NASCAR Notebook

Montoya may drive for Gibbs next season

In fact, Juan Pablo Montoya appears to be getting fed up with the way that things are going and there is speculation that Toyota men Joe and J. D. Gibbs may be ready to make a run at Montoya to fill the NASCAR seat that Tony Stewart is expected to leave at the end of the season. Montoya was not pleased that Ganassi fired crew chief Jimmy Elledge last week, just two days before Lowe's Motor Speedway opened for the Coca-Cola 600.

■ One of the more surprising drivers Sunday night was Bobby Labonte, who ran strong, rallied from nearly two laps down, and finished 11th.

Labonte and team owners Richard and Kyle Petty are under the gun to land new sponsorship.

"Track position meant so much all night," Labonte said. "We had to put tires on the car, and that cost us some spots (at the end). It was tough because we wanted to stay out (and not change tires); but that gives you a false sense of hope."

That move not to change tires, of course, doomed Tony Stewart.

"You're never really sure about the tires, so we decided to put new tires on," Labonte said.

■ Sam Hornish Jr., who won the Indy 500 and then abandoned that series to jump to NASCAR, may finally be catching on to things in this side of the business. He finished 13th in the 600.

Hornish wanted fresh tires every chance he could get them. "The first stop we didn't take tires, and the car got really, really loose. There were a couple of times they asked if we wanted to do no-tires, and I said ‘There's no way we're doing that again, because I about put it in the wall 10 times.' It was a big handful.

"It took me seven times to finish the Indy 500 on the lead lap or to finish all the miles, and I was able to do this on the first try, and I'm real happy about that.

"We've had some pretty good performances the last couple of weeks. We're heading in the right direction."

■ Kurt Busch, Hornish's teammate on the Roger Penske Dodge operation, was Sunday night's big early surprise, dueling for the lead with kid brother Kyle Busch. But then a right-front tire issue put him in the wall. The Penske camp is apparently the only Dodge team to really be working hard on Dodge's new NASCAR motor.

Pat Tryson, Kurt Busch's teammate, was clearly dejected. It's been a rough season for the team, and here they had a good night going.

"But once the right-side tire let loose, we had to fix a bunch of stuff and just didn't have the car we needed to get back in the top 10," Tryson said.

■ The homestretch of the 600 was, as expected, filled with gas-mileage strategy and gambits. And teammates Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt Jr. made the most of the situation.

Gordon was badly beaten out on the track all night, but crew chief Steve Letarte gambled on fuel, and Gordon pulled off a surprising fourth.

Earnhardt, on the other hand, was a strong runner until he slapped the wall midway and had to rally. He never really got back in contention, but crew chief Tony Eury Jr. also gambled on gas mileage, and Earnhardt brought home an unexpected fifth.

"We just saved gas at the end," Earnhardt said. "We topped off with about 62 laps to go. So I was about two laps short, and needed to save two laps (worth of gas).

"So me and Jeff just drafted a little bit and lifted real early in the corners."

So Earnhardt salvaged what looked like a disastrous evening: "We tore the car up pretty bad when we blew the tire going into three. I thought we were done.

"Then I got motivated again. The car wasn't as fast, so we were just trying to hang on.

"I was so upset with the car the first of the race, so upset. But we got better. I was behind Jeff (midway) and I wasn't trying to lap him; didn't want to lap my teammate. I had been into that corner 250 times before that, but I rolled in there and it went straight in the wall.

"The right-rear tire was blown out after I hit. I'm assuming it went flat getting in the corner. But it went straight in the corner like when a right-front goes flat. Odd."

■ Jimmie Johnson's season of woe continues. He was looking fairly impressive early on in the 600, though not dominant. Then his engine soured.

"About three or four laps before I came to pit road, it dropped a cylinder, and it was just a matter of time before it went," Johnson said.

"I hate to lose points. But I'm very pleased how comfortable the car was all night. We've made some big gains."