Photo Courtesy NASCAR Media

Juan Montoya took NASCAR’s Sprint Cup Series drivers to school Sunday afternoon at Watkins Glen, showing everyone how road course racing was done. It didn’t hurt that Montoya’s No. 42 Chevrolet had an Earnhardt Childress Racing power plant under the hood. Those engines have been bullets all season long.

Montoya led 74 of 90 laps in the Heluva Good! Sour Cream Dips at The Glen. The fastest car doesn’t always win, but today it did.

“Yeah, I think it’s nice,” an exalted Montoya said about the dominating win.” We executed right. I think we did what we had to all day. We ran really smart. I think yesterday we had a good talk with Chip. Last few weeks have been really frustrating for the whole team because we’ve been so close to victory. Seemed to keep slipping away.”

“To come out here today and get the job done the way we did today, it was big. I feel more relieved than happy right now. It’s been a really hard road in a way. It’s been a lot of fun. It’s been frustrating. To finally get that first win for Brian, I think it’s good. I think we can really focus on just getting the job done.”

The win was Montoya’s 2^nd career Sprint Cup victory. His first coming at Sonoma in 2007 at NASCAR’s other Sprint Cup road course.

Winning crew chief Brian Pattie was nearly speechless following the win. “It’s huge,” said Pattie, who blamed himself for a recent near miss at Indy when a decision to take 4 tires on a late race pit stop likely cost Montoya a win at the Brickyard.

Johnson and Hamlin Crash

2 championship contenders were involved in a crash on lap 72. Jimmie Johnson was on the outside of the No. 31 of Jeff Burton when the 2 made contact sending Johnson’s No. 48 into the outside retaining wall before being collected by Hamlin’s No. 11 Toyota. Hamlin and Johnson are 6th and 5th respectively in the point standings following today’s race.

“It’s so stupid. We’re not even racing for the win, we’re racing for 8^th or 10^th,” said a frustrated Denny Hamlin.

Tony Stewart Delivers a Message

Tony Stewart sent Boris Said a message that he wasn’t going to be pushed around when Said drove his No. 83 Toyota to the outside and nearly put Stewart’s No. 14 Chevy in the grass on lap 67. Stewart was shoved nearly off the racetrack by Said and when Stewart finally refused to give the final inch Said’s car was sent spinning into the steel guardrail.

“The 14 dumped us,” said Said’s spotter over the teams 2 way radio following the crash. But Stewart had no other choice. He was simply out of asphalt and had nowhere to go.

“Some idiot tries to run us straight off the racetrack. I’m gonna hold my line,” said Stewart immediately following the crash. Stewart did exactly what he was supposed to do.

Dale Earnhardt Jr scored another 26^th place finish in today’s race. How much longer does this have to go on before Mr. Hendrick decides to do something about it? Or does he even care?

Marcos Ambrose looked to be the only driver with a shot at chasing down Montoya as the final laps ticked off. That is until Montoya radioed in that he felt he had a tire going down.

It looked for a while that there might be a late race caution to give everyone one last shot at Montoya. The No. – car had a flat tire and was putting chunks of rubber in the racetrack. At the same time Robby Gordon’s engine let go sending a cloud of smoke into the air – but apparently no fluid could be spotted on the racing surface. I’ve seen a lot of cautions thrown for a lot less.

Montoya has been on the verge of victory several times recently. Now that he has sealed the deal look for him to repeat.

Have Your Say

Fan comments are always the most important part of the story. So don’t forget to leave yours below.

During driver introductions  this Sunday at Bristol drivers will come onto the stage to a song that they picked out.

Do you know what song Brad Keselowski chose?

Tom Petty’s I Won’t Back Down.

A message for Carl Edwards?

Sports Illustrated has released its Fortunate 50 List – The sporting equivalent of the Fortune 500.

Dale Earnhardt Jr ranks 11^th on this year’s list. He is the highest earning NASCAR driver.

