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Montoya Wins Sonoma

SONOMA, Calif. (AP) — Juan Pablo Montoya might be a NASCAR rookie, but he is a road-course master.

Not known for his patience, the Colombian driver showed plenty of it Sunday. He used his well-honed road-racing skill to save his tires, stretch his fuel to the limit, and win the Toyota/Save Mart 350 for his first NASCAR Nextel Cup victory.

Team owner Chip Ganassi, who lured Montoya back to America from Formula One, was as impressed as anyone by the win and the way Montoya did it.

“One of the nice things, working with him again, is he’s matured in a way as a race driver that you could not write in a movie,” said Ganassi, for whom Montoya won the 1999 CART championship and the 2000 Indianapolis 500.

“He’s a lot calmer, if you can imagine that. He actually came on the radio today and said, ‘It’s a little too early to race these guys.’ I was looking at (crew chief Donnie) Wingo and he was looking at me. Juan’s a changed man, all in a positive way.”

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Montoya, who qualified a disappointing 32nd in the 43-car field, was the first driver to win on the Northern California road circuit starting further back than 13th.

Montoya, who jumped from Formula One to the stock car circuit late last season, got his first Cup win in his 17th start and gave Ganassi his first win in NASCAR’s top series since Jamie McMurray won in October 2002.

“It’s huge,” Montoya said. “I would say right now it’s the biggest thing I’ve done. In open-wheel, that’s what I was meant to be winning in. In stock cars, I wasn’t.

“To get our first win in our first year is huge. We know we’re a little bit behind on some of the ovals, but I think this is a big boost for everybody working in the shop.”

Series points leader Jeff Gordon overcame a 41st-place start to finish just behind Greg Biffle and Tony Stewart in seventh with a strategic effort in the first road race for NASCAR’s new Car of Tomorrow.

Gordon, who became a father for the first time Wednesday when his daughter, Ella Sofia, was born, and Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jimmie Johnson, the reigning Cup champion, were both banned from practice and qualifying on Friday and had to start from the rear of the field after NASCAR inspectors found their cars had illegally modified front fenders.

Both drivers and their crew chiefs face more penalties from NASCAR in the next few days, but they ran hard to overcome their handicapped start Sunday. Johnson’s fuel strategy didn’t work as well as Gordon’s and, after getting into the top 10 for a while, he finished 17th.

Montoya, whose only other NASCAR victory came earlier this year in a Busch Series race on the road course in Mexico City, passed McMurray, who now drives for Roush Fenway Racing, eight laps from the end. He easily stayed in front of runner-up Kevin Harvick in the 110-lap event on the 1.99-mile, 12-turn course.

“I was very surprised by the level of the drivers here on the road course,” Montoya said. “In Mexico, we had a really good car and the top five cars were really strong. But, behind that, it was really easy.”

Montoya was running third, trailing leader McMurray and Harvick and desperately conserving fuel with 18 laps to go. But he passed Harvick on lap 92 and began to track down McMurray.

“The top 20 was really like, phew. You had to work for your money,” he said. “What really paid off at the end was I was just running behind Kevin, saving the tires and trying to keep up with him. I did that for 10, 15 laps and I started pushing, I started making up ground on them and that’s when everything fell into place.”

The winner got past McMurray for a moment on lap 102, driving his Dodge past McMurray’s Ford in the slow hairpin near the end of the circuit. But Montoya got too wide and McMurray was able to squeeze by.

The pass that counted came in turn two on lap 104, with Montoya getting under McMurray’s car and passing easily. This time, he stayed out front.

“I saw he was always hugging that corner and I thought, ‘This is it.’ I knew I could pass him there,” Montoya said.

Wingo said his calculations told him Montoya would run out about a lap short of the end.

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“We had to play a little bit of catch-up, so we had to take a gamble there at the end,” Wingo said. “He did a great job on saving fuel, everybody did a good job on the stops, and the motor shop did a great job. Without the fuel mileage we’d have never made it.”

McMurray ran out of gas at the start of lap 109 and finished 37th while Montoya saved enough fuel to run a cool-down lap and do a victory burnout before his fuel light came on.

Harvick inherited second place when McMurray slowed. He was followed across the finish line by his Richard Childress Racing teammates Jeff Burton and Clint Bowyer, who also got great fuel mileage.

Harvick, who appeared to be getting the best mileage of all, thought he might have the race won when McMurray slowed and Montoya was short-shifting to save gas late in the race.

“They came on the radio and told me you’ve got 20 laps to make up one lap of fuel and the two cars in front of you are both three laps short,” Harvick said. “That’s how we played it and (Montoya) didn’t run out of gas.”

Harvick wasn’t surprised that he was chasing Montoya at the end.

“I’ve been a big fan of Montoya’s since he came over,” Harvick said. “He’s a great road racer, but he wasn’t the fastest. The strategy won it for him today.”

Robby Gordon, who started alongside pole-winner McMurray, also was a victim of failed strategy after leading a race-high 48 laps. He finished 16th.

Reed Sorenson spun out on lap 67, bringing out the last of full-course caution flags. While Robby Gordon and several other leaders gambled and stayed on track, opting to pit later under green, Montoya and other contenders made their final stops under the yellow flag on lap 68.

Montoya came out of that stop 12th but moved steadily forward as the drivers ahead of him began to make their gas stops. He was third by lap 78, setting up the dramatic finish.

