Stewart-Montoya tiff leaves behind trail of wreckage

FORT WORTH, Texas -- Two wrecks in the space of 13 laps Sunday at Texas Motor Speedway left four men disappointed, one irate, another confused and, for all intents and purposes, set up Jeff Burton's victory in the Samsung 500.

The potential race winners included Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kyle Busch, who were both running in the top three when their hopes were crushed; and Tony Stewart, winner of the most recent TMS Nextel Cup race, who had a top-10 car for most of the race.

Lap-by-Lap: Texas

There was plenty of action at Texas late in the race, but it all began with a bang, as well, with a multi-car crash on Lap 1.

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The first of the two cautions, at Lap 240, came when Stewart and Juan Montoya, who were racing for ninth and 10th, respectively, came together in Turns 3 and 4.

The dispute left some ill feeling among the two fiery competitors and the Colombian, Montoya, shaking his head after parking his No. 42 Dodge.

"I don't know," Montoya said. "He [Stewart] just got really close to me, he got me loose, I went into him and he spun.

"I tried to pass him three or four times and he never gave me room. I went in a little different and got really loose, and I don't know what happened. We touched a little bit and the next I see he's spinning."

Stewart, whose temper is legendary, shook a verbal fist after he exited his No. 20 Chevy post-race. Apparently, he was also upset with Montoya, who competed in his eighth career Nextel Cup race, about a move the former open-wheel standout pulled on a restart.

"He just got inside of us and wrecked us -- it's just racing, I guess," Stewart said of the spin. "When you're a rookie you do stuff like that so it's just part of racing.

"He pulled [a rookie mistake] before that. He was racing, trying to get by [when Stewart wrecked]. You earn respect by doing things that are smart out there and trying to pull out of line with 110 laps to go coming to the green flag doesn't make much sense.

"If you race people with respect you get respect. If you do stuff like that and try to race people before you get to the start/finish line [you don't get respect].

"Then when I raced him, I raced him. And he took us out. That's just what happened. I think he was [too aggressive] on the restart. I've kind of adopted a Matt Kenseth motto.

"I'm going to race people how they race me. When you do something like that and try to get me in a bad spot on a restart, if you're racing that hard in the beginning then why shouldn't I race him hard?

"I've got the same right to do the same thing but he took us out."

Notes: Ten speeds

Chip Ganassi got his money's worth from Juan Montoya on Sunday at Texas. And from David Stremme, too, as both drivers posted top-10 finishes.

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Montoya, who finished eighth for his second career top-10 finish, said he tries to give all his competitors respect, but he had no intention of just moving over.

"I don't think Chip [Ganassi] hired me to run 20th every weekend, and I didn't come here to run 20th every weekend," Montoya said. "Is [contact] going to happen? Yeah, it's going to happen a lot of weekends, but our aim is to run up front.

"I think anybody that's seen me race knows that I'm not going to back down. I respect everybody. Anybody who has a run at me I'll give them enough room to race, but [the wreck with Stewart was] just racing."

Stewart, who persevered to finish 25th, two laps down, softened a little, within moments of his first tirade, but ended by saying it would take Montoya a while to get back in his good graces.

"Honestly, I don't blame him [because] you can't expect him to learn everything in four or five weeks," Stewart said. "He's got more talent than anybody's ever had over there on that team and he's got the best shot to do good on that team right now with the exception of David Stremme.

"Stremme's got a good shot, too. Maybe Ganassi doesn't pay [Montoya] to run in the back but you might want to be just a little bit more patient, just long enough to learn everything and how everything's done over here.

"He didn't make friends with me [Sunday] so he won't get any help from me in the future."

The side-to-side contact caused Stewart to spin into Turn 4 and collect Jimmie Johnson, who had fallen back from second about a dozen laps earlier when his No. 48 Chevrolet's engine started to lie down.

"I expected [Stewart] to spin out of the way, I didn't expect him to stay in the way," Johnson said. "At this point I am just trying to stay out of the way and not get rear-ended. Unfortunately I ran right into Tony.

"I couldn't see through the smoke. Tony had a lazy spin on the inside and I knew he wasn't going to get on the apron. I figured he'd come back across the track so I went as low as I could.

"I could see [Johnny Sauter] coming hard behind me in my mirror. I tried to keep moving so he wouldn't rear-end me but unfortunately [Stewart] didn't slide up out of the way."

The mishap epitomized Stewart's frustration with his car's handling, which he overcame to the tune of being listed in the top 10 at nine of the 12 checkpoints before the fateful incident on Lap 239.

"I don't know if we had a winning car but we had a solid top-10 car, no problem," Stewart said. "It was a totally different racecar than [Saturday], obviously."

The accident with Stewart was the coup de gras for the defending Nextel Cup champion Johnson, who had never won at Texas but was listed in the top three at all 12 marks before the accident.

