Following Sunday's Lenox 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, JPM fully admitted that he intentionally spun Sprint Cup point leader Kyle Busch late in the event under caution after the two had bumped on track. Before we go any further, watch below at 0:46:
As you can see, the discontent among the two began when Busch drove JPM up the hill in turn one. The two continued to make contact down the backstretch and when the caution came out for the crash between Clint Bowyer and Sam Hornish Jr., Busch banged into Montoya's drivers side.
Juan Pablo Montoya certainly wasn't expecting Clint Bowyer to spin out in front of him Sunday at Pocono Raceway, but I would imagine he was expecting a little more help from his friends in red jump suits once his flaming No. 42 Dodge stopped.
Yep, it's time to play "armchair safety worker" with Juan Pablo's marshmallow roast of a crash on lap 82. Watch below and you decide at 0:33 when JPM gets his car stopped and he scrambles out if the response was adequate.
After the TV announcers jumped on the case of those safety workers that were plainly in view of Montoya's car, NASCAR made sure to note that those workers -- the ones in the red suits with fire extinguishers -- were not responsible for going on to the race track.
As of a western swing through Fontana, Calif. and Las Vegas, Nev. wasn't enough, the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series got its fourth official test session wrapped up in Phoenix on Tuesday afternoon.
The test at Phoenix International Raceway was the fourth of six that teams suggested to NASCAR prior to the season, and joins Daytona, California, and Vegas as tracks the teams have tested at.
Only Pocono and Lowe's Motor Speedway remain on the official Sprint Cup series testing docket. Teams can otherwise only test on tracks that the Sprint Cup series doesn't compete on.
Juan Pablo Montoya -- who was fastest during the Las Vegas test prior to the season -- again led all drivers over the five different sessions offered. The No. 42 put down a lap of 131.459mph in the Tuesday morning test session.
After nearly 50 haulers passed through the Las Vegas Strip on Thursday afternoon, the Sprint Cup teams got off to a fresh start at Las Vegas Motor Speedway Friday.
And yes, the weather for the weekend looks much, much better than teams were treated to at Auto Club Speedway last weekend. Sun is the only thing in the forecast with highs Friday topping at 77 degrees, and a high of 68 degrees expected for Sunday's UAW-Dodge 400.
Though the weather seemed plenty nice Friday afternoon, several Dodge teams had some significant problems during pre-qualifying practice, according to Jayski:
#77-Hornish scraped the turn two wall early in practice; #10-Carpentier (pictured) spun off turn 4 and looped around a couple times; #42-Montoya slammed the turn 2 wall hard and will go to a backup car. #41-Sorenson spun off turn 4; #9-Kahne smacked turn 4, unknown if they have to go to a backup, but little damage. Late in the session, #43-Labonte lost it in turn 4 and spun around, slapping the wall with the left rear and drivers side, the team will go to a backup car.
So the list of teams who will head to a backup car include Juan Pablo Montoya and Bobby Labonte. Kasey Kahne could end up there.
The fastest laps of the practice session were turned by Kyle Busch, Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Tony Stewart and David Reutimann. Busch's quickest lap of 179.946mph is just under five miles per hour slower than Kahne's pole-winning speed a year ago.
Qualifying starts with Travis Kvapil out first at 6:40pm/ET Friday on SPEED.
Juan Pablo Montoya made a big statement Tuesday afternoon at Las Vegas Motor Speedway to doubters of the NASCAR's next-generation race car for the Sprint Cup series.
Turning a lap of 186.761mph, Montoya would have taken the official track record away from Kasey Kahne (184.856mph in 2007) had it been an official qualifying session.
But one thing Montoya did was to prove that the new race car isn't as slow as everyone thought, and that teams are adapting to the packages well. It should be noted, of course, that teams aren't loudly disapproving of the tires that Goodyear brought like they did last year for the race at Vegas.
As you may recall, Tony Stewart's approval of the tires in '07 terms for describing them was "crap" on the newly configured surface.
As teams, though, head into their travel/work day before testing at California Speedway on Thursday and Friday, the general consensus seems to be that teams are getting a handle on the car and the track in Vegas. That's only good news for race fans.
Jeff Burton tore up a race car early Tuesday while Tony Stewart scraped the wall and Michael Waltrip looped his -- all in turn three. The test session was ended a few minutes early after Jeff Gordon laid oil down on the track.
Keep it here at NASCAR Fanhouse for plenty of updates on the Sprint Cup testing in California.
Dario Franchitti, Juan Pablo Montoya, Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas scored Chip Ganassi Racing's third-consecutive Rolex 24 overall win Sunday afternoon on the road course at Daytona International Speedway. The event marks the official beginning to the 2008 racing season and is a precursor to Speedweeks in Daytona that get started Feb. 8.
Though the team battled rain, darkness, a near-record of full course cautions and a slight overheating issue, the Ganassi entry led 252 of 695 laps. The car was powered by Lexus on a Riley Chassis.
The top-three overall finishers all had NASCAR drivers on the driving crews.
A.J. Allmendinger, racing in a Michael Shank entry, led 118 laps and looked very strong early. At around the 21 hour mark, the car broke a suspension piece, ending all chances for Allmendinger & company.
Jimmie Johnson finished second in the GAINSO/Bob Stallings Racing car two laps back of the Ganassi car with teammates Jimmy Vassar, Jon Fogarty and Alex Gurney.
