Montoya Takes Telcel Motorola Mexico 200

Montoya Takes Telcel Motorola Mexico 200

Mar 05, 2007

CIA Stock Photos

So much for team orders.

Juan Pablo Montoya, the Colombia native who has wins in Formula 1, CART and IndyCar, scored his first NASCAR win on Sunday at Autrodromo Hermanos Rodriguez in the NASCAR Busch Series Telcel Motorola Mexico 200. But the win was not without controversy.

Montoya made contact with teammate and race leader Scott Pruett with eight laps to go, forcing Pruett to spin out and see all hopes of winning spun out as well. Montoya then went on to pace the field for the remaining circuits to take the victory.

This was just a few laps after team co-owner Chip Ganassi told an international TV audience that there were no “team orders, ” racing vernacular for one teammate pulling over so the other driver can take a position, in this case for the lead.

Ganassi said there were no team orders.

“We had a long discussion about that this morning, ” said Ganassi. “There’s never any team orders in our teams. But the one team order is, ‘Don’t crash into each other. ’”

It was just a few laps later that Montoya made contact with Pruett.

Pruett was clearly upset after the race, even making contact with Montoya on the “cool-down” lap to make sure the race winner knew of Pruett’s displeasure.

“Of all the people to take you out, your teammate, ” said Pruett.

“I can’t even put it into words, ” he continued. “It’s just so disappointing. We talked about it, talked about it, talked about it, talked about it in meetings. If he’s faster than me, we’ll work it out, he can go, you know. But not take each other out. ”

Pruett stormed back over the final laps to finish fifth.

Montoya understood his teammate’s frustration.

“I felt really bad because we both needed a really good finish, ” said Montoya. “I went into the braking. We were both braking about the same point, but he was slowing down the car a little more. He kind of stayed wide so I went for the inside and when I was there he just turned and I had nowhere to go. I feel really sorry about it. ”

As for the win itself, Montoya talked about the significance of the victory.

“It’s big, ” he said. “We got this one out of the way now and the next one is we need to win on an oval. I want to win on an oval. That’s where we need to be good. ”

Last year’s race winner Denny Hamlin took the runner-up position, followed by road race ace Boris Said, Carl Edwards and Pruett. Rounding out the top 10 were Jason Leffler, Mexico native Jorge Goeters, Australian Marcos Ambrose, Adrian Fernandez and Jon Wood.

For Montoya, who announced his NASCAR career amid much fanfare in a surprise announcement last July at Chicagoland Speedway, it was his first victory in just seven career NASCAR Busch Series starts and in just his 10th overall NASCAR start (including three NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series starts. ) He turned his season around in dramatic fashion after finishes of 39th at California and 40th at Daytona in his other two NASCAR Busch Series starts this season.

It was also his first top-10 finish in NASCAR Busch Series competition. His previous best NASCAR Busch Series finish was 11th last October at Memphis.

Montoya, who was among the leaders for most of the race, almost saw his chance at victory go away with a problem in the pits with 35 laps to go.

Coming in as the race leader for what crew chief Brad Parrott hoped would be the final stop of the race, Montoya’s team had problems with a hose clamp for the fuel overflow tube that goes out the back of the car. This meant the team could only get about six-and-a-half gallons in Montoya’s Dodge, not enough to make it to the end of the race.

So, Montoya was forced to come back in the pits with 26 laps remaining to fix the overflow tube and get fuel to make it to the finish. He gave up the number one position and ended up 19th on the restart. But the hard charging Montoya stormed back and was all the way up to fifth place just nine laps after pitting.

Even though he had a strong car, Montoya still had to pass Edwards, Hamlin and road race specialists Said and Pruett over the final 13 laps en route to victory.