Lynse was a front tire changer with EGR’s No. 42 while Frey was a mechanic with the team.

Following the news of the arrest, EGR fired the two men. EGR co-owner Chip Ganassi released a statement in which he said:

I am extremely disappointed with the news that we received about two of our crew members.We have a zero tolerance policy in this organization and effective immediately both individuals’ employment has been terminated.

NASCAR, meanwhile, indefinitely suspended the two men for violating Sections 12-1 (actions detrimental to stock car racing) and 19 (violation of the substance abuse policy) of the NASCAR rule book.

Team owner Chip Ganassi said:

We are pleased to have someone of Jim’s caliber to be able to place into this role on the No. 42 team. Jim has been with us a number of years and I have confidence in his abilities to move the team forward.

Montoya got off to a great start to the 2011 Sprint Cup Series season, finishing in the top 6 in two out of the first three races. After the Kobalt Tools 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Montoya sat fourth in the championship standings. By the Crown Royal 400 at Richmond International Raceway (six races later) he dropped to 12th place in the standings, and out of the Chase.

He has finished 20th or worse in five out of the last 10 races, and currently sits 17th in points, 59 points out of 10th.

With seven races to go until the Chase, this seems like a popular time for crew chief changes. Thus far, , Greg Biffle and AJ Allmendinger have new crew chiefs. Martin Truex Jr got a new crew chief last month.

On May 6th, Montoya and Newman were summoned to the NASCAR hauler for a meeting. NASCAR said that meeting did not go as they had hoped it would.

Both Newman and NASCAR spokesman Kerry Tharp declined to comment on whether or not Newman was fined.

On lap 363, Harvick and Busch were racing on the backstretch when the two made contact. It’s hard to tell from the video footage whether Jamie McMurray got Harvick loose, forcing the contact. Harvick gave Busch a bump in the middle of the corner to show his displeasure.

On the frontstrech, Harvick and Busch were racing for position when Clint Bowyer got a monster run on the inside of them, making it three-wide coming off of Turn 4.  Busch appeared to get a little loose on the outside of Harvick, and the two made slight contact.

The contact sent Harvick into the door of Bowyer, causing Bowyer to spin down the track and slam into the inside wall head-on. 

Busch stayed against Harvick’s right rear quarter panel and came down the track. Harvick dove farther down to the inside, creating some separation from Busch. Then Busch wiggled a little and darted left into Harvick’s right-rear. Harvick spun into the outside wall, but was able to collect it and drive away.

Bowyer got the bad end of that deal, not able to finish the race because of the damage. 

After the race ended, both cars were coming to pit road, one behind the other, when Busch darted off of pit road.  Harvick followed him onto the track, and stopped next to him.  Busch then put his car into reverse and tried to get away from Harvick.  They both drove to pit road.

Harvick stopped in front of the 18 car on pit road.  Harvick was ready for a fight.  Harvick climbed out of his car and turned to walk to Busch’s car. To get away, Busch hit the gas pedal, pushing Harvick’s empty No. 29 Richard Childress Racing Chevy. Harvick reached into Busch’s car as he drives by and punched him in the helmet. Busch turned Harvick’s car into the pit road wall.

Kyle Busch and Kevin Harvick were told to head straight to the NASCAR hauler after the race.  Meanwhile in the garage, the No. 29 and No. 18 pit crews were having a heated discussion, separated by NASCAR officials.  How convenient that the 18 and 29 haulers were parked close to each other in the garage.

When asked what was discussed in the NASCAR hauler, Harvick put on his signature happy face and said, “Not much.”  

Last week with Newman and Montoya, NASCAR said that they would be “watching” them.  No points penalties or probation were given, just a slap on the wrist.  This is what NASCAR said would happen when they loosened the reigns.  They were going to let the drivers “Have at it” and let the emotion flow freely.

