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.

May 03 2008 Multi-car Incident Relegates Montoya to 32nd at Richmond

Results from Richmond International Raceway
1.    Clint Bowyer, No. 07 Chevrolet
32.  Juan Pablo Montoya, No. 42 Texaco/Havoline Dodge

RICHMOND, Va. (May 3, 2008)-Juan Pablo Montoya spun on lap 138 and then was collected in a multi-car incident on lap 231 that forced the No. 42 Texaco/Havoline Dodge behind the wall for repairs at Richmond International Raceway (RIR).  The No. 42 crew repaired the damaged Dodge in 20 laps and then sent Montoya back on the track to take the checkered flag in 32nd place.

Montoya had his best qualifying effort of his career at the .75-mile track on Friday.  He posted a lap time quick enough to earn the sixth-place starting position for the 400-lap race.  He began dropping back in the field after the green flag waved and was 11th when the first caution flag waved on lap 65.  He told Crew Chief Jimmy Elledge the car was pretty loose.  When Montoya drove the car down pit road for service, Elledge called for air pressure and wedge adjustments along with four tires and fuel.

Montoya continued to run in the top 15 until the second caution waved for debris on lap 128.  He pitted for tires, fuel and the removal of a spring rubber.  Racing resumed on lap 133 with Montoya in 13th, but five laps later the car snapped loose on Montoya and spun him into the outside wall.  He came down pit road for left-side tires on lap 140 and right-side tires on lap 142, while the team was repairing the damage.  The crew was able to keep Montoya and the Texaco/Havoline Dodge on the lead lap for the restart on lap 144.

The team continued to adjust on the car and eventually fell a lap down to the leader.  By the midway point of the race there were only 21 cars remaining on the lead lap and the crew had finished making huge changes to the car.  Unfortunately on lap 231, a huge melee broke out and blocked the track.  Montoya was unable to avoid the wreck and damaged the rear of the car.  The race was red flagged for cleanup as the team prepared to fix the car in the garage.  Montoya drove the Texaco/Havoline Dodge behind the wall as the team went to work.

After 20 laps, Montoya was back on the track and sitting in the 37th position.  Several additional wrecks increased the number of cars that fell out of the race, and Montoya drove the No. 42 Dodge across the finish line in the 32nd position.   He dropped four spots in the NASCAR Sprint Cup standings to 16th, but sits just 66 points out of 12th.

The team will be testing at Lowe’s Motor Speedway on Monday and Tuesday before heading to Darlington Raceway this weekend.

April 27 2008 Montoya finishes 2nd at Talladega.

Montoya Second at Talladega
Results from Talladega Superspeedway
1.    Kyle Busch, No. 18 Toyota
2.  Juan Pablo Montoya, No. 42 Wrigley’s Juicy Fruit Dodge

TALLADEGA, Ala. (April 28, 2008)–Juan Pablo Montoya drove his No. 42 Wrigley’s Juicy Fruit Dodge to a second-place finish at Talladega Superspeedway and boosted the team into 12th place in the NASCAR Sprint Cup standings.  Nine races into the 2008 season, Montoya and the team find themselves in position to earn a spot in the “Chase for the Sprint Cup.”

The finish came on the heels of Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates teammate Dario Franchitti being sidelined after an ankle injury in the Nationwide race on Saturday. The team called on Montoya’s friend and 2007 teammate David Stremme to pilot the No. 40 Dodge.  It was also the first race Montoya would be partnered up with his new Crew Chief Jimmy Elledge.

Montoya started the event from the 26th position and was never content to be one of the drivers to run around in the back of the pack.  He worked several lines throughout the race, and drafted with several different cars to see how his Juicy Fruit Dodge would react.  On lap 50 the No. 11 car hooked up to the rear bumper of Montoya and pushed him from 10th to the lead by lap 53.  It was the first lap led for the No. 42 team this season.  It was a surprise to most that a two-car draft worked so well when in years past a longer draft line was always quickest.