Kurt Busch teamed with Penske Racing's IndyCar Series drivers Ryan Briscoe and Helio Castroneves to take third place 6 laps behind Ganassi.
Welcome to the 2007 NASCAR FanHouse Year in Review. Follow along each day until the end of 2007 as we look back on the top 25 drivers of the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series for the 2007 season. Heck, bookmark us if you have to! Today, we review the season of 20th-place Juan Pablo Montoya.
Driver: Juan Pablo Montoya -- Bogota, Columbia Team: No. 42 Texaco-Havoline Dodge Points: 20th (-3236) 2006: Left Formula 1's McLaren-Mercedes in July '06, Rookie in Cup for 2007 Key Stats: 1 win, 3 Top-5s, 6 Top-10s Back in 2008?: Yes
For the first time, it seems, NASCAR finally has an international driver -- with Formula One experience nonetheless -- as a heady competitor in its premier Cup Series.
Juan Pablo definitely showed he had the talent in 2007 to race in NASCAR, and he also showed he had the gusto to make it in the business. Numerous times on track saw Montoya banging fenders with other drivers and ruffling their feathers, too.
Montoya picked up his first career NASCAR win in the most appropriate of settings in Mexico City with the Busch Series. Controversy was present in victory lane, though, after Montoya dumped Ganassi Racing teammate Scott Pruett with less than ten laps to go for the lead.
It's definitely been a while since we've rolled out the power rankings at the 'House because of the revolving door at No. 1 between Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon.
Let's face it, down the stretch, that's all we could do!
Anyways, seeing as today is Thanksgiving and all, it's only right to tell the world what the NASCAR FanHouse is thankful for. Agree? Disagree? Leave us some love on what your take is on what we should be thankful for in the NASCAR world, and don't forget to pass the turkey.
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.
1) Fighting Without a Fine - Kevin Harvick and Juan Pablo Montoya got into a bit of a skirmish at Watkins Glen in August that involved some pushing and shoving. Harvick said he wanted to kick Montoya's ass, and Montoya didn't think he was to blame. Regardless, NASCAR actually enjoyed the fracas, with Cup Series director John Darby being quoted later as saying he thought the whole incident was "cool as hell".
Baby steps, right?
2) FOX Sports - If you've ever set foot in the FanHouse before, you know that we aren't the biggest fans of ESPN on ABC. With that, we are extremely thankful for the entire NASCAR cast of FOX Sports including Mike Joy, Darrell Waltrip, Larry McReynolds, Steve Byrnes, Dick Berggren, and Matt Yocum.
Complain about DW all you want, but you know deep inside that he his infinitely better than Rusty Wallace. Thank you for being rockin' awesome with NASCAR, FOX!
Juan Pablo Montoya's open-wheel-killing first NASCAR Nextel Cup Season has earned the former Colombian Formula One star a title held by many of the sport's greats in the past.
Rookie of the Year.
Montoya's rookie campaign brought his No. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing Dodge his first career win at Infineon Raceway in June his first Top-5 at Atlanta in March. His final stat tally included 3 Top-5's, 6 Top-10's, and race winnings of over $4.8 million.
Most importantly, though, was the fact that Montoya was able to keep the No. 42 within the top 35 positions of the point standings, guaranteeing a spot in each race. Sure, he started the season with points accumulated from Casey Mears in 2006, but after five races, that guarantee is out the window.
Juan Pablo finished in the season standings a respectable 20th.
The season definitely didn't come without any excitement for Juan Pablo. Most noticeably, Juan sent a message to the NASCAR world that he wasn't about to back down simply because he was the new guy in town after wrecking Tony Stewart at Texas in April. That flared up again at Watkins Glen with Kevin Harvick.
Without a doubt, Montoya has also kicked the door open into NASCAR for guys like Patrick Carpentier, Sam Hornish Jr., and Jacques Villeneuve -- with many more to come.
Love him or hate him, I say, it's fun having a guy like Montoya around in the Cup series.
"The only pit road issues that we had [at Richmond] was from ol' Juan Pablo Montoya. It seems that Juan is becoming a regular subject on this blog and along pit road as other teams deal with his pit road recklessness.
"On the third stop of the day Juan tried to drive over our pit crew "brushing" our jackman, me and my front carrier ... having that crazy Columbian [sic] drive the side of his 3,500 lb race car down the back of your ass at 45 miles per hour gets a little distracting when you are trying to earn a living changing tires."
Is JPM competing with Kurt Busch for the title of "Pit Road Kill King," or what?
As of a western swing through Fontana, Calif. and Las Vegas, Nev. wasn't enough, the NASCAR 
After nearly 50 haulers passed through the Las Vegas Strip on Thursday afternoon, the Sprint Cup teams got off to a fresh start at Las Vegas Motor Speedway Friday.
Juan Pablo Montoya
Winter has officially ended in the racing world.
It's definitely been a while since we've rolled out the power rankings at the 'House because of the revolving door at No. 1 between Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon. 
Juan Pablo Montoya's open-wheel-killing first NASCAR Nextel Cup Season has earned the former Colombian Formula One star a title held by many of the sport's greats in the past.
Seems the track is not the only place that Nextel Cup rookie Juan Pablo Montoya is aggressive ... 
