Avenue Vine

And with Montoya winning the Nextel Cup race and Aric Almirola’s victory in Saturday night’s NASCAR Busch Series race at Milwaukee, Hispanic drivers swept races in both of NASCAR’s top two series on the same weekend, something that’s never happened before. Montoya also became the first foreign-born winner in the Nextel Cup Series since Canadian Earl Ross won at Martinsville 33 years ago.

And the Colombian-born driver said claiming his first Cup was better than winning the Indy 500 or the Long Beach Grand Prix, two other nice entries on Montoya’s resume. “I tell you, this is as big as any victory. You could say it’s as big as winning the Indy 500 or winning Long Beach,” said Montoya. “For me winning Long Beach was probably cooler than winning the Indy 500 because it was my first ever big race. Winning here is my first ever big race in stock cars. They’re all right up there. I kinda think this is my favorite. It’s amazing. We worked hard for it and not only me, but the whole team deserves this.”

For long-suffering team owner Chip Ganassi, who once won four consecutive CART open-wheel championships but hadn’t won a Nextel Cup race in nearly five seasons, the victory was sweet relief. “It means a lot for our entire organization,” said Ganassi. “We’ve had our share of pundits and reasons for those things over the last four or five years. We had a hard time finding the place (victory lane). My hat’s off to everybody in the organization. We all knew we had it in us. Everybody in the organization, from top to bottom, the people that are all running things, we’ve all won races and we all know how to win.”

Ganassi, who worked with Montoya in the team’s CART days, said he always knew Montoya could get it done. “We’ve got a guy who pushes the pedal now and pushes the button,” Ganassi said of his star driver. “That sure helps. It feels pretty good to be here to tell you the truth.”

Finishing behind Montoya at Infineon on Sunday were the Chevrolets of Richard Childress Racing teammates Kevin Harvick, Jeff Burton and Clint Bowyer, while Greg Biffle was fifth in the first of Roush Fenway Racing’s Fords.

That Montoya would win on a road course was hardly surprising. After all, the former Formula 1 and CART racer cut his teeth on road courses and was victorious in the NASCAR Busch Series road race in Mexico City back in March. But on this blisteringly hot day in Northern California, Montoya had his hands full all race long.

He and McMurray waged a furious battle over the final 25 laps of the race around the twisty, 11-turn road course. McMurray held a 0.742-second lead over Montoya on Lap 95 but two laps later he reported his Ford was running out of gas going uphill on the front half of the serpentine road course.

At that point, Montoya went on the attack, leaning hard on McMurray all the way around the 11-corner course. Montoya tried to get around McMurray on Lap 98, but got chopped off. The two got side-by-side, both smoking their tires with 10 laps to go, but again McMurray held sway.

On Lap 102, Montoya dove incredibly deep into Turn 11, a hairpin corner that’s both the tightest and the final turn on the course. Montoya took the lead for a second, but ran wide with his aggressive passing attempt, which handed the lead right back to McMurray.

Finally, Montoya made the winning pass in Turn 2 on Lap 104, when he dove under McMurray and immediately pulled away. But crew chief Donnie Wingo calculated that Montoya would be tight on fuel, perhaps running out before the end of the race.

Regardless, the team rolled the dice as did the Roush Fenway crew of McMurray. “The fuel mileage is what saved us,” said Wingo, who all race long urged Montoya to conserve fuel.

It worked for Montoya but not for McMurray, who ironically had given car owner Ganassi his last victory when he was a rookie in 2002 and drove for the team. Unfortunately for McMurray, instead of finishing second, he ran out of the gas on 110th and final lap and ended up a heartbreaking 37th.

Montoya cruised across the finish line 4.097 seconds ahead of Harvick and the three RCR cars, earning himself the victory and a place in history on a day that long will be remembered in NASCAR lore.

He already holds a firm place in his boss’s heart. “The guy likes the action. A week or so ago or 10 days ago he was in Eldora in a dirt car. How many guys have been on the Eldora dirt and been on the streets of Monte Carlo?” Ganassi said of Montoya. “That just tells you the guy has the disease. He has the fever. He likes the action and that’s what’s fun about working with him. It’s not about the money. It’s about the action and that’s what’s fun. It’s easy to work hard for a guy like that.”

Sonoma, Calif. – June 26, 2007