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Earnhardt, Montoya, Busch, Stewart News

FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — Dale Earnhardt Jr. didn’t seem to mind that Kyle Busch rear-ended him and essentially ruined his chance to win the Samsung 500 on Sunday.

Sitting around the garage after finally giving up on repair efforts, Earnhardt was asked by a friend on Busch’s crew if he would drive Busch’s car. Turns out the crew had Busch’s car ready to go again, but couldn’t find him.

NASCAR rules permit such moves, and Earnhardt agreed. The gesture allowed Busch to finish one spot ahead of Jimmie Johnson in 37th. Earnhardt finished 36th.

Busch earned three points thanks to Earnhardt, although he did drop two spots in the points standings to seventh with 856, 280 behind leader Jeff Gordon.

“I could tell that it was a real nice car before we had the accident. Smooth steering, just smooth,” Earnhardt said.

Busch went immediately to the garage when he slammed into the back of Earnhardt, who had hit the brakes trying to avoid a spinning Tony Stewart in front of him on Lap 253.

Earnhardt made several pit stops in an effort to repair the damage during the subsequent caution, but he surrendered not long after the restart. Earnhardt said he didn’t care about the impact on the points. He dropped seven spots to 18th at 737, a whopping 399 behind Gordon.

Alan Gustafson, Busch’s crew chief, said Busch thought they weren’t planning to go back out and left the track.

“Junior didn’t hesitate and agreed, and it was a very sportsmanlike gesture,” Gustafson said. “It says a lot about Dale and the kind of person he is.”

Earnhardt led 96 laps, second to Gordon’s 173, and appeared to have the best car when the wreck knocked him out.

MONTOYA MASH: Taking out Tony Raines is one thing. Taking out Tony Stewart, Jimmie Johnson and Dale Earnhardt Jr. is something else entirely.

Celebrated NASCAR rookie Juan Pablo Montoya sideswiped Stewart in Sunday’s Samsung 500, starting a chain of events that first sent Johnson to the garage and later indirectly led to Earnhardt being taken out of contention.

The trouble started on Lap 240 when Montoya, criticized for a wreck that hampered Raines’ chances in the last race at Martinsville, slid up the track and into Stewart. Johnson had no choice but to run into Stewart during the resulting skid, badly damaging his front end.

Thirteen laps later, Stewart was desperately trying to stay on the lead lap when he lost control. This Stewart skid took out Earnhardt, who slowed quickly to avoid Stewart and was rear-ended hard by Busch.

Stewart ended up two laps down and finished 25th.

Montoya, the 2000 Indy 500 champion who made the rare switch from Formula One late last season, took eighth for his third top-10 finish in seven races.

“I tried to pass him three or four times, and he never gave me room,” Montoya said. “I went in a little different and got really loose, and I don’t know what happened.”

Said Stewart, “If we’d have been the one to do that to someone else, we would be slandered in the media for life for doing it.”

STILL COOKING: Mark Martin’s racing did nothing to stop the suggestion he’s so good he simply has to get back in a car full-time.

After taking off two races and losing the points lead because of it, Martin returned and finished third. He’s been in the top 10 in all five of his races, including four top-five finishes.

Martin spent most of the race just outside the top 10, but shot up to third with a great pit stop after a caution on Lap 253. He’s 11th in points despite skipping two races.

“It’s fun to be back,” Martin said. “I wish we could have been up there with my buddies scrappin’ for it, but I’m satisfied with third.”

Martin will race in the Car of Tomorrow for the first time next weekend in Phoenix, but he’s sticking with his plan to remain semiretired.

“I chased that cup, man,” Martin said, referring to the Nextel Cup championship race. “I gave it my best. But now I’m enjoying just getting to race.”

FIRST-LAP CRASH: It wasn’t the earliest crash at Texas Motor Speedway — there was a wreck on the first turn of the first race 10 years ago — but it was a quick one. Rookie David Ragan lost control and pushed J.J. Yeley into the wall near the end of the first lap, sending both to the garage.

Ricky Rudd and Casey Mears also got caught in the mess, with the back of Rudd’s car sliding up the crumpled front of Ragan’s car as both glided across the infield grass.

Ragan eventually came back out and finished 39th, but Yeley’s day was done.

“I was on the outside, and to get taken out on the first lap is ridiculous,” said Yeley, a second-year driver who was one spot ahead of Ragan in the points standings at 18th. “There’s a little stupidity on his part.”

Ragan said he didn’t realize Yeley was right alongside him as he accelerated through Turn 4.

“I’m sorry I ruined his day and a lot of other guys,” Ragan said. “I should have just backed out of it.”

The infamous wreck on the first turn of the 1997 race took out 13 cars. It came after numerous complaints from drivers about what they considered a dangerous track, which was soon overhauled.

ROBINSON TRIBUTE: Sunday’s 60th anniversary of Jackie Robinson breaking baseball’s color barrier was honored by the team for NASCAR’s No. 42 of Juan Pablo Montoya. The blue logo with Robinson’s 42 used by baseball was displayed on the right rear of Montoya’s car.

Team owner Chip Ganassi is a Pittsburgh native and former minority shareholder in baseball’s Pirates.

“It is just a small way that we can honor the legacy of a great American hero on our own No. 42 car,” Ganassi said.

Montoya is something of a trail blazer himself. The Colombian and 2000 Indy 500 winner is the only foreign-born full-time Nextel Cup driver after making the rare switch from Formula One last year.

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