June 8th 2008. JPM Finished 38th. Abandons race at Pocono
Mid-Race Collision Results in 38th-Place Finish for Montoya
LONG POND, Pa. (June 8, 2008) – Juan Pablo Montoya was involved in an incident on lap 80 that forced him behind the wall in the Texaco/Havoline Dodge. The crew repaired the damaged car, but fell 42 laps down at Pocono Raceway. The team finished the race in the 38th position and slipped three spots in the NASCAR Sprint Cup driver standings—to 20th.
The team struggled in the first practice session, but found something wrong with the Texaco/Havoline Dodge before qualifying on Friday. Montoya put up the 21st-quick lap time in qualifying for the 500-mile, 200-lap race at Pocono.
The green flag waved on Sunday for the 14th race of the 2008 season. Montoya told Crew Chief Brian Pattie the car needed grip off the corners. As the team was preparing to pit under green, the caution flag was displayed on lap 26. Montoya brought the No. 42 Dodge down pit road for four tires, fuel, an air pressure adjustment and a chassis adjustment. Racing resumed on lap 31 with the Texaco/Havoline car in 16th place.
Montoya had a near miss on the track on lap 39 when the No. 2 car spun directly in front of him. Pattie wanted to adjust on the car to get it handling properly, so Montoya came down pit road on lap 41 for tires, fuel and another chassis adjustment. Many of the front runners remained on the track, while several cars pitted for fuel or right-side tires only. When racing resumed, Montoya was back in the 26th spot. He battled his way back up to 17th when the caution flag waved again on lap 56. The pit crew performed a two-tire stop and boosted Montoya up to 13th for the restart on lap 63.
Montoya told Pattie the water and oil temperatures were high and the inside of the car was extremely hot just as a brief rain shower brought out the caution on lap 69. The team pitted for tires, fuel and to clean off the grill which was clogged with debris. NASCAR red flagged the race on lap 71 to dry off the track, but it didn’t take long before racing resumed. Unfortunately, on lap 79, the No. 07 car spun directly in front of Montoya and he had no way to avoid the collision. The rear of the car caught on fire, so Montoya parked it at the end of pit road and exited safely.
The crew went to work on the Texaco/Havoline Dodge and replaced the nose of the car, the radiator, as well as the oil and brake lines in 42 laps to get him back on the track and in the 41st position. By returning to the track, the team picked up three positions before the checkered flag waved.
Montoya now sits 20th in the driver standings, 175 points out of the 12th position, the cut-off for the Chase to the Sprint Cup.
The team heads to Michigan International Speedway next weekend.
Montoya Quotes:
"(Clint) Bowyer spun and I had no where to go. When I saw him spinning, the 29 moved and the next thing I know there was a guy in front of me. I T-boned the car and that was it for us. We had a pretty good race car. It was so hard to pass. If you got in traffic, it was near impossible to pass. I want to thank everybody at Texaco/Havoline and Chip Ganassi. We’ve been working hard the last few races to make things better. We still have to learn a little bit to make things better with which way to go with the changes we make…a couple of really good ones and a couple of really bad ones. If you start falling behind a little bit in the race, it’s pretty hard to make up ground. But I’m happy with the direction we are heading."