Juan Pablo Montoya was close to becoming the first racer in history to win at Indy in both an open wheel and stock car Sunday.
In fact he led the most laps and looked unbeatable. That is until lap 126 when Montoya came in for a green flag pit stop. As he exited the pits, NASCAR nailed him for speeding and forced him to serve a pass through penalty. 
A caution flag shortly after gave some hope to Montoya, who didn’t lose a lap but was mired now back in 13th. It wasn’t to be however at a track were passing is at a minimum and he was only able to finish 11th. Montoya seemed to take all in stride after it was over. “It sucks,’ he said forcing a smile, “But it is was it is.” NASCAR director of competition echoed Robin Pemberton echoed those comments somewhat saying in effect that it was what it was and NASCAR caught him speeding and that was that.
The debate will no doubt rage for weeks though. Montoya’s penalty changed the entire complexion of the race and Jimmie Johnson was the eventual winner. Some will argue that the evil NASCAR monster stole the race from Montoya. But keep in mind that the speed traps NASCAR uses to measure speed on pit road are controlled electronically.
So was NASCAR right? Should pit road penalties have some wiggle room? Or should they just be administered fairly across the board no matter who the driver, no matter what the circumstance?
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Comments
key woord is ..who ..if that was jj or jeff Gordon .06 or .11 would of been a pass ..they were looking...is that simple..
Another nascar decission to get one of thier poster boys a win. He was robbed, plain and simple. Nascrap should be ashamed!
If he had a 5-6 second lead coming into the pit, it makes absolutely NO sense to push the window on speed. If he says the light was green, I have to think it was green. Seeems to me it puts Montoya right up there with Long and Mayfield as someone else that gets screwed by NASCRAP. Bruton Smith, when will you please start a "league of your own?"
I see no favoritism; the penalty is all on Juan Pablo Montoya here.
SPEEDING PENALTIES as of 6-11-09
Reed Sorenson ... 4 penalties
Kyle Busch ... 4 penalties
John Andretti ... 4 penalties
Sam Hornish Jr. ... 3 penalties
Kevin Harvick ... 3 penalties
Bobby Labonte ... 3 penalties
Aric Almirola ... 2 penalties
David Reutimann ... 2 penalties
David Stremme ... 2 penalties
Jamie McMurray ... 2 penalties
Scott Speed ... 2 penalties
Joe Nemechek ... 2 penalties
Jimmie Johnson ... 2 penalties
Brian Vickers ... 2 penalties
Greg Biffle ... 2 penalties
Ryan Newman ... 2 penalties
Source Doug Long, Virginian-Pilot
i timed Jr years ago when he pitted. You measure "wheel stop" to "wheel spin" and that time is 2 to 3 seconds longer than other cars and he still has fastest time on pit road? Only one way to do that. I always stated, It isnt who NASCAR penalizes speeding....ITS WHO THEY DONT!
In a word....NO........I think NA$CAR should just continue to penalize Carl Long, & Robby Gordon. If they pound on these guys long enough, & hard enough. The rest of them will get the message. With Jeremy added to the list, in the unlikely event that he ever comes back.
Yes they are "controlled electronically". So is this thing I'm sending this on, is it really that hard to alter or change an input from a "selected" sensor's sending?
NASCAR is trying thier best to get Mark Martin
a champship so they penalized the only car beating him. They just forgot about wonderboy
JJ and his cheating chew chief.
They keep saying it's all electronic so it must be right - but if that's the case, then how come Nascar apologized for giving Montoya a speeding penalty at Phoenix that turned out to be an error???
Greg are you mad because Rutlegde got a job and you didn't?
Does being a nascar suck up make you feel good? hahaha
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