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Steering Failure Forces Texaco/Havoline Team into the Pits
TALLADEGA, AL (April 29, 2007)—Juan Pablo Montoya and the Texaco/Havoline Team were running in the top 10 on lap 149 when a steering failure forced Montoya to bring the car to pit road. The team repaired the car, but fell six laps down to the leaders to finish the Talladega 499 in the 31st position. The team slipped three spots in the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup standings to 19th after nine races this season. He still leads the Raybestos Rookie standings by four points.
Montoya started from the 24th position after a late qualifying draw and effort on Saturday. The temperatures in the Texaco/Havoline Dodge were running pretty high, so Crew Chief Donnie Wingo told Montoya to get as much air into the nose of the car as possible. While several cars dropped back that were having the same issues, Montoya stayed in the lead pack and gained valuable experience drafting.
The team didn't have to make many adjustments to the car during the race; the Texaco/Havoline Dodge was just a little tight after a long run. As Montoya continued to advance to the front, the leaders were all running nose-to-tail by lap 145 with Montoya in ninth with less than 50 laps to go. Unfortunately, just four laps later the team would have a steering failure and Montoya scraped the outside retaining wall. He pitted while the team repaired the car. For the remaining laps, Montoya ran in the back of the pack to avoid any incidents in the closing laps of the race.
Montoya and the Texaco/Havoline team are 19h in the standings, seven points out of 18th and 137 points out of 10th.
On Saturday in the NASCAR Busch Series race, Montoya and the Texaco/Havoline team earned their third top-10 finish of the season with a seventh-place effort. He started the race from the 20th position, led on several different occasions to finish seventh. He moved up to 12th in the NASCAR Busch Series driver standings.
Both Texaco/Havoline teams head to Richmond International Raceway next weekend.
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