So lets look at this in the day in the life of a Busch Series member..they started there three-week long trip going racing first in California, now its on to Mexico. They left California on there way home, nope, they meet another hauler or transporter in Texas to first unload our two Busch Series California cars including gear and pickup two road course cars and gear and there off. 1700+ miles down through the International borders into Mexico (Passport please!) down to the road course in Mexico City. Friday…its Practice followed by Saturdays Qualifying, what a good race for the lead at the end of the Grand-American Road Racing Series…and now its Sunday, Race day..lineup and were Green.
First, lets skip to the what really made the highlight real and what everyone is talking about, after the restart with somewhere around 9 laps to go, Pruett leads with Montoya just making his way up from somewhere around 19th after a refueling issue of only getting 8 to 10 gallons in the car, now Montoya finds himself in 2nd and he goes down into his hotspot all race long, and contact…Pruett Spins out and Montoya grabs the lead and never looks back, victory, his first career Busch Series win with Denny Hamlin close behind.
Bottom line on this incident: You got two aggressive going for the same piece of real estate, on one hand you got Montoya, he made a rookie error, went down into the corner, he wasn’t up to the door and thought that Pruett was giving him the room. As for Pruett, he was just racing for the lead and had a somewhat late entry into the corner. There’s nothing more to make out of it.
However, I don’t agree with Scott Pruett’s actions following the race, first a hitting Montoya on the cool down lap and then in Post-Race comments, let me get this right now..of all people to take you out, your own teammate, that was just no good,low, nasty dirty driving…At the end of the whole thing, once tapes are reviewed and a couple days have past, everyone will relax and forgive. That’s It.
Finally, what about the race itself, I always enjoy watching this race every year and this race was good, it was down to three drivers, Scott Pruett who ended up finishing 5th, Denny Hamlin, who finished 2nd and of course Juan Montoya who grabbed his first career Busch Series victory.
Going beyond…Back to that three week long trip for that Busch Series member, its back up to Texas, to once again swap out cars including some gear and pickup the Las Vegas’s two Busch cars. Now it’s off to Las Vegas for the 300 miler. After that race, it’s finally time to go back to Concord, Charlotte or where ever home base is.
That little extra piece on that crew member was a piece from NASCAR Now’s insider reporter Marty Smith, he was talking about Busch series teams not getting more money (big purse) to cover these long trips. I strongly agree with you Marty, they need more money to cover these costs, don’t forget, they still have to go north of the border to Canada after the Watkins Glen race….See Yeah!
