(By Reid Spencer NASCAR Wire Service)
Posted: Sunday,July 31st, 2011
INDIANAPOLIS—Last May at Darlington, as Jimmie Johnson was taking a shower in his motor home, in walked Juan Pablo Montoya, who apparently couldn’t wait to apologize for spinning Johnson’s No. 48 Chevrolet during the Showtime Southern 500.
“He walked into my bus—into my shower—to apologize,” Johnson said Friday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. “Then he told me I’m naked. Of course I am—I’m in the shower.”
In a more serious vein, Johnson noted that Montoya hasn’t apologized for spinning him July 17 at New Hampshire. By Johnson’s count, that’s the third time Montoya has disrupted one of his races this year—and in Johnson’s opinion, it’s time for Montoya to cease and desist.
Jimmie Johnson drives the #48 Lowe's/Kobalt Tools Chevrolet through the garage area during practice for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on July 30, 2011 in Indianapolis, Indiana. (Photo by Jerry Markland/Getty Images for NASCAR)
“(I’m) definitely upset,” Johnson said. “What it really boils down to … I don’t feel at least two of the three things that happened are intentional. They were racing instances. But there’s a point where you’ve got to respect the people you’re racing around and also respect a driver that you may have had some run-ins with.
“Juan and I have a friendship; we get along great. After three times of me getting turned around, hearing apologies, I’m tired of hearing apologies. I don’t want the contact. I don’t want to be raced that way. We can do it for different parts of the race, but towards the end of an event, I find myself spun around. I’ve certainly had my fair share.
“It certainly can’t happen again.”
Predictably, Montoya had a different perspective. He said he apologized to Chad Knaus at New Hampshire.
“I apologized to the crew chief at the end of the race,” Montoya said. “I actually said I thought I gave him enough room. If I see Jimmie, I’ll say something.
“If you really look at it, he had plenty of racetrack at the bottom, so do I apologize? No. I think the other time that I hit him, he actually ran (me) into the wall, and I decided not to hit the wall and hit him. It all depends on how you see it. His point of view and my point of view are very different.”
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