NASCAR Sprint-Cup Series
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CUP: Montoya And Stewart Cool/Las Vegas Notebook
Juan Pablo Montoya said he and Tony Stewart are still buddies...
Tom Jensen  |  Posted December 03, 2009   Las Vegas, NV
Tony Stewart told reporters in Las Vegas on Thursday that he and Juan Pablo Montoya remain good friends. (Photo: Todd Warshaw/Getty Images for NASCAR)

BEATIN’ AND BANGING — Juan Pablo Montoya and Tony Stewart ended the 2009 NASCAR Sprint Cup season taking turns wrecking each other at Homestead-Miami Speedway and then leaving the track without comment. But Thursday at Las Vegas, the two told reporters it was just one of the those racing deals and they remain good friends.

“It's funny, actually we were talking about it yesterday,” said Montoya, who finished eighth in points in his best year in the Sprint Cup Series. “I was talking with Tony yesterday and we were laughing about it. It's crazy, like all you guys make a big deal out of nothing. It's not the first time we got together. Last time we saw each other in qualifying afterward and we were laughing about it, after Texas my first year. And here we saw each other and ... it's like when it happened, he knew it was coming. It wasn't a surprise. Come on.”

Stewart acknowledged as much. “I didn't have a problem with that at all,” Stewart told Scenedaily.com. “What I did ended up being five times worse than what it was intended to be. Especially on the last race of the year like that, you don't want to wreck anybody. So like I said, that wasn't my intention and when that happened it was like, ‘Well, I've got that coming.’ … I knew it was coming and I knew I deserved it.”
At the age of 50, Mark Martin finished second in the 2009 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series point standings while 'having the time of his life.' (Photo: LAT Photographic)

MARTIN RENEWED BY 2009 SEASON — Far from being worn out by the rigors of a return to a full-time NASCAR Sprint Cup schedule after running part-time in 2007-08, Mark Martin was energized in 2009, his first season with Hendrick Motorsports. At the age of 50, Martin finished second in the points and professed to be having the time of his life. One of the reasons for that simply was the fact that he had fast race cars to drive consistently.

“It means an awful lot to me, because everybody that knows me, knows that the joy for me never was going in circles or driving fast,” Martin said when asked how much the speed of his No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet contributed to his mood in 2009. “The joy for me was driving faster than everyone else, or having a crack at it. And the confidence that I have in Alan (Gustafson, crew chief) and this team — even when we’re having an off day, I can put it in their hands and 99 percent of the time they can hand me something back that puts me in a position to have a shot (at winning).”

‘FIRST CREW CHIEF’ RECOGNIZED — Dale Inman, the man often referred to as “the first crew chief” in NASCAR was honored Thursday in Las Vegas with the Buddy Shuman Award, which was presented to him during the 2009 NASCAR NMPA Myers Brothers Awards. The annual award, given since 1957, recognizes individuals who have made significant contributions to NASCAR racing. It honors the late Buddy Shuman, a pioneering NASCAR driver who died in a hotel fire in November 1955.



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