May 11 2008 JPM Finishes 23rd at Darlington
1. Kyle Busch, No. 18 Toyota
23. Juan Pablo Montoya, No. 42 Wrigley’s Big Red Dodge
DARLINGTON, S.C. (May 12, 2008)-Juan Pablo Montoya drove his No. 42 Wrigley’s™ Big Red® Dodge to a 23rd-place finish at Darlington Raceway Saturday night in the eleventh NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) race of the season.
Montoya rolled off the grid 19th for the Dodge Challenger 500 and settled into the top 20 with a very loose race car. When the caution flag waved for the second time on lap 11, Crew Chief Jimmy Elledge called for some chassis adjustments and fuel only on the red No. 42. The team restarted outside of the top 20 and continued to battle both track position and handling issues for the remainder of the event the track known as the “Lady in Black.”.
The Big Red Dodge went on to finish the 367-lap event in 23rd place, one lap behind race winner Kyle Busch. The No. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates (CGRFS) team remains 16th in the overall NSCS driver point standings. With a current tally of 1,190, the team is 76 points away from the top 12 and 500 points outside of first.
Teammate Reed Sorenson finished 32nd in the No. 41 Target Dodge on Saturday night and NASCAR veteran Sterling Marlin finished in the 34th position after facing issues with the cooling system in the No. 40 Dodge Challenger.
Montoya and the No. 42 team will participate in the Sprint All-Star Race at Lowe’s Motor Speedway on May 17th as over 20 drivers compete for a $1 million first-place prize. Montoya’s win last June at Infineon Raceway entered him into this season’s All-Star event. In addition, the No. 42 pit crew will participate in the Sprint Pit Crew challenge on Thursday evening.
The Sprint All-Star Showdown is scheduled to begin at 7:30 p.m. ET with live television coverage provided by Speed Channel starting at 7 p.m. ET. Radio coverage will be broadcast by the Motor Racing Network (MRN). The Sprint All-Star Race will follow on Speed with live coverage beginning at 9 p.m. ET.