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CART: Montoya wins thriller at Michigan by .040 seconds

24 July 2000

Posted By Terry Callahan
Motorsports Editor, The Auto Channel

- Sunday's victory by Juan Montoya is the first-ever in a 500-mile race by a Toyota-powered Champ Car. It's the second straight Toyota win on an oval after Montoya won at Milwaukee in June.

- Montoya's victory is his second of the season and the second ever for Toyota. The win is the ninth career victory for Montoya.

- Juan Montoya's victory today was his second in two 500-mile races this season after winning the Indianapolis 500. Montoya is the first driver to win two 500-milers in one season since Rick Mears in 1991. He can become the first Champ Car driver ever to win three 500-mile races with a win at the season closing Marlboro 500 presented by Toyota at Fontana.

- Juan Montoya led 39 laps in extending his series-high laps led total to 580. In addition, Toyota leads all manufacturers with 662.

- Cristiano da Matta quickly moved up through the field into the top-five after a 14th-position in qualifying only to suffer a pit incident that sidelined him on Lap 142 to finish 17th. It's the fifth consecutive race that da Matta has run in the top-five consistently.

- After leading the first two laps of his Champ Car career, Oriol Servia also lost any chance at victory with consecutive drive through penalties for pit blend lane violations. The Spaniard continued to run strong and finished eighth - his best-ever oval finish. It's Servia's fifth top-10 showing of the season.

- Former Toyota Atlantic ace Memo Gidley earned three Championship points with his second career top-10 finish in his first start for Della Penna Motorsports. Gidley was especially impressive when he blew past the leaders at the midway point of the race to regain a lap.

- With 20 Manufacturer's points today, Toyota has now earned 165 points after 11 races, more than doubling its previous best season total of 80 set last season. Toyota has now closed within four points of Honda for second place in the Manufacturer's Championship and 29 behind leader Ford.

Quotes

Jim Aust, Toyota vice president of motorsports: "What a tremendous race. That's as good as racing gets - Juan Montoya and Michael Andretti side-by-side coming out of the final turn. We're thrilled to win this as an engine manufacturer and just as happy to be the presenting sponsor and give the fans such a great show."

Juan Montoya, #1 Target Toyota: "It was really good. It was very good to run with Michael, it's very clean. You can run side-by-side. I'd pass him and then he'd pass me back, and pass me back and pass me back. We came off the fourth turn side by side and we had two slower cars in front of us and I decided I wasn't going to lift. I would have hit him if I had to (laughing)."

Manufacturer's Championship: Ford 194; Honda 169; Toyota 165; Mercedes-Benz 46

Text provided by John Procida

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