Montoya's win stirs vivid memories for Earl Ross (cont'd)

When you throw the word NATURALLY into the most talented driver I believe that limits your options to two drivers, Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart -- two dichotomies when it comes to personality, but cut from the same driver cloth. I give the slight edge to Jeff Gordon.

The real tiebreaker for me was watching Jeff Gordon tool around the Indy F1 track in Juan Montoya's car, and in what was nothing more than a few hot laps, turned in a lap time that would have qualified for the previous year's F1 race.
-- Kevin from Carmel, Ind.

This is a great example of how these two guys seem to have separated themselves in the eyes of the fans.

I don't think there's much of a choice but to say Jeff Gordon. He certainly has the most impressive record of any of the current drivers and won a championship after only two years in the Cup Series. And at almost 36 years old he's still got another 15 years (at least) of racing in him. I don't see him going anywhere for a long while, perhaps to the dismay of many Cup fans!
-- Heidi from Ontario, Canada

In honor of Earl Ross I finished with thoughts from the land of the Maple Leaf. By the way, if Jeff Gordon races for 15 more years only Richard Petty's records will be safe.

Chat Room Chatter
I couldn't go back through and read the chat room because some of the disgusting comments by what I hope is a small minority of the participants. Therefore, I peeled these directly off the Jack Daniel's Post-Race Show crawl at the bottom of the screen. As NASCAR fans we're better than what I saw and we need to show it. In the words of Forrest Gump, "that's all I've got to say about that."

I know it is tough, but how can a pit boss let someone run out of the liquid gold?
-- Jackie from Oklahoma

It's a strategy I actually like. Basically these people that went for it were putting their chips on the table and saying that the only reason they had shown up in Sonoma was to win. For the 10,000th time -- these are races and races are meant to be won. I'm not nearly as interested in a points champion as I am a race winner.

The 24 and 48 car should be made an example of.
-- Rich from West Palm Beach

I must disagree on this one. NASCAR should punish teams for their infractions, but to make an example of a person or team would imply "over-punishment" and therefore would mean that others were getting off lightly for similar infractions.

Juan Montoya finally got the win.
-- James from Richmond, Va.

Finally? Halfway into his rookie season he gets the first Dodge win of the year and the first win by a rookie. I'd say he's doing just fine thank you very much.

As we head into New Hampshire, I can think of nothing better than Robby Gordon leading with Montoya roaring up on the 7 car as the race winds down.

Perhaps JPM's crew chief Donnie Wingo can just read Gordon's post-Sonoma comments to Montoya over and over to him on the radio just to fire the 42 team up. Gordon said the teams that beat him were "nowhere all day long."

In some respects I agree with him. Fuel mileage races are about as fun as a live shark sandwich, but the remarks will certainly, shall we say, be inspiring to Chip Ganassi's men.

In any case, this week I'm going with Smoke.

Enjoy the race everyone.

The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer.