Catching Up With: Juan Pablo Montoya

Juan Pablo Montoya is brimming with happiness over the racing season he’s orchestrated with three teams spanning the NTT IndyCar Series, FIA World Endurance Championship, and IMSA’s WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.

The peerless Colombian has assembled a calendar that rivals his busiest days in the sport which, at 45 years old, is rather remarkable. After three decades of non-stop racing, most would understand if Montoya wanted to downshift and ease into semi-retirement. But that’s not how the IndyCar and IMSA champion, and two-time Indy 500 winner is wired.

“If you think about it, I'm running the [Rolex] 24, I'm going Daytona, I'm going to Sebring, I'm going to Petit Le Mars,” he said. “I'm doing Indy 500 in the U.S. Anything else you want to do here? It's very unlikely. I'm going to Bahrain, I'm going to Fuji, I'm going to Spa, I'm going to Monza and I'm going to Le Mans. Anything else you want? I mean, if you could go to a driver [and ask], ‘Where do you want to drive?’ "Oh, I want to go to Sebring. I want to go to Bahrain. It's Monza, Le Mans, Daytona, Indy – I'm doing everything.”

Montoya’s globetrotting year involves racing for DragonSpeed in the WEC’s LMP2 class, doing the longest IMSA races in a Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-05 DPi, and the Indy 500 with Arrow McLaren SP.

MSR’s black and pink prototype has tickled something within the former Acura Team Penske driver that came as a surprise.

Montoya/Cameron/Pla/Allmendinger MSR Acura at the Roar Before The 24. Image by Galstad / Motorsport Images

“Honestly, it was a really easy done deal with Mike [Shank],” he added. “It was really easy to deal with him. And it will be fun. I get to wear pinkish boots, so I'm pretty excited about that. I'm serious. Not going to lie to you. The first thing I did it was order some off-pink or whatever – like a car, the color. Hot pink boots. Hot pink boots with my logo on it, I thought was pretty cool.”

Along with more insights on being reunited with ATP teammate Dane Cameron at MSR, Montoya dives into the growing bond shared with DragonSpeed owner Elton Julian, and the uncompromising approach he’s bringing to AMSP in the quest to become a three-time Indy winner, in the full episode of Catching Up With below:

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