Juan Pablo Montoya has signed with Team Penske and will return to IndyCar next year.
He
won the CART title in 1999 with seven victories, and took three more wins the
following year. Racing in Formula One between 2001 and 2006, he scored seven
victories for Williams and McLaren. Since 2007, he has been racing in NASCAR
and has two victories, one each in 2007 and 2010.
And
next year he will return to the venue where he first entered the limelight.
Montoya's
return to IndyCar after a stint in Formula One reminds Yours Truly of another
driver who has taken a similar path before.
In
fact, Montoya and Zanardi were "traded" for one another in 1999. That
year, Williams traded Montoya, their test driver, to the Ganassi team in CART for
Zanardi, then two-time defending champion of CART, for financial reasons.
Unfortunately,
Zanardi did not have much success with Williams that year, and his return to
IndyCar in 2001 ended in tragic circumstances.
Yours
Truly is a huge fan for both drivers, especially for Zanardi, who has shown
remarkable courage and determination since the horrific accident, and has even
won a gold medal in para-cycling at the 2012 Summer Paralympics in London.
At
the age of 38, many think that Montoya is way past in prime. Yours Truly
certainly hopes that he will fare much better than Zanardi did.
In
more ways than one.
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