RACE WINNER: JUAN PABLO MONTOYA
Dale Earnhardt Jr.: 13th (started 3rd)
- For calling himself not much of a road racer, Dale Jr. did a great job today. Much of his race was spent behind leader Robby Gordon and even when he dropped to lower positions he remained in the Top 5. It was only after the last pit stops of the day that fuel strategy bit the #8 team and sent him back in the field.
- Quotes:
“No question we had a top-five car today. It's the best car I've had here (at Sonoma), and I also drove better than I think I ever had before on a road course, so I'm damn proud overall. We weren't the fastest car on the restarts, but after four or five laps, we could out-run almost anyone. I felt really racy and it was exciting to make a lot of passes on guys that are considered some of the best in the world. It's frustrating to end up without a finish that shows how good we were. But we did what we had to do. We had a two-stop strategy for the day - and we stopped on the laps we believed were the best strategy. We really didn't think any of those guys who stopped before we did could make it to the end on fuel.”
Kurt Busch.: 22nd (started 14th)
- Kurt’s first race with Pat Tryson was looking to be a good one until eventual race winner Montoya got into the back of him in Turn 11. I should have known that Montoya couldn’t make a clean race at a road course, and it just had to be Kurt that he took out. Because the caution didn’t fly Kurt had to scramble to get back onto the track and lost many positions.
- Quotes:
“Some guys could make it on two stops. Some guys could make it on three. We were on a two-stop strategy and it ended up being three. It wasn’t good for us. We could have made the car a little better. We’ll come back at The Glen with a stronger Dodge Avenger. We got tagged in turn 11 by Montoya, a Formula One winner and a NASCAR winner. That doesn’t happen every day.”
Martin Truex Jr.: 24th (started 18th)
- Martin ran a fairly quiet race except for a strange move climbing up the hill after pit stops. It basically looked like he had a lapse of attention and casually slipped his leftside tires into the sand. The car hardly wobbled at all and steered back onto the course. Martin is now 11th in points.
Dale Jarrett.: 26th (started 16th)
- DJ was running a fairly decent race until he became a little too aggressive and tried to stick the UPS Camry’s nose into a rapidly shrinking hole. Johnny Sauter gave him little room and Dale jumped the 44 into the air, leading to an impressive amount of air but a bad break for DJ. To make matters worse, the car stalled and the entire field passed him before the caution came out.
- Quotes
“We just struggled all day. It was the same thing all weekend; we just couldn't get any forward bite and just couldn't get it off the corners. We weren't very good (on the road course), we have some work to do in that area.”
Casey Mears: 27th (started 38th)
- How would you like to run an entire race without power steering? That is what Casey had to do today. Can you imagine? That poor guy…he must have been in a lot of pain by the time the checkers flew! But I’d say that he did a great job staying on the lead lap. Unfortunately he dropped to 20th in point standings, tied with Montoya. It was disappointing coming after his streak of great finishes, but I’m confident he’ll rebound at Loudon.
Brian Vickers: DNQ
- Really, really disappointing, but based on his practice times we saw it coming.
David Reutimann: DNA (Did Not Attempt)
- I don’t want to talk about this anymore.
Michael Waltrip: DNA
Other Notes:
- Oh man, stop the presses, Juan Pablo Montoya has won his first NEXTEL Cup race. I’m not a big fan of his, but I expected him to be a lot more excited than he was (that’s all I really ask…even if I don’t like a driver I appreciate some joy). He hollered in the car a little bit but when he went into Victory Lane he hardly showed affection toward his wife and absolutely no thanks to his crew. It left me feeling a little gypped.
- MWR’s road ringer and PCP did not quite work out as well as Michael would have hoped, I’m guessing. While PJ Jones finished 12th, he got virtually zero attention, which was a failure if Burger King had anything to do with Jones getting into the car. Not to mention that David seeing someone else bring his car to its best finish of the year is just wonderful for his confidence. Terry Labonte seemed to be adequate at first but plummeted late in the race. I believe Michael could have done much better…
- I’m not sure what I think of the New Car on its first road course. While it was exciting to watch them jockeying for position it was very hard to pass without getting dirty.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.: 13th (started 3rd)
- For calling himself not much of a road racer, Dale Jr. did a great job today. Much of his race was spent behind leader Robby Gordon and even when he dropped to lower positions he remained in the Top 5. It was only after the last pit stops of the day that fuel strategy bit the #8 team and sent him back in the field.
