Race Report - Auto Club 500 at California Speedway
Results from Auto Club 500 - Auto Club Speedway of Southern California
1. Carl Edwards, No. 99 Ford
20. Juan Pablo Montoya, No. 42 Dodge
32. Dario Franchitti, No. 40 Target Dodge
37. Reed Sorenson, No. 41 Energizer® e2® Lithium Dodge
TOP-20 FINISH FOR NO. 42 DODGE
FONTANA, Calif. (February 25, 2008) --- Despite the green flag dropping on Sunday and checkered flag waving on Monday due to rain, Montoya piloted the No. 42 Dodge to a 20th-place finish.
The 500-mile race started under a rain delay on Sunday with Montoya in the 21st position. He had moved up to 14th when the first caution waved on lap 14 after the No. 11 car spun. The No. 42 Crew made its first stop of the day and moved Montoya up to 13th for the restart. Just seven laps later, the No. 5 spun and collected the 14th-place car. NASCAR waved the yellow and then the red flag for 70 minutes total after a brief rain shower.
Montoya was battling a loose condition after going back to racing on Sunday night. He told Crew Chief Donnie Wingo the track was extremely different and the car’s handling had become loose. The No. 42 crew adjusted on the car two more times before rain soaked the track again on lap 82. Montoya pitted for four tires and fuel before NASCAR red flagged the race again and called it a night.
Montoya fired up the engine on the No. 42 Dodge at 10 a.m. PT Monday to complete the Auto Club 500. He took the green flag in the 20th position on lap 90. He battled his way up to 16th when a round of green-flag pit stops began on lap 121. Montoya brought his No. 42 Dodge down pit road to the attention of his crew on lap 124 to tighten the car up. The caution was finally displayed on lap 134 when the No. 31 car got into the wall.
Montoya and the team were pleasantly surprised by the handling of the No. 42 Dodge Charger after a disappointing test session in January. Montoya was consistently running in the top 15 and at lap 180 was up to 11th. With less than 50 laps remaining in the race, another round of green-flag pit stops began and Wingo called Montoya down pit road on lap 209. He told Wingo the car was really tight, and even brushed the wall at one point with the car. Following the caution on lap 121, he restarted the race in the 14th position on lap 224 with just 22 cars on the lead lap.
It became apparent to Montoya and the No. 42 Crew with 25 laps remaining the car had suffered some damage from the minor incident. He slipped back six spots over the closing laps to finish the race in the 20th position. Montoya and the team now sit 27th in the NASCAR Sprint Cup point standings following the first two races of the season.
The team heads to the “City of Lights” and Las Vegas Motor Speedway next weekend where Montoya turned the quickest lap time out of all Cup competitors at the pre-season test.
CGRFS Quoteboard
Montoya: "The race started pretty bad in the No. 42 Dodge, but we got it better. The last time we came to California we didn’t run as well as we wanted. Today, we got the car pretty good and before the last stop I hit the wall in the middle of turns three and four and I guess I knocked the toe out and I went from running 11th to 20th."
"It’s been a long week, but at least we ran better than we have run here so I was pretty happy about that. I just wish we got the finish we know we could have had."
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