Rookie Montoya Wins At Infineon Raceway
Sunday June 24, 2007
Today's Toyota / Save Mart 350 was all about fuel mileage and pit strategy. Juan Pablo Montoya's crew chief Donnie Wingo made all the right decisions from the top of the pit box. Montoya had just enough gas to make it to the checkered flag and pick up the first win of his NEXTEL Cup career.
Montoya didn't make many friends during the race as it looked like he bashed his way to the front. It seemed like every time TNT showed the #42 Montoya was using his bumper to shove somebody out of the way. Montoya is obviously talented but his aggressive nature will not make him popular in the garage.
Photo by Jonathan Ferrey/Getty Images
Comments
GO BACK TO COLOMBIA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It was a good race today and Jeff Gordon did good having to go from the back. I will take 7th. I am not a fan of Montoys’s but glad for his first win. I am mostly glad no one got hurt. Like I said it was a good race today.
Montoya drove one heck of a race and Nascar is reaching more fans because of it ! Its not just a southern sport anymore .Other drivers where beating and banging on each other also so Montoya was pushing as well .Juan Pablo has great skills even fans that dont care for him will have to admit that !
Hey — as I said last week I had to work today although I did see the final 6 laps. I thought I heard someone say that Hendrick cars didnt pass inspection! Is this true. What was the penalty (or will we find out Tuesday?) Because I thought Gordon got 7th. Someone please explain. Thank you everyone
9 fan-/they got thru on Friday evening and was on the track yesterday. Both had to start from 40 and 41. Jeff made it to 7 at the end. It was a great race I loved it. So on Tues we find out what happens.
Thank You LEANNA! Do you know what exactly was wrong, and was it ALL 4 Hendrick cars?
Steve, where do you think Kyle Busch will end up? Why? Do you think a JR/Kyle flip-flop is in the makings here? (Jr to #5 — Kyle to #8)
Just the 24 and 48 cars were involved in the illegal front fender modifications. Not the other 2 HMS cars. Chads idea and Steve just went with it. More details this week believe me.
9 fan, i believe it was modifications to the front fenders, & I think it was 24 & 48 only. I know your 2nd question was to Steve, but who knows what’s going to happen with Kyle, & also with the numbers they might drive under. I’m sure Jr. wants his # 8, & also sure DEI wants a lot of $$ for it, & there are many teams interested in Kyle, so in my opinion, everything is still up in the air. At least I haven’t heard any new announcements.
Although I think it would be fun to drive in a road race, it sure is boring to watch. Yesterday I had to decide watch the race or do something else just as interesting, so I decided go to the mall, and watch people. Nascar road racing and the race at Pocono some of the boringness races nascar has. Love Nascar but, No matter how much I tried, just don’t like those road races or Pocono. Oh, by the way I don’t want to hear the cr-p about a real fan. That and the conspiracy theories stuff is the most ridiculous things on here. I’m waiting and seeing when the first person going to say it’s a conspiracy because Montoya won.
Road racing is only fun to watch if you have done so yourself. Then you want to disect the passes,the corners and the strategy. Until you have been on track professionally or just for fun, you can’t appreciate what it takes to drive fast. But what an addiction once you have…..
Rich, you give good reasons why road racin’ is boring for an observer. When I’m watching them twist and turn, I’m just aggravated. Can’t see more than a few cars at a time. For about 17 laps, TNT stayed primarily on JPM and JM. It was nuttin’ but aggravation.
So you can appreciate the technique and feel of being in the drivers’ place, but for a mere watching mortal, it sucked.
As for JPM winning. Not a surprise since he got so much PR for winning in Mexico and being a former Indy racer. I was really pulling for Robby Gordon. I admire that guy.
At least Kasey’s finish hoisted his point position a wee bit.
I did not get to watch until the last but when I did got to watch it I still didn’t watch much of it because every 4-5 minutes they would break away for commercials. Did they do this the first part too?
Would love to see a endurance race in the Cup Series. Say a 12 hour race at Sebring or the long course at Watkins Glenn with (1) cup driver,(1) Bush driver & (1) ARCA driver. Would be very interesting.
