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Montoya Powers To IndyCar Victory At St. Petersburg

Juan Pablo Montoya celebrates in victory lane.  [Joe Jennings Photo]

 

St. Petersburg, Fla. – Juan Pablo Montoya started off the 2015 Verizon IndyCar Series season off on a high note as he raced to a compelling victory in the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. The 110-lap race was run on the 14-turn, 1.8-mile street course.

Starting fourth, Montoya kept the leaders in sight for a long spell and made his move some 30 laps from the end. It came during a pit stop when his Verizon Chevrolet put him on trusty black tires while teammate and race dominator Will Power went with red tires. Also, Montoya’s pit stop bettered that of Power, putting the Colombian in the lead for good.

Power, who led 75 laps, made a valiant effort to stay with the fleet Montoya and although he caught up once, he couldn’t make the pass and had to settle for second place.

Montoya scored his 13th IndyCar career win with the most recent win coming at Pocono a year ago. In total, the winner led 27 laps.

For Team Penske, it scored its seventh 1-2 finish and in open wheel racing, the iconic team went to victory lane for the 175th time.

“After the first run, I was kind of stressed and wanted to get some points and head home,” Montoya said. “I didn’t think I had anything for anyone, but after we made a couple of adjustments, I started doing better and had some good restarts. I then took it as it came.”

Montoya let it be known that he was very frustrated with his performance last year. “A year ago if I tried to pass someone, I was concerned about hitting something. Now it is different, I am always looking for the hole in which to pass,” he commented.

“Also over the winter, we did a lot to make the car better, and I was amazed today how quick we were today, especially on the black tires.”

The 13th running of the race through the streets was witnessed by a large, sunbaked crowd that seemed to be dazzled by the action and the ear-splitting noise that caromed off the nearby skyscrapers.

The race marked the first test for the new aerodynamic kits that allowed Chevrolet and Honda to show off different styles of bodywork. Owing to the tight circuit, the bodywork took numerous hard hits and at times, pieces littered the track, triggering caution flags for clean-up.

Power came home second and although frustrated, he accepted the outcome.

“Considering how quick we were, it is frustrating not to be on the top step. You know how these IndyCar races go, they are always mixed up,” Power said. “It is about survival and it almost doesn’t matter where you start – anything can happen, you just have to hang in there.

“For us, it is disappointing for having led so many laps to end up second. At end of day, it came down to tire choice. I put the red tires on and Juan put the blacks on. It was a good battle and we pushed each other. There was one chance, and I went for it. We did rub a little.”

Wedging between the Team Penske book-ends, Tony Kanaan drove smartly to finish third.

Team Penske stalwarts Helio Castroneves and Simon Pagenaud ended up fourth and fifth.

Rounding out the top-10 finishers was Sebastien Bourdais, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Jack Hawksworth, Luca Fillippi and Marco Andretti.

Five caution flags slowed the race for 22 laps with three slowdowns for debris and two were for contact.

 

 

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