Juan Pablo Montoya

Juan Pablo Montoya Roldán (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈxwam ˈpaβlo monˈtoʝa rolˈdan]), is a Colombian racing driver who has competed in Formula One, Indy cars, NASCAR and sports car racing events. He won the Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART) Drivers' Championship in 1999; the Indianapolis 500 in 2000 and 2015; the 24 Hours of Daytona in 2007, 2008 and 2013 and the IMSA SportsCar Championship in 2019. Montoya began karting at the age of five, progressing to car racing in Colombia and Mexico at age 17, finishing runner-up in the Copa Formula Renault and winning the Nationale Tournement Swift GTI Championship. He also competed in the Barber Saab Pro Series, the Formula Vauxhall Lotus Championship and the British Formula 3 Championship. In 1997 and 1998, Montoya raced in the International Formula 3000 for RSM Marko and then Super Nova Racing, winning seven races and the 1998 Drivers' Championship. He debuted in CART in 1999 with Chip Ganassi Racing (CGR), winning the series championship as a rookie in 1999. During the 2000 CART season, Montoya's car suffered from unreliability, but still won three races for ninth in the Drivers' Championship. That year also saw him win the Indianapolis 500 (in the rival Indy Racing League (IRL)) in his first attempt. He first drove in Formula One (F1) with the Williams team in the 2001 season and won his first race in that year's Italian Grand Prix. Montoya qualified on pole position seven times in the 2002 championship and won two races in the 2003 season that put him third in the World Drivers' Championship in both years. He fell to fifth in the 2004 World Drivers' Championship but won the season-ending Brazilian Grand Prix. At the start of the 2005 season, Montoya moved to McLaren and finished fourth with three victories. Montoya left F1 in the 2006 season, after that year's United States Grand Prix and began competing in NASCAR for CGR in late 2006. During his seven-year NASCAR career, Montoya won the 2007 Telcel-Motorola Mexico 200, the 2007 Toyota/Save Mart 350 and the 2010 Heluva Good! Sour Cream Dips at the Glen. He qualified for the Chase for the Sprint Cup in 2009 and finished a career-high eighth in that season's points standings. Montoya would later make one-off NASCAR appearances, twice in 2014 for Team Penske and once in 2024 for 23XI Racing. For the 2014 season, Montoya moved to the IndyCar Series with Team Penske, winning once. In 2015 he won two races (including the Indianapolis 500) and finished second in the championship to Scott Dixon. His final series victory came in 2016. He made his IMSA debut for Penske at the 2017 Petit Le Mans, competing full-time from 2018 to 2020. Paired with Dane Cameron, Montoya won the IMSA championship in the Prototype class in 2019. Montoya has also won the 6 Hours of Bogotá three times as well as the individual event of the Race of Champions in 2017.