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April 06 2008. JPM finishes 19th at Samsung 500. Montoya Finishes 19th in Texaco/Havoline Dodge at TMS
Results from Texas Motor Speedway
1.  Carl Edwards, No. 99 Ford
19.  Juan Pablo Montoya, No. Texaco/Havoline Dodge 

FORT WORTH, Texas. (April 6, 2008)-Juan Pablo Montoya drove his Texaco/Havoline Dodge to a 19th-place finish at Texas Motor Speedway on Sunday, earning the No. 42 team its sixth top-20 finish in seven races this season.  The finish did drop the team two spots in the NASCAR Sprint Cup standings to 19th, but Montoya still sits just 135 points out of 12th, the cut-off to the Chase for the Sprint Cup.

Montoya started the Samsung 500 from the 11th spot after his qualifying effort on Friday.  The Texaco/Havoline Dodge was inconsistent during the entire 339-lap race.  Initially the car started out loose into the corner, tight through the center and loose off the corner.  Montoya slipped back several spots through the first run, but Crew Chief Donnie Wingo knew they would have plenty of time throughout the race to adjust on the No. 42 Dodge.

Unfortunately after each adjustment, the car seemed to go from one extreme to the other.  With just six caution flags throughout the race and several green-flag pit stops, the team was doing its best from losing laps.  Unfortunately, the leader was setting a blazing pace that left just 10 cars on the lead lap, and eight cars one lap down.  For Montoya and teammate Reed Sorenson, the long green-flag runs dropped them to two laps down.

A late-race caution waved with less than 10 laps to go after the No. 1 car lost an engine with Montoya running 24th.  It took NASCAR several laps to clean up the oil and Wingo made the call to leave Montoya on the track instead of pitting.  Several cars that were on the same lap as the No. 42 Texaco/Havoline Dodge decided to pit, moving Montoya up four spots to 19th for the green-white-checkered flag race to the finish.  Montoya held off his competitors to finish the first car two laps down and earn the top-20 finish

Montoya has completed all but four laps this season, completing 99.8 percent of the laps run over the first seven races.  Up next for the No. 42 team is Phoenix International Raceway where they tested earlier this year.


 
 
News Archive
5/3/2007
Latest News from www.jpmontoya.com
7/5/2008
Juan Pablo Montoya and the Wrigleys Juicy Fruit® Dodge were involved in a lap 70 incident with Greg Biffle that sent them behind the wall for repairs at Daytona International Speedway. The No. 42 team fixed the damaged car and had it back out onto the track in just 24 laps. Montoya finished the Coke Zero 400 in the 38th position and dropped to 21st in the NASCAR Sprint Cup driver standings.
6/29/2008
Juan Pablo Montoya and the Texaco/Havoline Dodge finished the rain-shortened race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in the 32nd position on Sunday. Montoya and the No. 42 crew had one of the quickest cars of the weekend, but were marred in traffic, blocked in their pits on several occasions and had a late-race run in with the No. 18 car that led them to the disappointing 32nd-place finish.
6/22/2008
JPM had a great result, despite the crash: I think we had a car to win. I just got screwed. ... After I got taken out, sixth was a great result. Everybody here at Chip Ganassi Racing is working hard, said Montoya, who was coming off back-to-back 38th-place finishes in the previous two races. We needed this. We needed a good finish. We didnt get the win, but we did get a good finish out of it. I had a lot of fun out there Sunday
6/15/2008
After starting 21st due to a qualifying rainout, Juan Pablo Montoya battled loose conditions for 200 laps in his Big Red Dodge at Michigan International Speedway (MIS) and finished the event in the 38th position. The weekend began promising as Montoya and Crew Chief Brian Pattie were pleased with the first practice and optimistic about qualifying. The rain began falling...
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