Turn 2

"A guy like that who has never run here doesn't understand the give and take as much, and wants to prove he can race here."
-Juan Pablo Montoya, on Cup rookie Marcus Ambrose, after Ambrose hit him on the Infineon road course Sunday.

"I'm the guy that caused the wreck, but get over it."
-Juan Pablo Montoya, Cup rookie, after smacking David Gilliland in the 2007 All-Star race.

Same guy, with a year's experience between the two quotes.

This is also the driver who said, more than once last year, "I'm paid to win," implying that he'd do whatever it took to accomplish that.

Montoya was involved in more than his share of on-track incidents in 2007, including the well-known slap-flight with Kevin Harvick at Watkins Glen, in which the two drivers got out of their cars and poked each other. (You may recall, Tony Stewart was unimpressed; he said, "If you're not gonna take 'em off [helmet and HANS device], then don't waste everyone's time.")

He was known for aggressive driving in open-wheel racing, although contact isn't as common in that world, and seemed to bring the attitude to stock car racing in his rookie year. He even spun a teammate--in an incident that seemed entirely avoidable--in his effort to win the Busch series race in Mexico City.

But now, in his second year, he's lecturing others when they hit him.

Kind of funny, really. He's getting a taste of what other drivers meant last year, when they said things like, "The guy has run over somebody pretty much every week" (that was Harvick), and "I don't know what he's thinking." (Scott Pruett)

Then again, this year, Montoya's been on the receving end of a hit that resulted in his car catching fire. Maybe that's changed his perspective a bit.

But whatever the reason, Montoya doesn't deserve any slack when he complains about being roughed up on the track this year, because he spent most of last year defending his own actions.

What goes around really does come around, at least in stock car racing.