In my opinion, “Have at it” can only go so far.  Sure, let the boys throw a couple of punches; let their pit crews fight with each other.  But when you use your car to wreck another driver’s empty car on pit road, that’s another story.  I think NASCAR would agree with me when I say that is dangerous.  There were many people on pit road, including Harvick, and someone could have been hurt.  Sure, Busch was just trying to get away from the situation, but I don’t think that’s the way to do it.

On the track, wrecking each other is fair game.  On pit road, that’s just stupid.

I guess NASCAR is getting what they asked for! I personally love seeing the emotion.  I guess we’ll see what happens when we head to our next short track race at Dover International Speedway next weekend.

Montoya’s win also adds to the banner year Chip Ganassi is having, with his IZOD Indy Car team wining the Indy 500, and Montoya’s teammate winning the Daytona 500 and Brickyard 400.

Top 5: Montoya, Kurt Busch, Marcos Ambrose, AJ Allmendinger, and Carl Edwards.

Jamie McMurray, Tony Stewart, Kyle Busch, Jeff Burton, and Jeff Gordon rounded out the top 10.

Notables: Kevin Harvick (11th), Ryan Newman (12th), Matt Kenseth (13th), Sam Hornish Jr (14th), Martin Truex Jr (15th), Kasey Kahne (17th), Mark Martin (19th), Patrick Carpentier (21st), Max Papis (22nd),  David Reutimann (23rd), Greg Biffle (24th), Dale Earnhardt Jr (26th), Jimmie Johnson (28th), Clint Bowyer (32nd), Denny Hamlin (37th), and Boris Said (38th).   

On lap 66, Tony Stewart and Boris Said were battling for position inside the top 10. Stewart and Said got together slightly coming out of turn 1 when Said forced Stewart to the outside. Heading into turn 2, Stewart bumped Said, sending him spining into the outside wall. There was heavy damage to Said’s car.  He finished 38th, while Stewart finished 8th.

On the first lap back to racing after Said’s wreck, Kyle Busch dove to the inside of Jeff Burton and Jimmie Johnson to make it three-wide. Burton held his line, but in doing so made contact with Johnson, who spun into the wall. Just as his car came to a rest, Denny Hamlin, who couldn’t see anything because of the smoke from Johnson’s car, hit him hard. Johnson made repairs and continued on while Hamlin took his car behind the wall. They finished 28th and 37th, respectively.

With about 20 laps to go, McMurray took two tires after a caution for debris. He restarted with the lead, but was passed by Kevin Harvick shortly before the caution came out for a wreck between McMurray’s teammate Juan Montoya, who led the most laps, and Dale Earnhardt Jr. McMurray restarted with 10 laps to go in second, on the outside, and drove by Harvick within one lap. He then drove to victory.

McMurray said:

Honestly, when Juan was leading and I was in second [before the debris caution on Lap 137] — I’m a big believer in fate — I thought this was how it was meant to be. I won the Daytona 500, Dario [Franchitti] won the 500, and I thought Juan was going to win this one. I’m just shocked I won the Daytona 500 and the Brickyard 400 in the same year.

Top 5: McMurray, Harvick, Greg Biffle, Clint Bowyer, and Tony Stewart.

Jeff Burton, Carl Edwards, Kyle Busch, Joey Logano, and Kurt Busch finished sixth through 10th, respectively.

Notables: Mark Martin (11th), Matt Kenseth (12th), Kasey Kahne (13th), Denny Hamlin (15th), Jimmie Johnson (22nd), Jeff Gordon (23rd), Dale Earnhardt Jr (27th), and Juan Montoya (32nd).

Hendrick Motorsports did not have a great day at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Jimmie Johnson led early, but after about lap 30th he began losing the handle of the car and he lost positions. Around lap 70, he spent extended time on pit road, and ended up running around 22nd place.

By lap 84, he was 20 seconds off the lead, and wasn’t making up any ground. On lap 119, the team changed shocks under caution. Chad Knaus was trying to get the crew to hurry to beat the pace car to prevent losing a lap. But, the team did not make it. Johnson was a lap down. He never recovered. He finished 22nd.

Jeff Gordon was having a decent run for most of the day, but late in the race he reported that the oil and water temperatures were high. He faded to 23rd, where he finished.

