Juan Pablo Montoya, Team Penske
The cast: Race engineer – Brian Campe. Race strategist – Jon Bouslog. Chief mechanic – Vance Welker.
Twitter: @jpmontoya, @Team_Penske
The car: No. 2 Verizon/PPG/Hawk Performance Chevrolet
The driver: Turned 40 on Sept. 20. … From Bogota, Colombia, and resides in Miami. … Completed second season with Team Penske. … On Dec. 5, he and his wife Connie will host the annual karting event in Bogota that he’ll compete in and will feature other Verizon IndyCar Series drivers. Proceeds from the event are directed to the Formula Smiles Foundation, which they started in 2003. It focuses on the education through sports for youngsters 6-17 living in vulnerable areas of Colombia as a comprehensive activity to reduce social and gender inequality.
Season finish: Placed second in Verizon IndyCar Series standings (losing out on championship to Scott Dixon on first tiebreaker – three victories to two) after placing fourth in 2014.
Video: Juan Pablo Montoya reviews his season
Season stats: Montoya won the season-opening Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg and was atop the standings through 15 rounds. He also won the Indianapolis 500 Mile Race for the second time and added podium finishes at Long Beach, Angie’s List Grand Prix of Indianapolis and Pocono Raceway (from the 19th starting position). … Finished in the top 10 in 13 of the 16 races. … Led eight races for total of 145 laps, and was running at the finish in 15 races (contact early at Iowa Speedway, season-low 24th-place finish).
Year over year: 2015 best qualifying of second at Long Beach (6.4 average), best finish of first in Indianapolis 500 and St. Petersburg (6.9 average). Note: Started on pole at New Orleans and Belle Isle-2 based on entrant points after qualifying was rained out. 2014 best qualifying first at Pocono Raceway (10.7 average), best finish of first at Pocono Raceway (9.7 average) in 18 races.
The gist: Montoya has competed in 75 Indy car races. He was the 1999 series champion and won the Indianapolis 500 in 2000. … He competed in Formula One and NASCAR until returning to Indy car racing in 2014. … On Dec. 9, his bas relief image on the Borg-Warner Trophy for winning the Indianapolis 500 will be unveiled. In mid-January, he and team owner Roger Penske will receive their Baby Borgs (16-inch replicas of the famous trophy).
The chart (below): Looking at how Montoya finished relative to his qualifying position:
