McMurray and Montoya: Not A Happy Beginning

Jamie McMurray is back with Chip Ganassi this year- driving the number one car with varying sponsors in 2010 replacing Martin Truex, Junior. His first race back was his Daytona 500 victory.

Three races later, he's the proud owner of a mad teammate following a wreck with Juan Pablo Montoya at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. They were running ninth and 10th midway through Sunday's race when McMurray lost control of his car and ran into the 42-car.

Over the radio, McMurray admitted it was his fault entirely...
JPM didn't care...

Montoya went off on his radio to his crew chief...
And, then, to Fox's Dick Berggren...
((HT: NASCAR.com/NASCAR Images/Fox))


Wonder how Atlanta will work for them...?
The HQ is just axin'...

Montoya Swears On His "Wife and Child" He Didn't Speed...

Dan Wetzel of Yahoo!Sports has a cool column up resurrecting Juan Pablo Montoya's ((pictured, thanks NASCAR Images)) implosion at the stock car racing event in Indianapolis over the weekend...

The key points...

Speeding on the pit road by both .06 and .11-miles-per-hour cost him close to a quarter of a million bucks. He was leading the race and was about to turn it in to a horizon job, until he need to pit...

Wetzel continues...

The stock car circuit shrugged off the criticism, saying the sensors don’t lie. Helton declined comment.

“I would’ve been pissed too,” NASCAR competition director John Darby said.

Meanwhile, on Twitter, Montoya’s wife, Connie, was blasting NASCAR for a “bs call” and compared it to Juan Pablo’s days in Formula 1, which is famous for questionable decisions and penalties.

Montoya eventually cooled off, a little, after the race. He expressed a mood of resignation.

“I was cruise[ing],” he said. “I was super fast.”

He later tweeted that he “had a rough day to say the least” and “[I] don’t wanna say much of what happened, we just have to move on.”

Pattie said there would be no appeal, even though NASCAR had made a mistaken speeding call on Montoya at a race earlier this year.

“It’s electronic; they did their job,” Pattie said. “It’s not the days of the old handheld, so we’re fine.”


Here's the first part of the exchange with his pit...
((HT: ESPN/NASCAR))


Those of us at OSG HQ wonder, like Wetzel, if he talked to his wife and kids about part of that conversation...

Earnhardt + Ganassi = New Nascar Math

An economy makes for strange bedfellows... NASCAR is no different...

It appears, according to those wire services and other sources that are around, that Teresa Earnhardt and Chip Ganassi will be merging their race teams to create a mega-squad for the 2009 season. The new venture will be called "Earnhardt-Ganassi Racing."

The four drivers in play are:

Martin Truex, Junior- He has a fully-sponsored ride for next year from DEI.

Aric Almirola- He does not...

Juan Pablo Montoya ((pictured, thanks chipganassiracing.com))- He's half-sponsored from the Ganassi side of the family.

Some fourth driver to be named later during the Silly Season- This would be to drive the Ganassi #41 car. It has a fully-sponsored car but, obviously, no driver.

The only other questions... other than sponsors and drivers... is what exactly they'll all be driving. DEI fields Chevrolets. Ganassi drives Dodges.

The idea is for all four to drive for the bowtie...

“In this ultra-competitive era of NASCAR, it is necessary to build and sustain the strongest team possible and our combining with the people and equipment at Dale Earnhardt Inc. will help create a strong four-car program for years to come,” said Chip Ganassi. “This is a win-win for both organizations as well as all of our partners.”

The release from Ganassi Racing can be found in black...