Montoya wins Nascar race

Changing lanes;Colombian becomes the first foreign winner in 30 years

Juan Pablo Montoya, the Colombian ex-Formula One driver, took Nascar’s Nextel Cup to become the first foreign winner on the top North American stock-car circuit in more than 30 years.

Montoya conserved fuel in his No. 42 Dodge Avenger to outlast pole-sitter Jamie McMurray, who ran out of gas with two laps left at the Infineon Raceway road course in Sonoma, California. Kevin Harvick finished second in the No. 29 Chevrolet Impala, 4.1 seconds behind. It was Montoya’s first win in 17 Nextel Cup starts and Dodge’s first victory of the year.

“It’s huge,” Montoya said. “I would say right now it’s the biggest thing I’ve done. In open wheel, that’s what I was meant to be winning in. In stock cars, I wasn’t. To get our first win in our first year is huge. We know we’re a little bit behind on some of the ovals, but I think this is a big boost for everybody working in the shop.”

Montoya, whose only other Nascar victory came earlier this year in a Busch Series race on the road course in Mexico City, passed McMurray, who now drives for Roush Fenway Racing, eight laps from the end and stayed out front of the 110 lap event on the 1.9 mile (3 kilometre), 12 turn course.

“I was very surprised by the level of the drivers here on the road course,” Montoya said. “In Mexico, we had a really good car and the top five cars were really strong. But, behind that, it was really easy.”

The winner got past McMurray for a moment two laps earlier, driving his Dodge past McMurray’s Ford in the slow hairpin near the end of the circuit, but Montoya got too wide and McMurray was able to squeeze back by.

The pass that counted came in turn two, with Montoya getting under McMurray’s car and passing easily. “I saw he was always hugging that corner and I thought, ‘This is it.’ I knew I could pass him there,” Montoya said.

Donnie Wingo, his crew chief, said it was mostly Montoya’s ability to conserve fuel that won the race. Wingo figured Montoya would run out about a lap short of the end.
“Today, we had to play a little bit of catch-up, so we had to take a gamble there at the end,” Wingo said. “He did a great job on saving fuel, everybody did a good job on the stops and the motor shop did a great job. Without the fuel mileage we’d have never made it.”