Montoya Finishes 18th at Michigan

June 16, 2014


THE RACE

Quicken Loans 400 at Michigan International Speedway (two-mile speedway, Brooklyn, Mich.)
Sunday, June 15, 2014
 

THE RESULTS
 
The No. 12 SKF Ford Fusion

Driver: Juan Pablo Montoya
Starting Position: 28
Finish Position: 18
 
 
THE RACE REVIEW
 
· Making his first NASCAR Cup Series (NSCS) start of 2014, Juan Pablo Montoya qualified the No. 12 SKF Ford Fusion in the 28th position on Friday afternoon.

· As the 200-lap race began, Montoya radioed to crew chief Greg Erwin that his Ford was running extremely loose while entering the Michigan International Speedway (MIS) corners. A lap four caution gave Montoya an opportunity to come to pit road for four tires and adjustments to the track bar and air pressure. Montoya restarted the race from the 38th position on lap seven.

· While the adjustments had little effect on the loose-handling condition, Montoya was able to turn laps a quicker than the cars between him and the top 10 cars.

· After falling one lap down to the race leaders during green-flag pit stops, Montoya put the SKF Ford into position to earn the “Lucky Dog” award as he returned to lead-lap racing under a lap 113 caution period.

· Montoya restarted the race from the 21st position at lap 120. After another quick caution brought many of the leaders down pit road, Erwin kept his driver on the racetrack to restart from the seventh position on lap 128.

· Unfortunately, the adjustments made throughout the day to the SKF Ford resulted in a tight-handling condition late in the race. As a result, Montoya surrendered several positions before crossing the finish line in 18th place.

· Montoya’s next NSCS race will be the Brickyard 400 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on July 27. 
 

WHAT THEY ARE SAYING

JUAN PABLO MONTOYA, NO. 12 SKF FORD

WHAT KIND OF RACE DID YOU HAVE IN YOUR FIRST SERIES START OF THE YEAR?

“The SKF Ford Fusion started the race really, really loose and we were not really expecting that based on practice. It’s hard because we went from practice to the race without really changing that much and it was just very hard to drive. We finally started catching up and everyone did a good job. I got the lucky dog and we were getting better and then I think we went a little too far with the car at the end, but we’re learning and understanding a little more about these new cars.”