42 Juan Montoya

Bio:

Juan Pablo Montoya is a Colombian race car driver known internationally for participating and winning in Formula One and CART race competitions. He has enjoyed great success. Currently, he competes in NASCAR, driving the #42 Target Chevrolet for Chip Ganassi Racing in the Sprint Cup Series. He and wife Connie have three children: son Sebastian and daughters Paulina and Manuela.

Montoya has become a crossover race winner by winning races (starting in each case in his rookie year) in Formula One, CART, IndyCar, Grand-AM and NASCAR equalling in that respect Mario Andretti's caliber of success (except for the F1 World Championship). He also shares honors with Dan Gurney in being IndyCar/F1/NASCAR race winner. Montoya is also the only driver to have competed in all three major events at Indianapolis, finishing fourth or better in each event. He finished 1st in the Indianapolis 500, 2nd in the Brickyard 400, and 4th in the US Grand Prix.

Career Highlights:

2010:
Montoya began his NASCAR season with Daytona Speedweeks, the first race was the Bud Shootout exhibition race in which he finished 10th. Montoya had earlier posted the 5th fastest time in Daytona 500 qualifying but the unique qualifying system during Speedweeks meant Montoya would start P2 in the 2nd Gatorade Duel to race for starting position in the Daytona 500.
Montoya started the 2010 edition of the Watkins Glen race in 3rd place and led 74 of the 90 laps to win his 2nd career Sprint Cup Series race. This made Juan the first foreign-born driver to have multiple wins in NASCAR Sprint Cup history. Montoya did not make the Chase for the Sprint Cup and ended up 17th in points with six top-fives and fourteen top-tens.
Montoya also won the pole for the Lenox Industrial Tools 301, the Brickyard 400, and the AMP Energy Juice 500.

2009:
Montoya finished eighth in series points. The former open wheel star had a breakout season in his third Sprint Cup campaign. He won his first Sprint Cup pole at Talladega and had a best finish of second at Pocono as Denny Hamlin edged him out by .869 seconds.
Montoya was third 4 times. He began the Chase seeded 11th, but vaulted to third after the first race by finishing third at New Hampshire (he won the pole and led 105 laps). He held 3rd place for three weeks but dropped to 6th after suffering a mid-race spin and finishing 35th at Charlotte. He became the success story and standard of progress for the recent “Open Wheel Invasion” by qualifying for the Chase in his third season.

2008:
Montoya finished 25th in series points. He finished with two top 5s and three top 10s with his top finish being 2nd in the spring race at Talladega. His best start was 6th in the spring race at Richmond.