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Juan Montoya's six top-10s equal his career high in the Cup Series.By the Numbers: Sonoma
Montoya in his best season coming to site of only win
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Juan Montoya hasn't won a Cup race since Sonoma in 2007 -- that is a stretch of 71 races. But heading into Sunday's Toyota/SaveMart 350 at Infineon Raceway (4:30 p.m. ET, TNT), Montoya is running the best he ever has in his short Cup Series career.
Thanks to an eighth-place finish at Pocono followed by last week's sixth-place run at Michigan, Montoya has posted consecutive top-10s for the first time in the Cup Series. More importantly, he has moved himself up to 14th in points, just 43 behind 12th-place Jeff Burton.
With 11 races left until the Chase, things are shaping up perfectly for the Colombian. He heads to his best track this week, Infineon, where he has a win and a sixth-place finish in two Cup starts. Also upcoming is a trip to the other road course, Watkins Glen, and he has races upcoming at Pocono, Michigan, Bristol and Richmond -- tracks where Montoya has top-10 finishes this season.
"Heading into this weekend is encouraging for us," Montoya said. "We have some momentum, and I expect to see good results. I'm not looking at what races I'm going to run good, like I did before. We're looking at running good every week. I'm pretty encouraged, to be honest."
Inside the Data
Cup Series road course wins (all-time)
| Driver | Wins | Tracks (Wins) |
|---|---|---|
| Jeff Gordon | 9 | Sonoma (5) Watkins Glen (4) |
| Rusty Wallace | 6 | Sonoma (2) Watkins Glen (2) Riverside (2) |
| Bobby Allison | 6 | Riverside (6) |
| Richard Petty | 6 | Riverside (5) Bridgehampton (1) |
| Ricky Rudd | 6 | Sonoma (2) Watkins Glen (2) Riverside (2) |
| Tony Stewart | 6 | Sonoma (2) Watkins Glen (4) |
| Darrell Waltrip | 5 | Riverside (5) |
| Tim Richmond | 5 | Riverside (4) Watkins Glen (1) |
| Dan Gurney | 5 | Riverside (5) |
| David Pearson | 4 | Riverside (3) Bridgehampton (1) |
| Mark Martin | 4 | Watkins Glen (3) Sonoma (1) |
DID YOU KNOW?
21Happy 21st birthday Infineon. Sunday's race will be the 21st ran at the track. In 20 races, there have only been five multiple winners, led by Jeff Gordon and his five victories. Ernie Irvan, Rusty Wallace, Ricky Rudd and Tony Stewart each have two wins.
NECESSITOUS NUMBERS
0Number of top 10s Dale Earnhardt Jr. has at Infineon in nine career starts. His best finish is 11th, which happened twice.
0Number of laps Jeff Gordon has led at Infineon in the last two races. Ironically, Gordon is the all-time lap leader at Infineon with 437 laps led (3.68 percent).
1One driver has made all 20 Cup starts at Infineon -- Terry Labonte. Unfortunately that streak will come to an end, he is not on the entry list for Sunday's race.
3Points that separate Jeff Burton, 12th in the point standings and David Reutimann, ranked 13th. This is the closest margin after 15 races in the history of the Chase.
3Only three drivers have won multiple poles at Infineon: Jeff Gordon, 5; Ricky Rudd, 4; Rusty Wallace, 2.
3Consecutive DNFs for Bobby Labonte at Infineon. He crashed six laps from the finish in 2006; ran out of gas on the final lap in 2007 and had electrical issues nine laps from the finish in 2008.
4The last four races at Infineon have had four different pole-sitters and four different winners. On the pole were: Jeff Gordon, Kurt Busch, Jamie McMurray and Kasey Kahne. The race winners were: Tony Stewart, Jeff Gordon, Juan Montoya and Kyle Busch.
4Number of drivers entered in this week's race with an average finish inside the top 10 at the track: Juan Montoya (3.5), Clint Bowyer (8.0), Jeff Gordon (9.3) and Ryan Newman (9.4).
6Road course veterans entered in this week's race at Sonoma who don't drive in the Cup Series on a regular basis (Boris Said, No. 08; Ron Fellows, No. 09; Brian Simo, No. 36; Chris Cook, No. 37; Patrick Carpentier, No. 55; P.J. Jones, No. 04).
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Infineon Raceway
Cup winners at the track
| Driver | Starts | Wins | Top-fives | Top-10s |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jeff Gordon | 16 | 5 | 10 | 12 |
| Ernie Irvan | 10 | 2 | 4 | 6 |
| Rusty Wallace | 17 | 2 | 9 | 11 |
| Ricky Rudd | 18 | 2 | 10 | 11 |
| Tony Stewart | 10 | 2 | 3 | 6 |
| Robby Gordon | 11 | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| Davey Allison | 5 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Geoffrey Bodine | 11 | 1 | 3 | 5 |
| Juan Montoya | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Dale Earnhardt | 12 | 1 | 4 | 9 |
| Kyle Busch | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Mark Martin | 18 | 1 | 7 | 13 |
Sprint Cup Series
Driver Standings
| Pos. | +/- | Driver | Points | Behind |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | -- | Tony Stewart | 2189 | Leader |
| 2. | -- | Jeff Gordon | 2142 | -47 |
| 3. | -- | Jimmie Johnson | 2047 | -142 |
| 4. | +1 | Kurt Busch | 1961 | -228 |
| 5. | -1 | Ryan Newman | 1934 | -255 |
| 6. | -- | Carl Edwards | 1927 | -262 |
| 7. | -- | Greg Biffle | 1913 | -276 |
| 8. | +5 | Mark Martin | 1868 | -321 |
| 9. | -- | Kyle Busch | 1860 | -329 |
| 10. | +2 | Denny Hamlin | 1849 | -340 |
| 11. | -3 | Matt Kenseth | 1848 | -341 |
| 12. | -2 | Jeff Burton | 1810 | -379 |
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