Montoya’s Chase Hopes Take A Big Blow

Jared Turner
SceneDaily.com

FORT WORTH, Texas – Juan Pablo Montoya’s already-dwindling hopes of winning the 2009 NASCAR Sprint Cup title suffered another blow with a wreck on lap 174 of Sunday’s Dickies 500 at Texas Motor Speedway.
 
Montoya was running just inside the top 20 when his Earnhardt Ganassi Racing Chevrolet broke loose and slid up the track in Turn 1, collecting fellow Chase For The Sprint Cup driver Carl Edwards and sending both to the garage.
 
“It was just really close racing,” Montoya said. “I think Carl was really close to me and drove right beside me and the car got loose and I lost it. With these cars, that is just going to happen.
 
“Everyone on the [team] is doing an amazing job. This week we didn’t have the car we wanted, but we were getting better and better as the day went on. It kinda sucks, but things like this happen.”
 
Montoya, who entered the race fourth in the standings and 239 points out of the lead, fell to sixth in the standings with his 37th-place finish. The former open-wheel star failed to capitalize on the misfortunes of points leader Jimmie Johnson, who was involved in a crash on lap three and spent just over an hour undergoing repairs.

Jared Turner is a staff writer for NASCAR Scene. For more racing news, visit SceneDaily.com.
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