Montoya Claims First NEXTEL Cup Victory at Infineon Raceway

Montoya posted a 4.097-second margin of victory over Kevin Harvick at the end, with Jeff Burton third, followed by Clint Bowyer and Greg Biffle.

Juan Pablo Montoya, returning to his “roots” of road-course racing, outfoxed his competition with fuel strategy and outran them when he needed to Sunday to win the Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Infineon Raceway.

SONOMA, Calif. - Juan Pablo Montoya, returning to his “roots” of road-course racing, outfoxed his competition with fuel strategy and outran them when he needed to Sunday to win the Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Infineon Raceway.

Montoya dueled Jamie McMurray at the end and passed him going into the second turn seven laps from the finish, then held his breath for his fuel load to hold up the rest of the way.

In doing so, he became the first foreign driver in 33 years to win a race in NASCAR’s top series, the first rookie ever to conquer the competition in the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup series at Infineon, got the first win of his NASCAR NEXTEL Cup career and joined an elite circle of drivers who have won a Formula One race, an Indy car race and a race in NASCAR’s top series.

The only other two to achieve the latter feat were Mario Andretti and Dan Gurney.

Montoya posted a 4.097-second margin of victory over Kevin Harvick at the end, with Jeff Burton third, followed by Clint Bowyer and Greg Biffle.

Jeff Gordon, who was forced to start at the rear because of a technical inspection violation on Friday, ran a steady race to seventh and maintained a 271-edge in series points over Denny Hamlin.

Montoya crushed the Infineon Raceway record for most improvement from starting position by a race winner after starting 32nd.

The previous best was 13th to first by the late Davey Allison on June 9, 1991.

The race tied the Infineon race record for most lead changes – 11 among eight drivers.

There were also 11 lead changes in 2000 among seven drivers.

“I know I’m running third with 20 to go and I picked up the pace a little bit,” Montoya said. “I passed Kevin, then I started working on Jamie. It’s really hard here to save a lot of fuel. I found I was saving fuel through Turn One and a couple other places just being patient on the throttle.”

McMurray, who was employing the same strategy to save fuel, ran out on the last lap and finished 37th after holding back the veteran road racer lap after lap.

Montoya picked up $310,600 of the record Infineon posted awards of $5,477,835.

Toyota/Save Mart 350 Results:

Pos. Driver Start No. Mfg. Led Completed Status Pts/Bonus Money

1. Juan Pablo Montoya 32 #42 Dodge 7 110 running 190/5 $310,600

2. Kevin Harvick 22 #29 Chevrolet 0 110 running 170/0 $241,561

3. Jeff Burton 6 #31 Chevrolet 0 110 running 165/0 $189,616

4. Clint Bowyer 10 #07 Chevrolet 0 110 running 160/0 $129,725

5. Greg Biffle 17 #16 Ford 0 110 running 155/0 $123,875

6. Tony Stewart 5 #20 Chevrolet 6 110 running 155/5 $147,961

7. Jeff Gordon 41 #24 Chevrolet 0 110 running 146/0 $136,986

8. Kyle Busch 24 #5 Chevrolet 0 110 running 142/0 $105,350

9. Boris Said 4 #160 Ford 0 110 running 138/0 $91,900

10. Denny Hamlin 36 #11 Chevrolet 3 110 running 139/5 $105,875

11. Ricky Rudd 28 #88 Ford 0 110 running 130/0 $116,083

12. P.J. Jones 43 #00 Toyota 0 110 running 127/0 $98,408

13. Dale Earnhardt Jr. 3 #8 Chevrolet 0 110 running 124/0 $125,808

14. Elliott Sadler 12 #19 Dodge 0 110 running 121/0 $100,645

15. Ron Fellows 11 #96 Chevrolet 3 110 running 123/5 $91,200

16. Robby Gordon 2 #7 Ford 48 110 running 125/10 $92,900

17. Jimmie Johnson 42 #48 Chevrolet 1 110 running 117/5 $129,661

18. Carl Edwards 15 #99 Ford 12 110 running 114/5 $87,775

19. Bill Elliott 7 #21 Ford 0 110 running 106/0 $98,214

20. Ryan Newman 9 #12 Dodge 0 110 running 103/0 $110,550

21. J.J. Yeley 33 #18 Chevrolet 0 110 running 100/0 $107,483

22. Kurt Busch 14 #2 Dodge 0 110 running 97/0 $110,783

23. Kasey Kahne 8 #9 Dodge 0 110 running 94/0 $120,641

24. Martin Truex Jr. 18 #1 Chevrolet 0 110 running 91/0 $101,795

25. David Gilliland 35 #38 Ford 0 110 running 88/0 $102,539

26. Dale Jarrett 16 #44 Toyota 0 110 running 85/0 $70,900

27. Casey Mears 38 #25 Chevrolet 0 110 running 82/0 $88,375

28. Butch Leitzinger 30 #36 Toyota 0 110 running 79/0 $69,800

29. David Ragan 37 #6 Ford 0 110 running 76/0 $109,100

30. Regan Smith 26 #01 Chevrolet 0 110 running 73/0 $97,408

31. Johnny Sauter 34 #70 Chevrolet 0 110 running 70/0 $72,475

32. David Stremme 40 #40 Dodge 0 110 running 67/0 $72,230

33. Bobby Labonte 13 #43 Dodge 0 109 running 64/0 $109,056

34. Matt Kenseth 27 #17 Ford 0 109 running 61/0 $117,596

35. Terry Labonte 25 #55 Toyota 0 109 running 58/0 $83,028

36. Marc Goossens 21 #191 Toyota 0 109 running 55/0 $68,760

37. Jamie McMurray 1 #26 Ford 30 109 running 57/5 $85,525

38. Joe Nemechek 39 #13 Chevrolet 0 109 running 49/0 $68,510

39. Kyle Petty 23 #45 Dodge 0 108 running 46/0 $80,058

40. Reed Sorenson 29 #41 Dodge 0 105 running 43/0 $85,797

41. Dave Blaney 19 #22 Toyota 0 97 running 40/0 $76,125

42. Jeff Green 31 #66 Chevrolet 0 68 accident 37/0 $76,030

43. Sterling Marlin 20 #14 Chevrolet 0 12 engine 34/0 $68,188

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