Dale Earnhardt Jr had to pit early after Kyle Busch and Sam Hornish Jr spun, kicking wet grass onto the track, which was then caught on the splitters of several cars. Many of those cars began overheating and had to pit, including Dale Earnhardt Jr.

He spent most of the race running in the top 20, before he found his way into the top 15 with about 20 laps to go. He, like Juan Montoya and Greg Biffle, elected to take four tires when about six cars took two. Running in dirty air, Montoya’s car was nowhere near as strong as it was in the front.

With about 14 to go, Montoya got loose and hit the wall hard. He slid down the track into Dale Earnhardt Jr, who had nowhere to go. Earnhardt Jr’s crew made repairs, but his day was ruined. Montoya was also done for the day. They finished 27th and 32nd, respectively.

What happened seems to be subject to interpretation. Busch fans say that Montoya wrecked him; a sentiment Busch echoed in his interview after he was released from the infield care center. Busch said:

When you’re beside somebody like that, they can move you. They have control [of] your car. And [Montoya] was too close to my side and it started turning me sideways down the straightaway without even touching me.

Non-Busch fans say that he thought he was clear of Montoya, but misjudged, resulting in the contact and accident.

The video makes it look like Busch did give Montoya room initially. Montoya moved down to get the side-draft off of Busch. At that point, Busch inexplicably moved up the track.

At first, I thought what many of the non-Busch fans are arguing: that Busch turned across Montoya’s nose, thinking he was clear of Montoya. But, listening to Busch’s spotter gives an indication that this is not the case. Busch’s spotter said:

Two-wide here. Just two. Corner [indicating Montoya was on his corner]. Hanging on your corner. Ugh, he just turned us.

His spotter never said he was clear, which makes me think that Busch didn’t think he was clear. Furthermore, his spotter told him that Montoya was hanging on the corner, which makes me question why Busch would think he was clear of Montoya when his spotter just essentially told him he wasn’t.

Also, if you watch the video replay in slow motion, it looks as if Montoya moves down, and then holds his line. A split-second later, it looks as if Busch’s car begins pulling to the right. Was it side-draft or was it Busch’s desire to put Montoya a lap down? I don’t know. But, from the looks of it, side-draft can’t be ruled out.

Before making contact with Busch, Montoya appears to move slightly up the racetrack, which I think is an indication that he did not want to turn Busch. But, he also didn’t want to lift and risk losing the Lucky Dog.

He also said over the radio that he was side-drafting Busch:

He came right in front of me. … I was side drafting him and he just turned down. … He just turned so slow in front of me, I couldn’t believe it.

When taking that into consideration, you either have to blame both Montoya and Busch or neither of them.

Should Montoya have let Busch go since he wasn’t on the lead lap? No, and no one would argue that he should considering he only went a lap down because of his scheduled pit stop. He was racing with the leaders and sought to stay on the lead lap to gain as much time on the leaders as he could.

Should Busch have let and allowed Montoya to stay in front of him? No, and again, no one would argue that he should because he hadn’t pitted. Plus, any driver will tell you that when you have the chance to put a strong car a lap down, you take it.

So, while mistakes were made in this incident, you can’t assign blame to one without assigning in to the other. And when that happens, it’s usually just easier to chalk this up to a “racing deal,” even if it involves two hyper-aggressive drivers like Montoya and Busch.

The opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Lead-Lap.com

Top 5: Harvick, Kahne, Gordon, Dale Earnhardt Jr, and Jeff Burton.

Carl Edwards, Kurt Busch, Reed Sorenson, Mike Bliss, and Scott Speed rounded out the top 10.

Notables: David Reutimann (11th), Robby Gordon (12th), Steve Park (13th), Kevin Conway (14th), Matt Kenseth (15th), Bobby Labonte (16th), Clint Bowyer (17th), Greg Biffle (20th), Denny Hamlin (24th), Tony Stewart (25th), Ryan Newman (26th), Juan Montoya (27th), Mark Martin (28th), Joey Logano (29th), Jimmie Johnson (31st), Marcos Ambrose (32nd), Martin Truex Jr (35th), Jamie McMurray (39th), and Kyle Busch (40th).

