Race 2 Win: Busch Series Race Notes

NASCAR Busch Series

Carquest Auto Parts 300 - Juan Pablo Montoya Notes

Juan Pablo Montoya
Busch Advance
Lowe's Motor Speedway

Race: Carquest Auto Parts 300 on Saturday, May 26, 2007
Track: Lowe’s Motor Speedway (1.5-mile quad-oval)
Location: Concord, N.C.

Juan Pablo Montoya and the No. 42 Texaco/Havoline Team Facts:

Hamlin Races at Lowe’s Motor Speedway (LMS): CGRFS development driver Kevin Hamlin competed at LMS last Friday night in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series (NCTS) race, competing for Bobby Hamilton Racing (BHR). Hamlin piloted the No. 4 Dodge in the late-night competition to a 25th-place finish (started 26th). This season Hamlin has been sharing the seat of the No. 42 Texaco/Havoline Busch Dodge with Juan Pablo Montoya, making his first official run in the No. 42 Dodge last month at Nashville Superspeedway. Friday night’s race was Hamlin’s second for BHR. He started the 2006 season competing in the NCTS season-opener at Daytona International Speedway for BHR and finished 11th. Altogether, Hamlin has tallied three NCTS starts and 16 NBS starts during his young stock car career. To learn more about Hamlin, go to www.kevinhamlin.com.

Happy Belated Birthday: The No. 42 Busch team has two birthday boys on board this weekend going into Saturday night’s race at LMS. Engine tuner Felipe Vazquez celebrated a birthday Monday, May 21, and team engineer David Mazer will be celebrating his birthday Wednesday, May 23.

Some Good Racing Fun: Crew chief Brad Parrott and his Texaco/Havoline team, including Montoya and Hamlin, took one afternoon off last week for a little team bonding. The Texaco/Havoline crew raced one another in a karting event in Charlotte for pure bragging rights. While Montoya took the checkered flag, he was disqualified for not having a valid North Carolina driver’s license. The trophy was awarded to Todd Drakulich, a mechanic and tire carrier for the No. 42 Busch team.

The Last Time I was at LMS … The last time Parrott raced at LMS was October 2006 with Casey Mears behind the wheel of the No. 42 Dodge. Mears and Parrott put on quite a show in the closing laps of the fall race. Going into the last 20 circuits, the No. 42 Dodge was leading but pitted for fuel during a late-race caution. NASCAR red flagged the race to determine the scoring order after all of the teams made their final pit stops. Mears had been shown as the leader, but eventually was moved back to second behind Carl Edwards for the restart on lap 192. The two drivers began to battle it out on the track. Mears was trying to make the pass on several different lines, as Edwards was doing his best to keep Mears behind him. Then, as Mears was making the pass on the high side of Edwards the Texaco/Havoline Dodge got up into the loose marbles on lap 198 and spun, collecting Edwards in the process. Mears and team called it a night just a few laps shy of the finish line in 26th place.

Testing Things Out, Too: In addition to Reed Sorenson’s test run at LMS last week in the No. 42 Busch car, Montoya tested things out on Tuesday, May 15, in the No. 42 car to get ready for this weekend’s upcoming Saturday night race.

Where They Stand: After their most recent run at Darlington Raceway that concluded with a 15th-place finish, the No. 42 Texaco/Havoline Busch team still stands ninth in the NBS owner point ranks. The team is just 143 points outside the top five.

Rookie Rundown: Montoya stands second in the NASCAR Busch Series (NBS) Raybestos® Rookie ranks, just two points behind rookie class leader David Ragan. Montoya has scored rookie of the race honors four times this 2007 NBS season—at Richmond, Phoenix, Mexico City and Atlanta. On the Cup side of things, Montoya leads Ragan by four points (120-116) in the Raybestos® Rookie standings entering Sunday’s 600-mile NEXTEL Cup race at LMS. Just like his NBS efforts, Montoya has also earned Rookie of the Race honors four times this season in NEXTEL Cup competition—at Darlington, Texas, Atlanta and Las Vegas.

Chassis: Brad Parrot and the No. 42 Texaco/Havoline team are bringing chassis #557 to race at LMS this weekend. The chassis last raced at Texas Motor Speedway where Montoya got caught up in an accident and finished 30th.