Juan Pablo Montoya's Sprint Cup title hopes take Texas-sized blow
Earnhardt Ganassi Racing's Juan Pablo Montoya lost ground in NASCAR's Chase For The Sprint Cup after crashing at Texas Motor Speedway Sunday. // David Griffin, NASCAR Scene
FORT WORTH, Texas – Juan Pablo Montoya’s already-dwindling hopes of winning the 2009 NASCAR Sprint Cup title suffered another blow with a wreck on lap 174 of Sunday’s Dickies 500 at Texas Motor Speedway.
Montoya was running just inside the top 20 when his Earnhardt Ganassi Racing Chevrolet broke loose and slid up the track in Turn 1, collecting fellow Chase For The Sprint Cup driver Carl Edwards and sending both to the garage.
“It was just really close racing,” Montoya said. “I think Carl was really close to me and drove right beside me and the car got loose and I lost it. With these cars, that is just going to happen.
“Everyone on the [team] is doing an amazing job. This week we didn’t have the car we wanted, but we were getting better and better as the day went on. It kinda sucks, but things like this happen.”
Montoya, who entered the race fourth in the standings and 239 points out of the lead, fell to sixth in the standings with his 37th-place finish. The former open-wheel star failed to capitalize on the misfortunes of points leader Jimmie Johnson, who was involved in a crash on lap three and spent just over an hour undergoing repairs.
“We didn’t change our game plan after Jimmie’s accident,” Montoya said. “You have to do what you can and run as you can. The No. 5 [car of Mark Martin] was really slow on the bottom and he was stacking everybody and that didn’t help, but it’s OK. It’s just one of those deals.”
Montoya trails Johnson by 233 points heading into next weekend’s penultimate event at Phoenix International Raceway.
Edwards, who arrived at Texas 10th in the Chase standings and left in 11th place, wasn’t upset with Montoya about the contact that put him out of the race.
“I didn’t expect it, especially from Juan,” the Roush Fenway Racing driver said. “He’s got great car control. His car must have been really loose and it just snapped on him. It looked like he needed another couple inches and it wasn’t there, but that’s just racing.”
Since opening the Chase with four consecutive top-fives, Montoya has finished 19th or worse in three of his last four outings.
“It is rough because we keep bringing great cars every week and to see one wrecked like that kind of sucks,” he said.