Early in the race, Kyle Busch and AJ Allmendinger made contact, sending Allmendinger sliding towards the inside wall. He spun and hit the wall with his rear. Allemdinger finished 36th. Busch continued on. Afterwards, he had a heated exchange with team owner Richard Petty, an incident that was downplayed later.

About 60 laps later, Busch was racing past Juan Montoya, who was going a lap down due to pitting under green. As Busch passed him, Montoya came down while Busch moved up the track. The two made contact, and Busch was hooked into the wall. He suffered heavy damage and finished 40th.

Afterwards, Busch gave a sarcastic interview taking blame for the incident. He explained side-drafting and how Montoya hooked him before making contact due to the air.

On lap 116, David Ragan got loose and spun. He overcorrected and hit the wall. He then slid down the into Jamie McMurray and Martin Truex Jr. McMurray and Ragan could not continue, but Truex was able to continued on. They finished 39th, 38th, and 35th respectively.

On lap 148, Kurt Busch bumped Jeff Burton, loosening him up and sending him into Sam Hornish Jr on the outside. Burton bounced off of Hornish and slid back into Busch. Busch slid across the grass.

The cars started checking up. Juan Montoya got into the back of Brad Keselowski turning him into the wall. Keselowki got into Reed Sorenson spinning him into Jimmie Johnson, who turned into the wall.

Keselowski and Sorenson blocked the track, collecting several cars who had nowhere to go. About 12 cars were involved, including Sorenson, Montoya, Ryan Newman, Johnson, Elliott Sadler, Greg Biffle, Bobby Labonte, Joey Logano, Mark Martin, Regan Smith, Marcos Ambrose, and Travis Kvapil .

The race was red flagged for 20 minutes.

About 11 laps later, Hornish was running three-wide in the middle of Sadler and David Reutimann when he got loose. He hit teammate Kurt Busch, then bounced off of Sadler and slid back into Busch. Busch was turned to the inside and slid across the track while Hornish and Sadler turned to the outside and made contact with the wall.

With his fourth place finish, Dale Earnhardt Jr climbed back into the top 12 in the standings.

Around lap 112, Johnson came down pit road with the lead. But, there was a problem with the left rear. He left the pits in ninth place. He battled back all day and took the lead on lap 288 when he used his fresher tires to pass Jeff Burton who was on older tires.

The caution came out when Burton got into Kyle Busch and spun him. Burton simply lost grip due to his older tires.

On the restart, Kurt Busch orchestrated the bump-and-run on Johnson to perfection. He tapped Johnson’s left rear, sending him up the track. Busch took the lead on the inside with about six laps to go. Thousands of anti-Jimmie fans cheered, thining, “Anyone but Jimmie.”

But, over the next five laps, those fans watched as Johnson slowly reeled in Busch.

By lap 299, Johnson was on Busch’s bumper. He nudged Busch and was able to get along side him, but couldn’t complete the pass. After about a half of a lap of racing side-by-side, Johnson who was close to completing the pass, drifted up and nudged Busch again. Busch slid a little high and Johnson was able to pull away. Busch fell to third while Johnson won. 

Top 5: Johnson, Tony Stewart, Busch, Jeff Gordon, and Kevin Harvick.

Ryan Newman, Clint Bowyer, Dale Earnhardt Jr, Joey Logano, and AJ Allmendinger finished sixth through 10th, respectively.

Notables: Kyle Busch (11th), Jeff Burton (12th), Marcos Amborse (13th), Denny Hamlin (14th), David Reutimann (15th), Greg Biffle (16th), Matt Kenseth (17th), Jamie McMurray (18th), Mark Martin (21st), Martin Truex Jr (22nd), Carl Edwards (25th), Juan Montoya (34th), and Kasey Kahne (36th).  

