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Montoya outruns Ambrose for Watkins Glen win

Sun 8th, August 2010

Watkins Glen, NY (Sports Network) - It was a long-time coming, but Juan Pablo Montoya finally is back in victory lane in the Sprint Cup Series.

Montoya claimed his second victory in the series with a dominating performance in Sunday's Heluva Good! Sour Cream Dips at The Glen at Watkins Glen International.

The 34-year-old Colombian led 74 of 90 laps around the 2.45-mile road course and easily beat Kurt Busch at the finish by 4.7 seconds to snap a 113-race winless streak in NASCAR's top-tier series. His first win came in June 2007 at the road course in Sonoma, CA.

"It's been a long time to get another one," Montoya said.

Since his win at Sonoma, Montoya had several wins slip away from him late in the race, particularly in the past two Brickyard 400s at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

"We've lost a lot of them and gave away a lot of them," Montoya said. "It gets frustrating and everybody gets fighting, but this team does a nice job."

In the previous weeks, there had been tension between Montoya and crew chief Brian Pattie over pit stop strategies. The friction between the two eased up somewhat at Watkins Glen, where Montoya gave Pattie his first Sprint Cup win.

"I still want to win on an oval to prove this point," Pattie said. "We've been fast every week, and the Brickyard [400] two weeks ago was my fault, but this makes up for it a little bit."

Marcos Ambrose, who won his third consecutive Nationwide race at Watkins Glen on Saturday, led eight laps early and then ran second to Montoya until Busch passed him for the position on the final lap. Busch's runner-up finish marked his career-best performance on a road course.

"We had a hard-fought battle today," Busch said. "Montoya raced smart, and Ambrose stayed there in the mix."

Ambrose, looking for his first career Sprint Cup win, settled for third place.

"We tried hard all day," Ambrose said. "Congratulations to Juan. He drove a heck of a race. It was a lot of fun there in the middle part of the race. He wasn't giving me anything."

A.J. Allmendinger and Carl Edwards, the pole sitter, rounded out the top-five.

Jamie McMurray finished sixth, followed by Tony Stewart, who is a record five- time race winner at Watkins Glen, including a victory here one year ago.

Kyle Busch rebounded for an eighth-place finish after experiencing a mechanical issue that held him up on pit lane during most of the pace laps. Busch had to start the race from the rear of the field.

Jeff Burton finished ninth.

Kevin Harvick held a top-10 spot on the final lap, but blew a left-rear tire, which dropped him in the field to an 11th-place finish. Harvick now holds a 185-point lead over Jeff Gordon, who finished one spot ahead of him in 10th.

Jimmie Johnson, who won his first road course race earlier this season at Sonoma, struggled at Watkins Glen. With 21 laps remaining, Johnson spun around and hit the wall before collecting Denny Hamlin. Both drivers were running in the top-10 at the time.

"It's just so stupid; we're not racing for the win," Hamlin said. "It's just guys dive bombing on each other, and that's how these race course races are."

Johnson and Hamlin lead the series with five victories each so far this season.

With his 19th-place finish, Mark Martin moved up to the coveted 12th position. Martin is 10 points ahead of Clint Bowyer, who dropped one position to 13th after his 32nd-place run. Fan favorite Dale Earnhardt Jr. fell to 16th in the rankings after finishing 26th. Earnhardt Jr. is 121 points behind Martin, his Hendrick Motorsports teammate, with four races remaining before the championship Chase begins next month at New Hampshire.