Mexico City, Mexico (Sports Network) - Juan Montoya won Sunday's Telcel-
Motorola 200 Busch Series event held in Mexico City, Mexico. The No.42 Chip
Ganassi Racing Dodge driver crossed the finish line 0.750 seconds ahead of
Denny Hamlin.
The victory was Montoya's first ever in a NASCAR event.
Scott Pruett, also with Chip Ganassi Racing, brought the field to the green
flag for 80 laps of road course racing. Montoya jumped past Carlos Contreras
in the first turn and took off after Pruett.
The pair of teammates quickly opened up a one-second lead over third-place
Contreras. But Montoya, not known for his racing patience, didn't sit behind
his teammate for long.
The Columbian "out-broke" Pruett at the start of lap 3 into turn 1 for the
lead. By lap four Montoya owned almost one second on Pruett and 2.459 seconds
on Contreras' Dodge.
Montoya made his first pit stop on lap 10 as most of the field came in early
to make changes and set their late-race fuel strategy. During the stops, both
defending champion Hamlin and 2005 pole winner Jorge Goeters took turns at the
top of the charts.
But Montoya was posting the fastest laps and on lap 22, when everyone except
for German Quiroga Jr. had completed their first run down pit road, the No.42
Dodge was in control. He was more than 11 seconds ahead of Pruett and Hamlin.
On the first caution flag, Quiroga Jr. pitted giving the lead back to Montoya.
The bad news, however, Pruett and Hamlin were right on his rear bumper. One
interesting name that cracked the top-10 as they went past the 30-lap mark
was Adrian Fernandez.
Montoya continued to rebuild his lead which was eliminated by the first
caution flag. It was 1.744 seconds on lap 32 and 2.984 seconds at the mid-
point of the 80-lap event.
The big decision on pit road for all the crew chiefs - when to make the final
stop. The cars could go about 35 laps on fuel, but if the caution flag came
out a few times, cars could reach the checkered flag from just past the midway
point of the race. So teams began to pit as early as lap 41. P.J. Jones was
first, but more cars on each proceeding lap. Ron Fellows, the last non-
American to win a Busch race, was one of the earliest to stop.
Montoya pitted on lap 45, after posting the fastest lap on the track, and came
out in fifth place. But his pit crew had a problem with the fuel can and they
only got about seven gallons into the car on the stop. He would have to make a
third pit stop and likely have little chance to win the race.
"It was probably a $0.15 clamp that came loose," said Brad Parrott, crew chief
on the No.42 Dodge.
Waiting to take advantage of the Chip Ganassi pit crew error was Pruett
Hamlin, Brent Sherman and Carl Edwards second through fifth, respectively.
Montoya's lead was 13.522 seconds.
A few laps later, on lap 53, Montoya returned to pit road, fixed the problem,
refilled the tank, and came back on the track in 21st place.
Could one of the best open-wheel drivers in the world make it back to the
front?
He would have 25 laps to try.
On the lead, Pruett, Hamlin, Edwards and Boris Said were first through fourth.
Said was doing it despite having broken the shifter early in the race and
passed Edwards for third place.
Meanwhile, Montoya was 19th after one green flag lap and 12th with 21 laps to
go.
Brad Coleman brought out the third caution flag of the afternoon on lap 60.
The flag was the only thing that could slow down Montoya who was up to ninth
place.
The green flag dropped with 17 laps remaining. Montoya passed two cars coming
into the first turn (including friend Fernandez). He took fifth away from Greg
Biffle on lap 64. Then another caution flag flew for a Marcos Ambrose spin.
Edwards in fourth is fighting for a series championship and wanted no part of
Montoya giving up his position on lap 67. At the same time Said passed Hamlin
for second. Still on the same lap, Montoya cut inside of Hamlin in turn eight
and cleanly took over third place. A stunning move.
But another caution flag, for a J.J. Yeley/David Gilliland crash again slowed
Montoya's march to the front.
Once again on the restart with nine laps to go Montoya ducked to the bottom of
the track in turn one and beat Said for second place. That left only his
teammate Pruett between himself and the win.
With eight laps to go, Pruett and Montoya were side-by-side going into turn 1
and they hit sending Pruett into a spin. Montoya gathered himself, cut across
the chicane and kept the lead. Hamlin took over second with Said into third.
Pruett fell all the way to 17th place.
It appeared that Montoya had the line and Pruett chopped down on him.
Montoya's left-front fender had some damage, but it seemed that the Dodge was
still in one piece. The green flag dropped with five laps remaining.
Montoya took off, but the defending champion Hamlin had a good car too. Still
more caution flags set up a two-lap shootout between the open-wheel superstar
and the young rising Nextel Cup star.
Montoya got a great restart, but Hamlin wouldn't go away. Still the 1999 CART
champion, 2000 Indianapolis 500 champion and the winner of the seven Formula
One wins was not going to be denied. He opened up a solid margin, made no
mistakes and took the checkered flag for his first NASCAR victory.
"I felt really bad (about the accident with Pruett)," said Montoya. "He kind
of stayed wide so I went to the inside and I had no where to go."
"Of all the people to take you at...your teammate," said a disgusted Pruett.
"That was just no good, low, dirty driving...It's just so disappointing."
Said, Edwards and Pruett completed the top-five.
With Kevin Harvick idle this weekend, Edwards takes over the Busch Series
points lead.
The next race in the series is set for Saturday March 10th at the Las Vegas
Motor Speedway.