The only reason Johnson couldn't be considered a potential winner was his Hendrick Motorsports team's engine problem that, given his team's history of coming back, wasn't a definitive death sentence until Stewart did his whirlybird imitation.

"The engine was starting to let go on us," Johnson said. "I had a lot of fumes inside the car, we lost a cylinder and we were kind of limping around out there and got caught up in that.

"I was off the pace, just trying to stay out of the way. I saw those guys [Stewart and Montoya] coming and let them go in [Turns] 1 and 2.

"Then, down the backstraight, they were swerving at each other. I figured that both of their tempers were high. I went into the corner and the No. 42 came up the track and clipped the No. 20 and around they went.

"I'm not really sure what led up to that but I can tell those two were frustrated with one another. Unfortunately, we tore up a good racecar in the process."

Only 10 laps after the green flew from his previous spin, Stewart was involved again after making a green-flag pit stop to change tires. On his out from the pits, Stewart had just been passed by leader Kurt Busch when he lost it coming off Turn 4.

"Yeah, I'm coming down on fresh tires and the car was evil all day," Stewart said. "It would jump sideways off the corner and it just wasn't the same racecar it was [Saturday].

"I wish I knew why it was that way. We fought a no-handling car all day and fought it good enough to keep it in the top 10."

Behind Stewart, Earnhardt was punted in a cloud of smoke by the hapless Busch, who had done well to come from the back of the field to the top five after he wrecked his primary car on Saturday morning in practice.

"The No. 20 spun and I couldn't see anything," Earnhardt said. "There's a couple options of things to do there but I figured if I couldn't see anything neither could anyone else and they would slow down.

"I hate it for Kyle [because] Kyle's a good guy. He tries really hard and he was getting his race together and getting in the top three there.

"We were getting really loose at that point. I was just trying to get to a pit stop to change my car a little bit. [Stewart,] I guess he just had a frustrating day. He got out there and lost it."

Stewart felt badly about Earnhardt's dilemma.

"It's like nothing we can do is right," Stewart said. "Look at all the Junior fans that are mad at me. I didn't even see what happened to Junior. I know I caused it, obviously.

"I'm trying to get one of my laps back right there -- I'm doing what I'm supposed to do. There's no way in hell I would ever do anything to put Dale Jr. in jeopardy [but] it's disheartening when you have 180,000 people booing you every time you come around.

"That's what makes this stuff not fun anymore. It's not about the racing."

Earnhardt's crew had its head in the race and effected repairs on several pit stops while the driver continued to pump his men's spirits on his in-car radio.

They kept him on the lead lap and fixed the No. 8 Chevy. But shortly after the race restarted Earnhardt was lapped by leader Kurt Busch. Earnhardt retired 45 laps from race's end.

"We struggled a little bit after the wreck," Earnhardt said. "We thought we could get the car back out there and run good but there was some issues with the handling and finally the motor broke.

"The motor was changing pitch and harmony a little bit during the race. The motor was fantastic [but] I think I turned the motor a lot of RPMs in third gear on restarts because I was spinning tires so bad in second.

"I'd lose such ground and I might have done some damage there just beating on the motor too hard."

For a guy who led only one lap in the season's first five races and was probably heading for his third consecutive top-10 finish after leading 96 laps at Texas, Earnhardt was surprisingly upbeat.

Junior drives 5

An odd occurrence came as a result of Kyle Busch slamming into Dale Earnhardt Jr. Junior actually finished the race in the No. 5 car, yet his 8 car finished one spot ahead of Busch.

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"I'm real happy about how we ran [Sunday], it's so unfortunate for us," Earnhardt said. "There's a lot of ways to deal with it. We didn't do anything to cause our misfortune. You've got to take some satisfaction in how the car ran.

"The guys in the shop are bringing a car to the racetrack that's working when it gets here. We're improving that; we're running well in the races."

Kyle Busch, who was unable to drive his No. 5 Chevrolet into a garage stall to attempt repairs, left the track without comment.

Busch left the car and went to his transporter. He then left the trailer by a side door and went the opposite direction from the group of media waiting behind the truck, through a gate into the driver/owner motorhome lot.

Ironically, after his car's engine failed, Earnhardt jumped into Kyle Busch's car for nine laps and was driving it at the finish, where it was classified 37th, one position behind Earnhardt's car.

After spending 26 laps in the garage for repairs, Johnson returned to competition. But 30 laps later the engine problem resurfaced and Johnson also retired for the day, ending up 38th.

Earnhardt ended the day praising his team even -- as he continues to negotiate a new contract with DEI management.

"We had a great racecar [so] I'm proud of my team, all the guys at the shop," Earnhardt said. "They should be really, really proud of the car they brought to the racetrack.

"The guys should be really happy. We had a really, really fast car. We just haven't had any luck. One of these days it will be our day and we'll be able to celebrate.

"We just got to keep our heads up while we got this momentum [and] we got these great cars. Keep your head up and take advantage of what we have each weekend."