Racing legend's first NASCAR Cup Series race in 10 years to come at Watkins Glen

Juan Pablo Montoya's first NASCAR Cup Series race in a decade will come at Watkins Glen International, where the native of Bogota, Colombia, secured one of his two career wins in stock-car racing's top series.

Montoya, 48, will drive the No. 50 Toyota for 23XI Racing, the team co-owned by NBA legend Michael Jordan and Cup veteran Denny Hamlin. It will be the third race this season celebrating the 50-year anniversary of sponsor Mobil 1. Kamui Kobayashi drove the car at Circuit of Americas in March and Corey Heim drove at Nashville Superspeedway in June.

The Go Bowling at The Glen on Sept. 15 will mark Watkins Glen's first appearance in the Cup Series playoffs and Montoya's first Cup start since the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in July of 214. He won at Watkins Glen in 2010, with his other Cup triumph over 255 starts at Sonoma (California) in 2007.

"If I didn’t think I could be competitive, I would not do it," Montoya said Wednesday during an online media session. "I’m too much of a racer and too hard-headed. I want to win. For me, I can’t go into a race thinking if we finish 15th I’ll be happy. Hell no. I want to do well and I’m going to drive the wheels out of the car to do whatever it takes to get a good result.

"Are we going to win? I don’t know. To get wins even when you are really good when I was doing it full time things needed to line up. It’s not easy, but we’ve got to be competitive and we’ve got to give ourselves a shot out of it."

Montoya has been among racing's most versatile racers. He won seven Formula One events, 10 Champ Car races, and was a five-time victor in the IndyCar Series.

In seven Cup races at Watkins Glen, he has three top-five finishes. He most recently competed at the road course in 2022 in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship's Sahlen's Six Hours of The Glen.

Montoya spends much of his time now helping his son, 19-year-old Sebastián Montoya, who is competing in the FIA Formula 3 Championship series.

More: Nasr's bold pass leads to Sahlen's Six Hours of The Glen win for Penske Motorsport pairing

Question: Why are you doing this?

Answer: That’s a good question. Steve Lauletta (president of 23IX Racing) called me and said, hey, would you be interested in doing Watkins and I thought, oh, that would be fun. It was pretty much that. I thought it would be pretty cool.

I always enjoyed running at The Glen. We always run well there in Cup and since then I’ve been to The Glen many times with IMSA and with IndyCar. I know the track well and I thought it would be an important thing to do. I’m at the point in my career where I’m not looking for a job, I’m not looking for anything. But an opportunity like this comes along and I think I can still be really competitive and have a shot at it, so why not?

Q: Did you think you'd be back in a Cup car racing?

A: No. The end of last year was my full-time, full-season racing in ELMS (European Le Mans Series) with a P2 car with the prototypes. But I’m pretty much done, to be honest. I’m happy not to race anything else again. I was comfortable. The thing is people forget why I raced. I raced because I love racing. I just have always had passion for racing, I always wanted to do well and I love racing. So why not?

Q: How does Watkins Glen compare to other tracks?

A: In the Cup car my experience was always Watkins was the best track out of the road courses. Because it had the highest grip and it was the fastest track. I always found that for me personally, going to Sonoma, it was very hard to make a difference because it was so slow that anybody could do it. You were so limited by grip. I think the hardest thing I need to work on is reset my mind that you can use the whole track. There’s talk they might change Turn 1 in the exit a little bit so people don’t run so wide. I think it would be a good thing personally speaking. You see the way they exit the carousel now, they use all that runoff.

I feel that we’re in a really good place going into the race. Of course, I think the format is going to be very difficult, with very little running, but we’ll see. We might unload and I go, oh, this is good. … Even when I raced Cup, I never qualified that well there, so I’m not too worried about it. I think I can pass, I’m a good racer. And honestly, if the car’s competitive there’s no reason (not) to have a really good weekend.

Q: What role did the Next Gen car play in your decision to race again at Watkins Glen?

A: If you look at it from a racing perspective, I always said that Formula One had the best car and then NASCAR and IndyCar was the middle. Vice versa, for me the best racing was in NASCAR. IndyCar has great racing as well and Formula One probably has the least amount of racing out of the three series wheel-to-wheel and everything.

My time in NASCAR, I really enjoyed it. I had a lot of fun. We had our ups and downs with the team, but the racing for me was a lot of fun. Honestly, I have no pressure whatsoever. The biggest thing for me is the opportunity to race the Mobil One car there is huge. People don’t know this, but my first sponsor in Colombia when I was still in karting was Mobil One. My first open-wheel car in Colombia was sponsored by Mobil One. They were a big part of my early career, so I thought it was a good way of saying thank you in a way. To be part of the drivers that can make the history of everything Mobil One has done for the sport I think is really cool.

Follow Andrew Legare on Twitter: @SGAndrewLegare. You can also reach him at alegare@gannett.com. To get unlimited access to the latest news, please subscribe or activate your digital account today

This article originally appeared on Elmira Star-Gazette: Juan Pablo Montoya set for Cup Series return at Watkins Glen