Juan Pablo Montoya made auto racing history by winning the Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Infineon Raceway at Sonoma, CA in the NASCAR Nextel Cup. Now that he's won on a road course he needs to win on an oval. He is only the third driver to win the Indy 500, a Formula 1 race & a Nextel Cup race. The other two are Mario Andretti & Dan Gurney. He is also the only the third foreign born driver to win a Nextel Cup race. The other two are Mario Andretti & Canadian Earl Ross. It's not surprising because Montoya is a road course ace. Everything just came together for him.
Pit strategy and fuel mileage are always going to be an issue on a road course. With a smaller fuel cell, fuel mileage and cautions were going to determine whether two or three pit stops were going to be necessary. Robby Gordon led most of the race when a caution fell on lap 68. Most guys made final pit stops but Gordon stayed out and actually pitted after the green flag came out a couple of laps later. He was counting on getting back to the front when the leaders had to make additional pit stops. But that didn't happen. The Richard Childress cars of Kevin Harvick, Jeff Burton & Clint Bowyer were getting excellent fuel mileage and all three finished in the top ten. The Roush Fenway cars of Jamie McMurray & Carl Edwards weren't getting good fuel mileage. They ran out of fuel. Montoya's crew chief Donnie Wingo didn't know if Montoya had enough fuel to finish but he did and he won the race. There were plenty of road course ringers in the race. Boris Said had the best finish at 9th. Canadian favourite Ron Fellows fell victim to fuel mileage and finished 15th. Here's a video rewind of the race.
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