Juan Pablo Montoya had just enough fuel left today at Infineon Raceway to take the Toyota/Save Mart 350 for his first-ever Nextel Cup victory. He becomes the 10th different winner this season, the 175th different winner in Cup history, and he’s tied for 115th on the all-time win list. Win #6 for Chip Ganassi (but the first since 2002) was worth $310,600 for Montoya. Well, that in-race reporter thang sure got off to a rocky start, huh? Kevin Harvick (2nd) had his best finish since he won the Daytona 500 in February. Jeff Burton (3rd) had his best finish since he won at Texas in April. Clint Bowyer (4th) had his best finish since he was 3rd at California last September. I wonder if Richard Childress had visions of a 1-2-3 finish dancing in his head? Greg Biffle (5th) had his best finish since he was 5th at Bristol in March. Boris Said (9th) had his best finish since he was 4th at Daytona last July (only five races). P. J. Jones (12th) had his best finish since he was 4th at Watkins Glen in August of 2002! Elliott Sadler (14th) had his best finish since he was 14th at Las Vegas in March. Ron Fellows (15th) had his best finish since he was 8th here in June of 2005 (only four races). Dale Jarrett (26th) had his best finish since he was 22nd at Daytona in February, STREAKIN….Jeff Gordon has 11 Top-10’s in the last 12 races. Tony Stewart has 6 Top-10’s in the last 7 races. Denny Hamlin has 6 Top-10’s in the last 7 races. This Week’s Elevator….UP: Operator of the Week is Jeff Gordon (+34), followed by Juan Pablo Montoya (+31), P. J. Jones (+31), Denny Hamlin (+26), Jimmie Johnson (+25), and Kevin Harvick (+20). DOWN: The Big Dropper was Jamie McMurray (-36), followed by Sterling Marlin (-23), Dave Blaney (-22), and Bobby Labonte (-20). Juan Pablo Montoya led a lap today for the first time in his Nextel Cup career. Ron Fellows led a lap today for the first time since he led twice for 21 circuits when we were here in June of 2003. We’ve now had 46 drivers lead a lap this season….last year we had 48. No change in the Top-5 this week. Jeff Gordon’s lead over Denny Hamlin (pending the penalty we’re expecting this week) is now 271. The best move forward in the points this week goes to Robby Gordon (29th to 24th), while Tony Raines (27th to 32nd) fell the most spots. Among drivers entered this week, Sterling Marlin (24th to 28th) took the negative award.(Stock Car Fans)(6-24-2007)
