Juan Pablo Montoya wins at Watkins Glen

WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. — Juan Pablo Montoya erased 113 races of futility Sunday, winning a duel with Marcos Ambrose and the Sprint Cup race at Watkins Glen International.

Montoya, who started third, pulled away on a late restart from Ambrose, his biggest challenger all day, and beat Kurt Busch by 4.7 seconds in the 90-lap race around the 11-turn, 2.45-mile layout.

It was Montoya's second career victory, the other coming on NASCAR's other road course at Sonoma in 2007, 113 races ago. Ambrose was third, his third straight top-three finish at Watkins Glen, followed by AJ Allmendinger and polesitter Carl Edwards.

"It's about time," Montoya said. "We've lost a lot of them, gave away a lot of them. It gets frustrating, everybody fighting."

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

It was the first career victory for Montoya's crew chief, Brian Pattie, whose call for four tires at the Brickyard 400 cost his driver a chance at victory.

"It's huge," Pattie said, fighting back tears. "I still want to win on an oval. He wants to prove his point. The Brickyard was my fault. Hope this makes up for it. Trophies mean a lot. It's pretty cool."

Ambrose, who won his third straight Nationwide race at The Glen on Saturday, was poised to capture his first Sprint Cup victory at Sonoma in June when things went awry. He stalled his No. 47 while leading under a late caution, was unable to keep pace, had to restart seventh when he couldn't get it refired, and finished sixth.

He seemed destined to finally break through, but the handling went away on the last set of tires and Kurt Busch slipped past him late.

"It hurts," Ambrose said. "It doesn't feel nice."

Montoya was able to pull away on every restart, but each time Ambrose reeled him back in. But when the race restarted for the final time with 15 laps remaining, Kurt Busch passed Ambrose as Montoya took off again, pulling away as Busch kept Ambrose at bay.

Ambrose got past Busch in the first turn of lap 77 and began the chase again as it became a two-car contest. This time, Ambrose was unable to cut into the lead as Montoya steadily pulled away, increasing his lead from 1.7 seconds to 4.2 seconds in a five-lap span.