'The problem is we were good too late' - Montoya

How did Juan Montoya look after completing his strange new assignment as an Indy-only driver for Roger Penske? Normal. Nothing lost, nothing surrendered to seven months of inactivity after his last full-time drive was recorded in Sonoma.

Qualifying between his replacement Josef Newgarden and Penske's defending series champion Simon Pagenaud at the Speedway, the two-time Indy 500 winner motored from 18th on the grid to sixth at the finish. Within the five-car Team Penske program, JPM rose to second among his teammates at the finish and, prior to the 500, the Colombian was competitive all day on the way to placing 10th at the Grand Prix of Indy.

Adversity struck during his opening stint in the big race; out of fuel after inheriting the lead on Lap 31, the No. 22 Chevy driver plummeted to 26th and spent the rest of the afternoon scrambling to recover lost positions. The fightback was pure JPM.

Teamed with ex-A.J. Foyt Racing engineer Raul Prado for the first time, the Colombian star put in a whale of a drive well outside the spotlight that followed Fernando Alonso, teammate Helio Castroneves, and the other front-runners from start to finish. The broadcast's fixation on leaders might have given the impression Montoya turned in a quiet performance, but for those who know him, there was nothing reserved about his attack on the Speedway.

Altogether, Montoya sent a reminder of the kind of talent that's being wasted on IndyCar's sidelines.

"Honestly, I thought it was really good all month; we were really strong," he told RACER. "At the beginning out of the race, I don't think a lot of people even noticed we ran out of gas. It's kind of sad. At the end, we were pretty close. We were right there. The problem is we were good too late. I felt I was probably as strong as Helio, but being as strong as Helio wouldn't give you anything, would it?

"I finished sixth right there with them; I was the only other Chevy that could keep up with them. But the problem is nobody had anything for the Hondas. It's OK. Some years it's been the other way. A couple of years ago when I won, it was the other way. It goes in cycles."

Second among the Penskes and second among the 15 Chevys in the field, Montoya left Indy feeling mostly satisfied with the No. 22 team's performance.

"The guys that I had did an amazing job for me," he said. "Working with Raul was good, working with [race strategist] Ron [Ruzewski] was good. I don't have anything bad to say about it. I'm not sure what happened in the beginning [with fuel], but apart from that, I was making a lot of fuel; it's crazy how much fuel I was making. If we would have done the change we did on the last stop a little earlier, we would have been much better. I went from running ninth to 12th, to sixth being in contention for a top-three finish."

Montoya has grown accustomed to being the most popular Spanish-speaking driver in the Indy 500 field, but he happily took a backseat to Spanish Formula 1 superstar Fernando Alonso. JPM says his friend's impressive performance should not have come as a surprise, and pointed to the 2.5-mile oval as part of the reason behind Alonso's instant pace.

"I wouldn't expect anything less from Fernando," he added. "I think the people that expected less don't really know the level of how good a driver Fernando really is. I think if it was a different oval, it would have been a lot harder. I think Indy is the most 'road race' oval of all. It's 90-degree corners, it's single line; you don't need to run a high line. As an oval, if you come from road racing, I think Indy is the most comfortable oval of all."

Asked if he missed the full-time IndyCar lifestyle, the 1999 CART IndyCar champion hinted at a future that will should see his active return to racing, albeit in sports car with the Team Penske-Honda Daytona Prototype international program.

"I think people kind of miss having me around, [and] that is good," he said. "I'm really comfortable where we're going with Penske. I'm really happy. We gotta be a little patient to see when all the cards play out for the next few years, and when that happens, it will make more sense to everybody."

Catch the full Montoya interview with his thoughts on the intense racing at Indy and some of those who were more reckless than he felt was appropriate: