FYI WIRZ: NASCAR's Top Watkins Glen Drivers Talk Before and After

Juan Pablo Montoya, behind the wheel of his No. 42 Chevy, dominated the twisting 2.45 mile Watkins Glen International track Sunday at Watkins Glen, N.Y., and gave owner Chip Ganassi one of three wins this weekend. Ganassi’s teams won the Grand Am race at the Glen and the IZOD IndyCar race at Mid-Ohio. 

Montoya carved through clean air nearly all day, leading 74 of 90 laps to get his first win in 113 starts.

An early battle between two road course experts, Juan Pablo Montoya and Marcos Ambrose appeared to be a two car bumper to bumper race. The left and right skills of Ambrose, the Nationwide winner yesterday, in the No. 47 Toyota weren’t enough to overtake Montoya. Kurt Busch finished a strong second by going around Ambrose who crossed the line in third.

Ford engines and team effort put two drivers in the top five while Chevy, Toyota, and Dodge placed one driver each.

Explore the telling words of the top five finishers before the green flag and after the checkers at the Heluva Good! Sour Cream Dips at the Glen, race 22 of 36, in the lengthy ferocious NASCAR season:

Pre-race words are often prophetic: 

Juan Pablo Montoya (No. 42 Chevy) Finished First

Before

“It’s so weird because if I could drive anywhere near what I could drive an open wheel on a road course, we’re good,” Montoya said. “But this thing doesn’t drive like an open wheel, nowhere near. Turn one you can’t touch the brakes, it rolls over. It’s not agile, it doesn’t do anything right on a road course.

"I can drive really good on a road course and I’ll drive it as fast as it will go, but we always are like Sonoma. We’re there but for some reason we haven’t figured out our cars to be good enough.”

After

“It’s great,” Montoya said. “We lost a lot of them and gave away a lot of them. It’s gets frustrating and everybody gets fighting and everything, but this Target team does an amazing job. I want to thank Sprint for supporting this series—it’s an amazing series. I love it and it’s about time to get another one.

“I was really saving the brakes. Last two years here, never had a shot at winning because I was always out of brakes. This time, played it really smart and when it was time to go, we had the car.”

Kurt Busch (No.2 Dodge) Finished Second

Before

“I’ve really enjoyed racing at Watkins Glen through the years and in some respects feel like maybe I’ve thrown away as many good chances to do well there as I have been able to capitalize on at Bristol,” Busch said.

“For the most part, we’ve gone in there having to play it the conservative route in having our eyes set on making the Chase, so we really haven’t tried the things with the fuel mileage and so forth that might have led to some wins along the way.” 

After

“It gave something to me personally to run good on a road course,” Busch said. “To come up short just to Montoya, to beat Ambrose, racing with those two world class guys, it was fun, I learned quite a bit. There's still some room to grow on road racing.

“Any time we can have a close shot at victory, that's what Roger Penske always says, ‘Put yourself in position to win, you'll get those’.”

Marcos Ambrose (No.47 Toyota) Finished Third

Before

“We’ll be a player,” Ambrose said. “We’re really applying ourselves and sticking to the fundamentals. We’re just going to have to wait and see how it all plays out. I’m proud of what we have accomplished as a team in our five year journey, but it would be very special to all of us if we can sneak a win in on Sunday.”

After

“After the last pit stop, we really had nothing for them,” Ambrose said. “Just lost the balance of the race car and struggled. Congratulations to Juan (Pablo Montoya)—he had a great race. It was a lot of fun racing there in the middle part of the race. It was neck and neck. We’re both not running for a championship so there wasn’t much left out there. It was a real thrill to compete against a guy like that.”

A.J. Allmendinger (No.43 Ford) Finished Fourth

Before

“I like racing at Watkins Glen and have had some success there in the past,” Allmendinger said. “Horsepower is big at this track and I know we’ve got good power under the hood, so we’re in good shape there. The rest of it is in our hands and we’re excited about what we think we can do.”

After

"The car was really strong all day,” Allmendinger said. “We didn’t have anything for the 42, he was on another planet. It felt like if we got around the two on the restart and the 47 was fading at the end, I am not sure what was happening there, I felt like maybe we had something for them. It was a solid day. It was a good day in the pits. We need to build on this. It is really cool to sign a multi-year deal and have a great weekend.”

Carl Edwards (No. 99 Ford) Finished Fifth

Before

“We’ve run really well there and this is one of my favorite race tracks on the schedule,” Edwards said. “I’m hoping that the success we’ve had lately in the Nationwide Series on the road courses will help me on the Cup side. The biggest thing we need to focus on is qualifying. We’ve got to qualify better so we can have a leg up at the start of the race.” 

After

“I was really proud of my Aflac crew for putting us on the pole,” Edwards said. “That is the best lap I have ever run at a road course. We fought hard today and we are building momentum. I think everyone out there today was racing with cautious aggression, us included. We needed to get the points and need to be in the Chase. It was just a good solid day.”

FYI WIRZ is the swift presentation of pertinent motorsports topics compiled, condensed and often written by Dwight Drum @ Racetake.com. Quotes provided by NASCAR and Sprint Cup team media.

Photo credit: Juan Pablo Montoya by Dwight Drum @ Racetake.com