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Juan Pablo Montoya Wins at Sonoma

AAARRRGGG….the one weekend when I try to take it easy, watch my kid’s baseball games and stay away from the computer and TV, “Bubbacito” (hat tip to George K. for that moniker) goes and wins his first NEXTEL Cup race.

Since I haven’t seen a minute of the race, I don’t have any brilliant analysis, but I can guarantee that there will be more feverish Montoya media coverage than ever after this.

Sure, it was a road course, so it was right up his alley of driving skills, but he also won this race with a lot of passing, in a COT car (you know, the vehicle that that makes it too hard to pass.)

Motorsports.com coverage points out that “Montoya also gave Dodge its first win of the season and is the first non-Chevy driver to claim a victory in the new car. He also set a new track record for winning from the farthest starting position. No driver had previously won at Sonoma after starting further back than 13th.”

He’s also only the second foreign-born driver to win a Cup event; the first was Italian-born Mario Andretti.

I watched NASCAR video with Robby Gordon saying that Montoya “got lucky” with his win. Terry Blount addressed this in his Sonoma coverage for ESPN: “Even in victory, some NASCAR followers will say Montoya caught a break this time. Jeff Gordon started 41st Sunday after his No. 24 Chevy failed an initial inspection Friday morning. He wasn’t allowed to make a qualifying attempt,” wrote Blount.

“Jeff Gordon, who has five Infineon victories, finished seventh. He had to pit off sequence to gain track position during the race. Stewart started fifth, but slid off the course on the opening lap and fell back. He finished sixth. Robby Gordon led 48 laps, but pitted under green with 40 laps to go and couldn’t get back to the front. He finished 16th.

Excuses, excuses.

For the record, Montoya started 32nd after a disappointing qualifying lap Friday. So his team also had to take some chances to move forward and think about fuel strategy.”

Perhaps he’s also learned a little patience, says David Poole in coverage for That’s Racin’:

“Montoya, known in days in open-wheel as one of that discipline’s most excitable boys, said it was patience that helped him earn his first trip to victory lane in a stock car.

“I was third with 20 laps to go,” Montoya said. “I didn’t want to finish third, but I was trying to save fuel. …I was just being very patient on the throttle and it paid off.”

So, my kid’s team won their bracket in the 8U baseball All-Star game today, but I missed a great race. Maybe I need one of those portable Sirius satellite radio players so I can tune into their NASCAR channel when I’m out and about….

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