Kasey Kahne had a good run going until around lap 205, when he began having engine problems. He tried nursing his slow car around the track, as other cars easily passed him. On lap 238, Kahne’s engine gave way. He finished 36th.

Most of the race was run under green. Kahne’s engine problem was the first non-debris caution. After that, Juan Montoya and Jeff Gordon were beating and banging for fourth place. Gordon knocked the letters off of Montoya’s left rear, but the tire still appeared to be inflated.

Montoya began losing positions. He dropped from seventh to 12th in 10 laps. On lap 282, Montoya and Reed Sorenson were running side by side. They were not on the same lap, and were not battling for position. Montoya and Sorenson made contact. They raced side-by-side for another five laps before Sorenson appeared to cut right and hit Montoya sending him hard into the wall. He finished 34th.

Under the caution, leader Jeff Burton stayed out while everyone else pitted. On old tires, Burton was unable to hold off the cars with fresher tires. As he lost positions, he got loose and slid up the track into Kyle Busch, spinning him out. Busch and Burton came to the pit under caution and both recovered to finish 11th and 12th, respectively.

Under caution, Ambrose switched his car off, which is routine for drivers trying to save fuel. But there was no reason for Ambrose to do that, as he had plenty to last through a green-white-checkered finish. When he went to re-fire it, it wouldn’t start.

He slowed allowing six cars to pass him. When it re-fired, he tried to get back into the lead, but NASCAR rules state that he has to maintain a reasonable speed. And since he didn’t, he had to restart seventh, giving Johnson the lead.

Johnson drove away from the competition over the final laps and earned the first Sprint Cup road course victory of his career. The win is also Johnson’s first since NASCAR switched to the spoiler on the COT.

Top 5: Johnson, Robby Gordon, Kevin Harvick, Kasey Kahne, and Jeff Gordon.

Marcos Ambrose, Greg Biffle, Boris Said, Tony Stewart, and Juan Montoya finished sixth through 10th, respectively.

Notables: Dale Earnhardt Jr (11th), Jan Magnussen (12th), AJ Allmendinger (13th), Mark Martin (14th), Jamie McMurray (15th), Ryan Newman (16th), Jeff Burton (27th), Carl Edwards (29th), Matt Kenseth (30th), Clint Bowyer (31st), Kurt Busch (32nd), Joey Logano (33rd), Denny Hamlin (34th), Kyle Busch (39th), and Martin Truex Jr (42nd).

Around lap 11, AJ Allmendinger got into Clint Bowyer, spinning him out. Elliott Sadler, Jamie McMurray, and Kyle Busch stacked up behind them. Busch made contact with McMurray, spinning him out. Busch got heavy damage to his nose. 

Denny Hamlin suffered nose damage early in the race. Rather than fix it during a green-flag stop, the team decided to wait for a caution. A few laps after Hamlin made his pit stop, his hood flipped up. Hamlin drove to pit road with his hood obstructing his view. His team fixed the car while he was on pit road. He finished 34th.

Martin Truex Jr was running well for most of the day. He was in the top 10 when Jeff Gordon got into him, spinning him around. He was furious with Gordon and Juan Montoya, vowing to wreck them over the radio. 

On a restart on lap 64, Boris Said didn’t get going. Cars stacked up behind him. Truex Jr, Regan Smith, Max Papis, Paul Menard, Sam Hornish Jr, and Denny Hamlin all got together, causing a pile up at the start finish line. The race was red flagged for clean up. Truex Jr and Smith got the worst of it.

Joey Logano spun off the bumper of Juan Montoya on lap 85. Mattias Ekström spun off the bumper of Brad Keselowski while Carl Edwards and David Gilliland also got back together on lap 92.

In the closing laps, Elliott Sadler and Clint Bowyer, who were running in the top 10, got together and spun. Sadler finished 17th while Bowyer finished 31st.

Give a call to Robby Gordon, Marcos Ambrose, Boris Said, Jan Magnussen, and AJ Allmendinger for all finishing in the top 15 despite not being in the most competitive equipment. Good for them.