I have no problem with Montoya winning. He is a good driver and with enough banging and pushing he got to the front. However I would like to request that the next time he wins (a roadcourse cause we all no he cant win running in circles) could we get an interpretor!! I have no idea what he said and I think no one else did either cause once he rattled off a few sentences they threw it back to the booth…
I also would like to remind Juan Pablo he might want to thank his crew and crew chief as they are a big part of why he was sitting in victory lane!!
How about what drivers failed to do of what they use to do, and most important. THANK THE FANS. All the drivers do now days is thanking their sponsors everybody except the fans. True without sponsors they would not get millions $$$. Then again without fans watching and have to put up 10 minutes of commercials for every 5 minutes of racing they should thank us once in a while.
I think it stinks that Montoya keeps getting away with always spinning someone out or his aggressive driving!!! if that were anyone else they would be black flagged or penilized somehow. How does he keep getting away with it? Can’t stand the guy!!!!!!! Jeff and Jimmy were the only two who didn’t pass inspection.
Yeah, sponsors and NASCAR — like buying a bag of chips and realizing there was more air in the bag than chips after you open it. LOL
Too many commercials for sure.
Im glad to see Im not the only one sick of the commercials.If there has to be one every 2 laps,it would be nice if they could come up with some new ones.
#19 I like that discription, I think someone should grab that and pay you royalities. WAY TO GO !!!!!!!
#21 if #19 tried to sell that discription someone would sue, I’ve heard that through out the years. Sorry neat saying but not new.
Great Race Mr.Juan Montoya…..Im sure it is just 1 of many to come….The Good old boys down south are going crazy…..
9 fan, it was the fenders of both cars 24 and 48 that had been modified between the tablet that Nascar puts on. It was a grey area before but no more according to Nascar.
I made up that description, I swear.
My thoughts are copyright protected.
Let ‘em sue! LOL
gotta give the 42 team credit, they pretty much just went for it and stretched their fuel to the end, kinda feel bad for kevin, so much for that info on the 42 & 26 not being able to make it to the end. gotta wonder how much he laid back and would he bave caught and passed montoya had he drove a little harder.
well, at least half the info was correct i guess, jamie ran out of fuel. oh and hey robbie, lighten up a bit, part of racing is pit and fuel strategy, i’ve gotten used to it, you should too, you’re a part of it! if they had 100 gallon fuel cells, you would have probably blown a motor anyway, but hey, good race anyway.
THANK YOU very much LEANNA, JASON and everyone else who helped fill me in on the race. Sunday was just a crazy busy day and I didnt even think of nascar.com. I did read some things in the paper on Monday. I did get most information from you all. THANKS AGAIN
I wonder why NASCAR doesn’t consider using the split screen during commercials like indy car does, at least we wouldn’t miss out on the action during commercials.
using a split screen at Talladega & Daytona would be cool, considering the possibility of the big one happening at any time. I don’t know how many times they’ve gone to a commercial and have to cut back to the wreck after the fact.
TNT is hinting at something like this for the Pepsi 400 broadcast from Daytona. No details are available yet as to what or how they will implement.
ABC did the split-screen thing for the Indy 500 this year. Maybe there is hope for NASCAR!
Thanks 9 fan. You are very welcome. Today was more info but Nascar is not thinking I guess. So far not any driver agrees with Nascar. They all say if it fits then don’t worry about the rest of it.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
GO BACK TO COLUMBIA!!! u took out like 5 cars u shouldent b racing in NASCAR!!
GO BACK 2 COLUMBIA!!!!! u took out like what 5 cars!!! u shouldent b in NASCAR!!!
Man, the former F1 driver wins the race with #42 Havoline. I’m suprised of it.
You wrote “TNT showed the #42 Montoya was using his bumper to shove somebody out of the way” – does that sound like someone else we all knew and loved in a black car years ago?
Sandy Pierce,comment #37 is absolutely correct. Everybody thought it was great when 3 did that, and no one pitched a fit when Jr. plowed into Kasey Kahne several times. It’s ok when it’s a fan of theirs, but not ok when a rookie does it. Blind allegience to the big names is the bottom line here. No sense of fair blame at all.
ALL I HAVE TO SAY TO MONTOYA IS ‘ILLEGITIMENTI NON CARBORUNDUM” LATIN FOR “DON’T LET THE B=====DS GRIND YOU DOWN” THAT SHULD BE YOUR MOTO. FANGIE