Juan Pablo Montoya cruised to victory in the Heluva Good at the Glen, winning by almost 5 seconds over Kurt Busch, who passed Marcos Ambrose for second on the last lap. That was Montoya’s first victory since 2007 at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma.
Montoya's win was also the first for crew chief Brian Pattie, whose pit-strategy decision late in the race at Indianapolis Montoya a great chance to win Brickyard 400. And bad luck was keep pursuing Montoya the whole season although he had a strong car but was unable to produce solid finishes.
"To come out and get the job done the way we did, 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 just focus on getting the job done.
It's been frustrating because you could see the performance getting better and better. Even last year in the Chase -- we finished second, finished third, finished second, finished third -- that freaking win would never come, so it was getting frustrating.
I think this is a big relief for everybody," Montoya said. I think getting the first win [this season] and first win for Brian, it's a big boost for the whole team. We just have to keep doing our job. I guarantee you we're going to have good weeks and bad weeks and you'll hear things on the radio -- hopefully not as much."
Although Montoya finished with a significant time gap, race was actually a duel between the Colombian ace the Australian Marcos Ambrose who was victorious at the Nationwide Series race at the Glen.
For 30 laps into the race, both of them were engaged in a spirited battle for the lead, Ambrose following in Montoya’s tire tracks for lap after lap before finally making the pass and noone else was in the same pace as they battled at the front. Montoya returned to first a few laps later, and Ambrose again stalked him from second place. Duel between them was hard and a single mistake could have been costy but Montoya eventually managed to drive away his competitor although the caution sessions that took place.
One of the most significant took place with 25 laps to go when Tony Stewart and Boris Said were in another battle, wrestling for 9th place. Unfortunately their duel sent Said's RedBull car into the wall and caused to it serious rear-end damage.
5 laps later, defending series champion Jimmie Johnson, who was out of top-10 for the whole race(just like all Hendrick Motorsports team) crashed due to heavy traffic in the circuit’s final turn. Johnson, Kyle Busch and Jeff Burton rolled into the turn three-wide as Busch tried to make an inside pass. Johnson was crowded out of the picture and into the wall. Moreover, Johnson’s slide into the wall produced a cloud of smoke in the turn, and that led to Denny Hamlin crashing into Johnson’s car.
A.J. Allmendinger finished strongly 4rth followed by pole-sitter Carl Edwards.
Jamie McMurray, Tony Stewart, Kyle Busch, Jeff Burton and Jeff Gordon rounded out the top 10.
