tagliani to go with Josef Newgarden while Carpenter will have ex-Panther shoe
J.R. Hildebrand, who was released after his early race crash in last year’s
500. Mike Conway will tackle non-ovals for Carpenter’s outfit … Simon Pagenaud looks
to build on his first career win with Sam Schmidt’s operation, which adds
rookie Mikhail Aleshin, a native of Moscow … Justin Wilson is joined by rookie
Carlos Huertas at Dale Coyne … In a pairing that surely will lead to numerous
typos over the course of the season, Sebastian Saavedra teams with Sebastien
Bourdais at KV … Bryan Herta Autosport tapped rookie Jack Hawksworth for its
ride
Photo
credit: Bret Kelley/Verizon IndyCar Series
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