By Ryan - Posted on August 11, 2010
Juan Montoya has been frustrated. He felt that he had the best car in the last couple of races, only to have victory snatched from him in unfortunate incidents, mainly in the pits. All of that ended for him at Watkins Glen on Sunday.
An established road racer, Montoya pulled away from Kurt Busch, who had his best road course finish, and “road course ringer” Marcos Ambrose (who won the Nationwide Race there on Friday) at the restart with 16 laps to go, and drove away from them to win by nearly five seconds. Montoya had not won in 113 races, a streak that went all the way back to his first victory at Sonoma, another road course, in June of 2007.
A.J. Allmendinger finished fourth and Carl Edwards finished fifth. For Edwards, this marked his sixth top-ten finish in a row. Jamie McMurray, Tony Stewart, Kyle Busch, Jeff Burton, and Jeff Gordon rounded out the top 10.
One of the biggest stories in NASCAR the past couple of weeks has been Montoya’s frustration and annoyance with his crew chief, Brian Pattie. Montoya believed that the call for four tires during a final pit stop at the Brickyard 400 cost him the win there. That was followed up by a poor run at Pocono, when problems again on a late pit stop cost him a potential top-five finish.
After the race at the Glen, both men were relieved. "The last few weeks have been really frustrating for the whole team because we've been so close to victory. Seemed to keep slipping away. To come out here and get the job done the way we did, it was big. I feel more relieved than happy right now. It's been a really hard road in a way. It's been a lot of fun; it's been frustrating.”
His crew chief agreed. "It's huge," Pattie said, fighting back tears. "I still want to win on an oval. He wants to prove his point. The Brickyard was my fault. Hope this makes up for it. Trophies mean a lot. It's pretty cool."
Often, drivers who are traditionally strong on oval tracks struggle at road races. At Watkins Glen, Clint Bowyer had a mechanical problem, which caused him to spend some time in the garage. This knocked him out of the top 12 in the Chase standings. Instead, Mark Martin took his place in the standings, leading Bowyer by 10 points.
The point standings may shake up a bit next week as the series moves to Bristol for the night race. Short track racing at its best may prove to be the worst for some of the contenders.