Montoya tested the two-car draft again on lap 126 was he got on the bumper of Jeff Gordon and pushed him to the front.  Montoya would remain a front-runner for the remainder of the race.  The caution flag waved on lap 180 and Montoya was running in the fourth position.  He got on the rear bumper of the No. 18 car of Kyle Busch and the two drafted to the front of the field.  Busch and Montoya took the white flag nose to tail, but Montoya never had the opportunity to see of he could overtake the No. 18 car as the caution flag waved during the last lap.  Montoya finished the event in the second position, his first top five of the season.

Montoya gained five positions in the driver standings and now sits 12th and is currently in position to make The Chase.  It is the team’s eighth top-20 finish of the season out of nine races.  The team heads to Richmond International Raceway for a short track race under the lights on Saturday night.

Montoya was one position away from giving team owner Chip Ganassi three race wins in one weekend.  Ganassi’s Grand-Am Sports Car Series team won the Saturday race at Virginia International Raceway, while his IndyCar team captured the win Sunday night in Kansas.

CGRFS Driver Quoteboard:
Montoya:  “I thought it was a pretty good race. Our Juicy Fruit Dodge was pretty good all day.   I fell back to 20th place with about 15 laps to go and made a couple of moves that took me all the way to the front. I really helped Kyle (Busch). When you could get into someone’s bumper, you could push him all the way around the track and make up a bunch a ground. It worked well and I got up to second and then dropped to fifth and got up to second again. It was a pretty cool and interesting race.

“I've loved restrictor plate racing since the first time I came to Talladega, I love it.  The bumping, it's tough; we got a good result today, but you can finish 20th in a heartbeat or 30th.  It's pretty exciting because it takes a lot of strategy and you always have to learn to pick the right lane, and when you pick the lane, you make sure you get enough to make sure the line moves.  It was the first time where you had to be up front to be in position to win, you couldn’t come from the back with five laps to go like they have in the past.”

April 15, 2008
Ganassi swaps crew chiefs for Montoya, Sorenson

In hopes of turning around a season of struggles before it's too late, Chip Ganassi Racing announced a crew chief swap between Juan Montoya and Reed Sorenson.

Donnie Wingo, crew chief for the No. 42 driven by Montoya will shift to the No. 41 of Sorenson beginning with the Aaron's 499 at Talladega Superspeedway on April 27. Jimmy Elledge, crew chief for Sorenson will swap to Montoya's No. 42 team the same week.


Donnie Wingo
"I really feel that these changes can be instrumental in moving Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates to the next level," team owner Chip Ganassi said in a statement. "I have a lot of respect for both Donnie and Jimmy and the jobs that they do and they both agree that this move can be very beneficial to the entire organization."

The switch will be a big change for Montoya and Sorenson as their entire Cup careers have been with their departing crew chief.

"I have said all along that I believe us to be a championship organization and that Felix and I will do whatever we can to make us better," Ganassi said. "This is toward that end."

The crew chief swap comes less than two weeks after Ganassi openly criticized his team's lackluster performance in 2008, pointing to the struggles of Sorenson and rookie driver Dario Franchitti.

"Frankly, there are 46 cars there and if you can't beat three of them, that's pretty pathetic," Ganassi said after Franchitti failed to make the race in Texas. "I certainly have all the faith in the world in [Franchitti's] driving abilities. I don't think it's that. The fact of the matter is we didn't give him a car that was capable of doing it.

"You can't have guys that are fast and guys that are slow. It doesn't make any sense. These guys, these teams are not talking to each other, they are not working together, they are not using all the resources that are available to them. That's how you end up in a fix like this."

While Montoya has shown consistency this season with seven consecutive top-20s and a points ranking of 17th, Sorenson and Franchitti haven't been as fortunate.

Sorenson started the season with a fifth in the Daytona 500 but has since finished 30th or worse in five of the last seven races and is currently 31st in the points standings. Franchitti started the first five races of the season due to the No. 40 car finishing the '07 season in the top 35 of the owner standings, but he had five consecutive finishes of 32nd or worse dropping him out of the current season's top 35.

Franchitti raced his way in at Martinsville and finished 22nd, he didn't qualify for the race at Texas and he made the field at Phoenix and finished 32nd. Franchitti is currently 39th in the owner standings, 40 points behind 35th-place.