Earnhardt’s earnings were $26,611,290 in 2009 according to the article. Most of that came from endorsement contracts, and not from his Hendrick Motorsports salary or NASCAR winnings.

What do you think about that? Not bad for a kid from Kannapolis who used to be an oil change tech at the local Chevy dealership, is it?

Dale Earnhardt does everything he has to do to win the Daytona 500. Earnhardt dominated the race’s final laps — and in those days when the caution flag flew the driver’s still raced back to the finish line. Every man on every crew came out to congratulate Dale.

It looks like President Obama will not be so quick to ban NASCAR flyovers after all.

Obama is finally listening to you the NASCAR fans. When you said you wanted to keep the flyovers the President heard you loud and clear.

He went out of his way to talk about flyovers in a meeting with several NASCAR drivers Wednesday. Here is what Obama said:

“NASCAR is about a lot more than just racing cars.  It’s about supporting our troops and our veterans, from flyovers and red, white and blue paint jobs on Memorial Day to your visits to Walter Reed and Iraq and Afghanistan that show our appreciation for the brave men and women who are serving our country.”

Thank you for all your comments. NASCAR fans have made one Change in America.

Have you seen the Dale Earnhardt Ladies Gold collector ring from The Franklin Mint? This ring is a limited edition – only 1000 of them were made – and they originally retailed for $695.

I found a few of them on eBay for only $395 – Brand New. This would make a pretty interesting gift for a lady who is an Earnhardt fan.

See the ring on eBay

Everyone complains when Kyle Busch runs off following a race refusing to say a word to anybody – yet when Busch wants to have a few words with Brian Vickers afterthe Carfax 250 at Michigan  NASCAR Officials –  and even Busch’s own team members — want to stand in the way.

NASCAR has said they want drivers to show more personality – yet when they try to there is someone there to stand in the way.

Keselowski Did The Right Thing

Brad Keselowski did exactly what a race car driver is supposed to do on the last lap of Saturday’s CARFAX 250 at Michigan. He ran down the leaders from third place and passed both of them for the win.

“He didn’t deserve to win,” said Kyle Busch of Keselowski.

Does that mean Busch deserved to win even though Keselowski beat him to the finish line?

After Busch and Vickers were separated Kyle had a few strong comments directed toward Vickers.

“Brian Vickers was trying to slow both of us down – just stupid, said Kyle Busch. “ You race with idiots, and I guess you’ll have that sometimes.”

“I’m sure I’m complaining, and I’m whining and I’m a crybaby,” Busch continued.

To his credit, Brian Vickers wasn’t going to go away quietly.

“I am so sorry, I forgot it was the Kyle Busch show,” said Vickers with a sly grin. “I thought we were racing for a win.”

“I thought it was my job to hold him off.  Apparently not. He started crying like a little baby, Vickers said of Busch.

“I asked him to just give me a minute to get out and we could talk about it like men. If he wanted to fight that’s fine with me. As soon as I got out he ran off.”

“The last I checked it wasn’t the Kyle Busch show – it’s the Nationwide race and I’m supposed to race him for the win.”

So if Brian Vickers and Kyle Busch want to talk things over after the race why can’t we just let them talk?

Richard Petty is headed to Indy with John Andretti. Richard Petty Motorsports will field a car to be driven by Andretti in the Indy 500.

Petty and Andretti have won together before. Andretti drove for Petty Enterprises in the NASCAR Cup series from 1998 to 2003. He has also driven cars for A.J. Foyt, Cale Yarborough and DEI.

Andretti has competed in nine previous Indy 500 races. His best finish is 5^th. In 1994 Andretti did double-duty, racing in the Indy 500 and then flying to Charlotte to race in the Coca Cola 600 on the same day.

Richard Petty Motorsports does not currently field a car in the Indy Racing League, so this looks like a one off deal to run Indy

Here’s a quick video of the TV commercial for the Sprint All Star Race at Lowes Motor speedway.

It’s promoted as the All Star Slugfest – a pro-wrestling theme featuring Dale Earnhardt Jr, Tony Stewart, Kyle Busch and more.