- Quotes:
“No question we had a top-five car today. It's the best car I've had here (at Sonoma), and I also drove better than I think I ever had before on a road course, so I'm damn proud overall. We weren't the fastest car on the restarts, but after four or five laps, we could out-run almost anyone. I felt really racy and it was exciting to make a lot of passes on guys that are considered some of the best in the world. It's frustrating to end up without a finish that shows how good we were. But we did what we had to do. We had a two-stop strategy for the day - and we stopped on the laps we believed were the best strategy. We really didn't think any of those guys who stopped before we did could make it to the end on fuel.”
Kurt Busch.: 22nd (started 14th)
- Kurt’s first race with Pat Tryson was looking to be a good one until eventual race winner Montoya got into the back of him in Turn 11. I should have known that Montoya couldn’t make a clean race at a road course, and it just had to be Kurt that he took out. Because the caution didn’t fly Kurt had to scramble to get back onto the track and lost many positions.
- Quotes:
“Some guys could make it on two stops. Some guys could make it on three. We were on a two-stop strategy and it ended up being three. It wasn’t good for us. We could have made the car a little better. We’ll come back at The Glen with a stronger Dodge Avenger. We got tagged in turn 11 by Montoya, a Formula One winner and a NASCAR winner. That doesn’t happen every day.”
Martin Truex Jr.: 24th (started 18th)
- Martin ran a fairly quiet race except for a strange move climbing up the hill after pit stops. It basically looked like he had a lapse of attention and casually slipped his leftside tires into the sand. The car hardly wobbled at all and steered back onto the course. Martin is now 11th in points.
Dale Jarrett.: 26th (started 16th)
- DJ was running a fairly decent race until he became a little too aggressive and tried to stick the UPS Camry’s nose into a rapidly shrinking hole. Johnny Sauter gave him little room and Dale jumped the 44 into the air, leading to an impressive amount of air but a bad break for DJ. To make matters worse, the car stalled and the entire field passed him before the caution came out.
- Quotes
“We just struggled all day. It was the same thing all weekend; we just couldn't get any forward bite and just couldn't get it off the corners. We weren't very good (on the road course), we have some work to do in that area.”
Casey Mears: 27th (started 38th)
- How would you like to run an entire race without power steering? That is what Casey had to do today. Can you imagine? That poor guy…he must have been in a lot of pain by the time the checkers flew! But I’d say that he did a great job staying on the lead lap. Unfortunately he dropped to 20th in point standings, tied with Montoya. It was disappointing coming after his streak of great finishes, but I’m confident he’ll rebound at Loudon.
Brian Vickers: DNQ
- Really, really disappointing, but based on his practice times we saw it coming.
David Reutimann: DNA (Did Not Attempt)
- I don’t want to talk about this anymore.
Michael Waltrip: DNA
Other Notes:
- Oh man, stop the presses, Juan Pablo Montoya has won his first NEXTEL Cup race. I’m not a big fan of his, but I expected him to be a lot more excited than he was (that’s all I really ask…even if I don’t like a driver I appreciate some joy). He hollered in the car a little bit but when he went into Victory Lane he hardly showed affection toward his wife and absolutely no thanks to his crew. It left me feeling a little gypped.
- MWR’s road ringer and PCP did not quite work out as well as Michael would have hoped, I’m guessing. While PJ Jones finished 12th, he got virtually zero attention, which was a failure if Burger King had anything to do with Jones getting into the car. Not to mention that David seeing someone else bring his car to its best finish of the year is just wonderful for his confidence. Terry Labonte seemed to be adequate at first but plummeted late in the race. I believe Michael could have done much better…
- I’m not sure what I think of the New Car on its first road course. While it was exciting to watch them jockeying for position it was very hard to pass without getting dirty.
- An amusing irony developed, starting with Kyle Petty praying before the start of the race, being a good Christian and all that nice stuff. That all came crashing down when TNT aired a replay of his incar audio after Matt Kenseth spun him out. Kyle screamed, "What the FUCK was that?" very loudly and demonically before it faded away into the awkward silence of Bill Weber and Wally Dallenbach. I laughed, of course.
- Quotes from Race2Win