Montoya's crew get ready to repair the rear quarter panel Getty Images/Rusty Jarrett

In less than 10 seconds, the 2009 Cup title bid of Juan Montoya came to a stunning end. On a restart Montoya checked up and Mark Martin crumpled up the passenger side quarter panel of the #42 car, and Montoya’s race came to a terrible end.

Really though a lot of us have been awaiting Montoya to stumble in the chase. Through the first four races he finished in the top five and no one not named Jimmie Johnson can keep that kind of run going. Especially not a team that is still learning what it takes to be an elite Cup series team.

Elite teams do not let the driver nurse a wounded car around the track, elite teams do not allow this kind of damage to cost them two laps, and elite teams fix the car right the first time. These are all things that Montoya’s team could not do, and if they want to be an elite team, they will need to do these kinds of things in the future.

After the chain reaction restart that damaged Montoya’s car Crew Chief Brian Pattie had his crew building a new rear quarter panel for his car. The problem with that is by the time they had it completed Montoya had already lost one lap on the track and after spinning out lost another. At the very point not only was his race over, but his chase was over as well.

Not to take anything away from this group, because they have done a great job in the chase up till this point, but the major error came when they did not get the car fixed that first time in. They merely pop screwed the quarter panel onto the car, without securing it with Bar Bond tape.

Montoya should not have been allowed to take his #42 Lysol Chevy back onto the track until that car was completely fixed. They were already two laps down, so there was virtually no chance of securing a lucky dog. Staying in the pits to fix that car the right way was the only shot, this team had at scoring as many points as possible.

Had they fixed the car the right way, the first time there is no telling where Juan would have finished. Since he ended up second among the three cars four laps down, maybe he could have ended up first among the cars three laps down. That would be a point’s swing of 10 or so points.
More simply no team can afford to give up 10 points to the #48 team or the rest of the chase races. While those ten points may not ultimately matter, an elite Cup team gets those ten points.

After finishing 35th Montoya is now sixth in points 195 points behind the #48 car, and his Cup title bid, appears to be at an end.