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IndyCar: Will Juan Pablo Montoya land an Indianapolis 500 ride?

ByAsher Fair|
INDIANAPOLIS, IN - MAY 23: Juan Pablo Montoya of Columbia, driver of the #2 Team Penske Chevrolet Dallara, races ahead of teammate Will Power of Australia, driver of the #1 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet Dallara, on his way toward winning the 99th running of the Indianapolis 500 at Indianapolis Motorspeedway on May 23, 2015 in Indianapolis, Indiana. (Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images)
INDIANAPOLIS, IN - MAY 23: Juan Pablo Montoya of Columbia, driver of the #2 Team Penske Chevrolet Dallara, races ahead of teammate Will Power of Australia, driver of the #1 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet Dallara, on his way toward winning the 99th running of the Indianapolis 500 at Indianapolis Motorspeedway on May 23, 2015 in Indianapolis, Indiana. (Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images)

With Schmidt Peterson Motorsports ruling it out, will Juan Pablo Montoya end up landing a ride in the 2018 Indianapolis 500?

Juan Pablo Montoya has made five starts in IndyCar‘s signature race, the Indianapolis 500. Four of those five starts have come in the last four seasons dating back to 2014. Will the 42-year-old Colombian make his sixth career attempt in the race in the 102nd running of the “Greatest Spectacle in Racing” this year, extending his four-year streak of racing in it?

Right now, nothing is lined up for Montoya as far as an Indianapolis 500 ride goes, but there is definitely still time. There are currently 27 drivers lined up to race in the 102nd running of the event on Sunday, May 27th of this year.

However, will there still be time make an impact on whether or not Montoya lands a ride seeing as how his options have suddenly become extremely limited?

Back in October, Team Penske, the team for which Montoya has driven in the race in each of the last four years, announced that they would be downsizing to a three-car team from a four-car full-time team, which they had been in each of the last three seasons.

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Montoya drove for the team full-time from the 2014 to the 2016 season before being replaced by Josef Newgarden in 2017. However, he still drove in the 2017 Indianapolis 500 for the team as their fifth driver.

According to Team Penske’s October announcement, Helio Castroneves would be the driver losing his full-time ride, but they confirmed that he would still drive for the team in the Indianapolis 500. However, they announced that they would only run four cars in the race, thus leaving Montoya on the outside looking in.

Schmidt Peterson Motorsports ruled out the possibility of Montoya driving for the team in the race earlier this week as well. The team appeared to be his best option since they had a ride open due to the fact that their partnership with convicted murderer Didier Calmels to field 39-year-old Tristan Gommendy fell through.

At this point, the odds of Montoya landing a ride in the race are not great. But that doesn’t mean he shouldn’t get one.

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Juan Pablo Montoya is a two-time winner of the Indianapolis 500, and both of his wins came in his first three attempts. In the other three times he has raced in the event, he has finished twice, as he wrecked in 2016 en route to a 33rd place finish. He finished in 5th place in 2014 and 6th place in 2017. Will he land a ride for the 2018 edition of the race?