Juan Pablo Montoya Earns First NASCAR Cup Victory! - SCI June 25th Issue
Next stop on the Nextel Cup Schedule is New Hampshire International Raceway Next week, the NASCAR Nextel Cup teams head to the largest sporting venue in the Northeast, New Hampshire International Speedway, NIS.
NHIS is a challenging, flat 1.
058 mile oval track that annually packs 100,000 fans in the seats.
The friendly residents of New Hampshire, who live by the state creed of "Live Free or Die" are huge NASCAR fans and turn out in droves to watch their favorite drivers cheat death.
The mile long oval with its low-banked turns can be considered a close relative to Martinsville Speedway.
Just like at Martinsville, the racing at NIS offers hard-braking & nail-biting passing in the turns but with the added benefit of a second grove.
Drivers push their cars and each other to the limits as they jockey for position and sometimes "lean" on each other for support.
Of all current drivers with 2 or more career starts at New Hampshire, Denny Hamlin sports an average finish of 5th, leads the pack.
Other drivers to note: Jeff Burton - Average finish of 10th Jeff Gordon - Average finish of 11th Matt Kenseth - Average finish of 11th Ryan Newman - Average finish of 12th Juan Pablo Montoya Captures 1st Nextel Cup Victory As many predicted, Juan Pablo Montoya's first victory in Nextel Cup came on the road-course in Sonoma.
And unlike in Montoya's first NASCAR win, which came at the Busch race in Mexico, he escaped without making new enemies.
Though un-challenged at the end, Juan's win did not come easy.
Starting 32nd, Juan had to overtake road-course aces Boris Said, Ron Fellows, and Robby Gordon amongst other top-level drivers to claim the lead.
And like most road-course races, it all came down to fuel strategy.
After being advised in the closing laps by his team that the car would be 2 laps shy on fuel, Juan nursed it along by late shifting and coasting as much as possible.
When the checkered flag waved, Montoya was running on fumes lacking enough fuel to do the customary burn-out.
The Columbian national is the first foreigner since 1974 and only the second non-US citizen to win in NASCAR's Cup series.
This win is huge not only for Montoya and Ganassi racing, but also for NASCAR as it looks to establish itself as the most popular racing series in the world.
Also important to note, Montoya's win is also the first by Dodge this season and the first manufacturer besides Chevrolet to win a Car of Tomorrow race.
What's in Store for Hendrick? The big story this week in NASCAR will be what penalties NASCAR decides to hand out to Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson's teams.
Both drivers' cars were found to have front fenders that were out of spec.
Or were they? That's the main point of contention the Hendrick owned teams have voiced since NASCAR first inspected the cars.
In NASCAR inspection, templates are placed over the body of the car at key locations.
To pass the body inspection, the car has to match the template.
With the old body style, prior to the COT, teams were allowed to manipulate the fenders between the template locations, and this is what the crew chiefs of both the 24 & 48 cars claimed they did.
With the Car of Tomorrow, NASCAR has decided to clamp down on fender manipulation.
But as usual with NASCAR, they prefer to ad as much ambiguity into the mix as possible.
As opposed to coming out and saying very clearly that the fenders cannot be manipulated between the template points, they would prefer to make an example out of team fighting for every competitive advantage that they can get.
For the sake of all Cup teams, NASCAR needs to write a clearly defined set of rules for the new Cars of Tomorrow.
After all, it took seven years for NASCAR to develop the COT; one would think they would already have an idea as to what should be legal versus illegal by now.
Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Infineon Raceway For much of the race on Sunday, you would have been a fool to pick some one other than Robby Gordon to win the race.
For practically the entire race, Robby had the best car in the field.
Robby's top-notch road racing skills coupled with superior equipment is almost comparable to watching Michael Jordon in his NBA prime playing against an average college basketball squad.
However, the only thing Robby didn't have nailed down Sunday was his fuel strategy.
Having to pit late in the race, Gordon was shuffled back deep in the field and unable to recover.
This left drivers Juan Pablo Montoya's, Jamie McMurray & Kevin Harvick to duke it out for the win.
In the closing laps, of the three drivers, Harvick was the only driver confident he could make it to the end on fuel.
Both McMurray and Montoya were told they would be a few laps short.
Deciding not to force the inevitable, Harvick laid back in third waiting to see the other two slowly run of gas.
But how does the old saying go? Don't count your chickens before they hatch, and don't ever assume the two lead cars will run out of gas leaving you to inherit the victory.
Had Harvick charged, he may have had Montoya's place in victory lane.
Other drivers to note: Jeff Gordon started at the rear of the field after failing to pass the NASCAR inspection.
In order for the 4 time former champion to make his way to the front, he had to use clever pit strategy.
In the end, Gordon finished in 7th and now sits 271 points ahead of 2nd place driver Denny Hamlin.
Denny Hamlin has showcased his strong road-racing skills in his short tenure at NASCAR's top level.
Perhaps having Tony Stewart as a teammate doesn't hurt, but this young talent is already showing that he's one of the top drivers in NASCAR.
Hamlin finished in 10th.
Jimmie Johnson had to overcome the same obstacles as teammate Jeff Gordon after having been sent to the rear of the pack for failing his inspection.
The reigning champ rebounded to finish in 17th position and now sits 3rd in points.
Matt Kenseth again showed that road courses are no friend of his.
The normally consistent top 10 driver finished in a dismal 34th place.
Kenseth now sits 4th in points, 433 behind the leader.
Dale Earnhardt Jr proved that he is a dominant force to be reckoned with when it comes to playing EA Sports NASCAR Thunder.
Jr uses the video game as a tool to help him prepare for the road courses on circuit.
