Juan Pablo Montoya's dominant day soured by pit-road speeding penalty at Indy
Earnhardt Ganassi Racing's Juan Pablo Montoya led 116 laps before finishing 11th in Sunday's NASCAR Sprint Cup Allstate 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. // David Griffin, NASCAR Scene
INDIANAPOLIS - Earnhardt Ganassi Racing's Juan Pablo Montoya had the field covered in Sunday's NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, but a penalty for speeding on pit road halted his dominant run in the Allstate 400.
Montoya led 116 laps – at times by more than five seconds – but NASCAR flagged him for speeding on a lap-125 pit stop. Montoya then had to serve a pass-through penalty and returned to the track in 12th. A caution on lap 129 stacked the field for a double-file restart, but Montoya initially fell back three spots. With only 24 laps remaining after the final restart, Montoya could only rally to an 11th-place finish.
"Ah, it kind of sucks," Montoya said after the race. "But it is what it is. Everybody on the Target Chevy did an amazing job. I thought I was on the speed. We got lights. I was on the lights every time. I was where I was on the previous one and they say I was speeding. It is what it is. We had a deal like that before and once it happens, you can't change it, so it is pretty frustrating."
Still, he said that leading at Indy "shows what we have done with the team." Montoya remained in the top 12 in the standings and is now 10th with six races to go before the field for the Chase For The Sprint Cup is set.
NASCAR Vice President of Competition Robin Pemberton sympathized with Montoya, but stood by the call.
"Well, he oughta be upset," he told SceneDaily.com. "He was speeding and we hate it for him. You don't like to hand out penalties, that we know."
Pemberton pointed out that an electronic system is used to make such calls.
"We're very fair," he said. "We put things in place such as electronics and things like that - and we have backup systems - to do away with any skepticisms that we're not fair."
Still, he said that NASCAR officials felt bad when something like a penalty determines the outcome of a race.
"We don't feel as bad as they do, but it's pretty darn close," Pemberton said. "The last thing we ever want to do is affect the outcome of a race. We hate it for them, we really do. They had a great race, great race car and they surely deserved to win, but you have to have 100 percent of your day go correct a lot of the time, and there wasn't enough time for them to recover from that mistake."
