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Watkins Glen: Juan Pablo Montoya NASCAR Nextel Cup Race Quotes - Incident with Harvick
Juan Montoya was involved in an on-track incident which sent him to the garage for repairs. He returned to the track with a handful of laps to go, only to have his clutch freeze, ending his day early.
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA (#42 WRIGLEY'S BIG RED/TEXACO DODGE AVENGER) Finished 39th
WHAT HAPPENED OUT THERE TODAY? “We had a very long first gear. Our restarts were always slow. It’s a little disappointing because we had a really fast car. I went for the inside to defend against the No. 1 car and he spun me. When he spun me I got backwards into the 29. He got out of the car, came out disrespectful, saying all kinds things, grabbed me and I don’t appreciate that. I race very clean. I give people space and if you are not going to respect me I am not going to respect them either. It’s pretty disappointing to see a guy like that do such a thing.
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 | “I went to Kevin and said ‘It wasn’t my fault. I got hit from behind.’ He started shouting and grabbing me and I don’t appreciate that. If it was my fault I would have gone and said, ‘It was my fault.’ I have a little respect for the guy, well I use to have a little respect for the guy like that, because he helped me a lot to start with. I tried to tell him this.”
WERE YOUR CHANCES GOOD UP TO THAT POINT OF THE RACE? “I think so. Our car in the longer runs was really fast and I was really taking care of the car and the breaks. It was really disappointing.”
TALK ABOUT YOUR DAY: "We got spun by the No. 1 car and we collected the 29 and then the 31 collected us. It crushed our transmission, everything. We tried to fix it but we couldn’t.
HOW DISAPPOINTED ARE YOU? “It’s disappointing because we had a fast car. We thought we had a car that could win the race. We were conserving the car for the end of the race. We were in the top five. But that’s that.”
WHO WOULD HAVE WON THE FIGHT, IF THERE HAD BEEN A FIGHT? "I wouldn’t fight. I don’t fight.”
HOW TOUGH IS IT TO CONTROL YOUR TEMPER IN THAT SITUATION? "You’ve got to stand up for yourself but there’s a certain line you don’t want to cross – at least I don’t try to cross it.”
DONNIE WINGO (Crew Chief, No. 42 Wrigley’s Big Red/Texaco Dodge Avenger)
COULD YOU TELL WHAT CAUSED THE ACCIDENT? “Not really. We were having trouble getting started on the restarts. He kind of went to the bottom to defend his position and the No. 1 car got into him and spun him going down into one. Then he got him into those other cars.”
WHAT HAPPENED WITH HARVICK? “I don’t know what the deal was there. That’s just one of those deals where both of them are upset. No harm, no foul.”
DID THE TEAM HAVE A CHANCE TODAY? “It was one of those deals where we were going to have to wait and see. We had a really good car and we could run some fast lap times. It just took us a few laps to get going.”
DO YOU FEEL LIKE YOU HAVE THE RIGHT PIT STRATEGY FOR THE END OF THE RACE? “I think our pit strategy was fine. We were up front where we needed to be at the end. We had a lot of cautions there toward the end. We just didn’t get any green flag runs and that’s something we needed.”
CHIP GANASSI, (OWNER, CHIP GANASSI RACING WITH FELIX SABATES)
DID YOU HAVE A CAR TO REPEAT SONOMA TODAY? “I don’t know if we had a car to win but we had a top-three car. I don’t know if we had enough for the very, very front. Mileage might have played into the last laps, but we certainly had a car that could finish top three.”
WHO WOULD YOU PICK IN THE FIGHT? “I’ve got to stick with my guy. You aren’t allowed to bet on your own team. I don’t want to end up like Pete Rose betting on my own team but I would have bet on my guy.”
BILLY WILBURN (Crew Chief #45 Marathon Oil Dodge Avenger)
WHAT HAPPENED TO THE CAR? “Something happened up through the esses. We got into the back end of Dale Jarrett. I guess we got up under the back of him. It’s pushed the oil cooler back into the oil filters, pretty much lost the oil, kicked the bottom out of the motor and now we’re done.
“It wasn’t (Jarrett’s) fault. Everybody piled up and we just didn’t have anywhere to go.”
WHAT WERE THE PROBLEMS AT THE START WITH THE TRANSMISSION – “I have no idea. He went to second gear and when we tried to go to third gear and when he got to third gear he said, ‘something’s wrong with the transmission’ and when he tried to downshift to get through one it shucked all the teeth off second gear.”
PaddockTalk Perspective
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