Dale ran up front for most of the day after qualifying in 3rd position.
He finished in 13th and maintained his grip on the coveted 12th position in points.
NHIS is a challenging, flat 1.
058 mile oval track that annually packs 100,000 fans in the seats.
The friendly residents of New Hampshire, who live by the state creed of "Live Free or Die" are huge NASCAR fans and turn out in droves to watch their favorite drivers cheat death.
The mile long oval with its low-banked turns can be considered a close relative to Martinsville Speedway.
Just like at Martinsville, the racing at NIS offers hard-braking & nail-biting passing in the turns but with the added benefit of a second grove.
Drivers push their cars and each other to the limits as they jockey for position and sometimes "lean" on each other for support.
Of all current drivers with 2 or more career starts at New Hampshire, Denny Hamlin sports an average finish of 5th, leads the pack.
Other drivers to note: Jeff Burton - Average finish of 10th Jeff Gordon - Average finish of 11th Matt Kenseth - Average finish of 11th Ryan Newman - Average finish of 12th Juan Pablo Montoya Captures 1st Nextel Cup Victory As many predicted, Juan Pablo Montoya's first victory in Nextel Cup came on the road-course in Sonoma.
And unlike in Montoya's first NASCAR win, which came at the Busch race in Mexico, he escaped without making new enemies.
Though un-challenged at the end, Juan's win did not come easy.
Starting 32nd, Juan had to overtake road-course aces Boris Said, Ron Fellows, and Robby Gordon amongst other top-level drivers to claim the lead.
And like most road-course races, it all came down to fuel strategy.
After being advised in the closing laps by his team that the car would be 2 laps shy on fuel, Juan nursed it along by late shifting and coasting as much as possible.
When the checkered flag waved, Montoya was running on fumes lacking enough fuel to do the customary burn-out.
The Columbian national is the first foreigner since 1974 and only the second non-US citizen to win in NASCAR's Cup series.
This win is huge not only for Montoya and Ganassi racing, but also for NASCAR as it looks to establish itself as the most popular racing series in the world.
Also important to note, Montoya's win is also the first by Dodge this season and the first manufacturer besides Chevrolet to win a Car of Tomorrow race.
What's in Store for Hendrick? The big story this week in NASCAR will be what penalties NASCAR decides to hand out to Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson's teams.
Both drivers' cars were found to have front fenders that were out of spec.
Or were they? That's the main point of contention the Hendrick owned teams have voiced since NASCAR first inspected the cars.
In NASCAR inspection, templates are placed over the body of the car at key locations.
To pass the body inspection, the car has to match the template.
With the old body style, prior to the COT, teams were allowed to manipulate the fenders between the template locations, and this is what the crew chiefs of both the 24 & 48 cars claimed they did.
With the Car of Tomorrow, NASCAR has decided to clamp down on fender manipulation.
But as usual with NASCAR, they prefer to ad as much ambiguity into the mix as possible.
As opposed to coming out and saying very clearly that the fenders cannot be manipulated between the template points, they would prefer to make an example out of team fighting for every competitive advantage that they can get.
For the sake of all Cup teams, NASCAR needs to write a clearly defined set of rules for the new Cars of Tomorrow.
After all, it took seven years for NASCAR to develop the COT; one would think they would already have an idea as to what should be legal versus illegal by now.
Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Infineon Raceway For much of the race on Sunday, you would have been a fool to pick some one other than Robby Gordon to win the race.
For practically the entire race, Robby had the best car in the field.
Robby's top-notch road racing skills coupled with superior equipment is almost comparable to watching Michael Jordon in his NBA prime playing against an average college basketball squad.
However, the only thing Robby didn't have nailed down Sunday was his fuel strategy.
Having to pit late in the race, Gordon was shuffled back deep in the field and unable to recover.
This left drivers Juan Pablo Montoya's, Jamie McMurray & Kevin Harvick to duke it out for the win.
In the closing laps, of the three drivers, Harvick was the only driver confident he could make it to the end on fuel.
Both McMurray and Montoya were told they would be a few laps short.
Deciding not to force the inevitable, Harvick laid back in third waiting to see the other two slowly run of gas.
But how does the old saying go? Don't count your chickens before they hatch, and don't ever assume the two lead cars will run out of gas leaving you to inherit the victory.
Had Harvick charged, he may have had Montoya's place in victory lane.
Other drivers to note: Jeff Gordon started at the rear of the field after failing to pass the NASCAR inspection.
In order for the 4 time former champion to make his way to the front, he had to use clever pit strategy.
In the end, Gordon finished in 7th and now sits 271 points ahead of 2nd place driver Denny Hamlin.
Denny Hamlin has showcased his strong road-racing skills in his short tenure at NASCAR's top level.
Perhaps having Tony Stewart as a teammate doesn't hurt, but this young talent is already showing that he's one of the top drivers in NASCAR.
Hamlin finished in 10th.
Jimmie Johnson had to overcome the same obstacles as teammate Jeff Gordon after having been sent to the rear of the pack for failing his inspection.
The reigning champ rebounded to finish in 17th position and now sits 3rd in points.
Matt Kenseth again showed that road courses are no friend of his.
The normally consistent top 10 driver finished in a dismal 34th place.
Kenseth now sits 4th in points, 433 behind the leader.
Dale Earnhardt Jr proved that he is a dominant force to be reckoned with when it comes to playing EA Sports NASCAR Thunder.
Jr uses the video game as a tool to help him prepare for the road courses on circuit.
Dale ran up front for most of the day after qualifying in 3rd position.
He finished in 13th and maintained his grip on the coveted 12th position in points.
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