Earnhardt Ganassi Racing drivers fast, but not always fortunate, in 2010
Earnhardt Ganassi Racing teammates Jamie McMurray and Juan Pablo Montoya share a laugh earlier this season.
// LaDon George, NASCAR ILLUSTRATED
Juan Pablo Montoya and teammate Jamie McMurray have had fast cars, but only limited success this season for Earnhardt Ganassi Racing.
After opening the season with a win in the Daytona 500, McMurray has posted just five more finishes inside the top 10 and heads into this weekend’s Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway 18th in the standings.
Montoya, coming off a strong effort a year ago, has managed eight top-10 finishes, but has failed to finish six races and sits 21st in the standings.
Team co-owner Chip Ganassi says the organization is “chasing milliseconds in NASCAR.”
“We’ve weathered sponsor changes. We’ve weathered the financial crisis. We’ve weather all these internal people changes within the team,” Ganassi said during a teleconference Monday.
“That last little bit entails the proper people. I think the people are pretty much in place right now, and it’s a matter of letting them jell up a bit. And I think with that, you’re seeing some performance.
“Someone pointed out to me the other day that we’re eighth and ninth in laps led in NASCAR. We’re nowhere near that in the points. So that tells you we have some other things we have to work on.”
A year ago, McMurray was 19th in points while driving for Roush Fenway Racing. He had three top-10s, though, and had led only one lap through the first 19 races. He’s led 212 this year.
Montoya has led 220 this year, compared to just 17 at this point last season.
But leading laps hasn’t always resulted in better results for the two drivers.
“We have to get to the finish,” Ganassi said. “We’re showing we have fast cars, and we’re showing that we can put the equipment on the track. Our engines are good. But we’re just not making it happen at the end of the race.”
Montoya and the No. 42 team already had proven that it was a team with Chase potential when the group rolled into Indy last year. That Montoya led 116 laps before a pit-road speeding penalty took him out of contention didn’t mask that fact. He rebounded the following week with a runnerup finish at Pocono, and posted eight more top-10s en route to an eighth-place finish in the point standings.
“The thing I like about Juan, and what I think makes him good, is that he drives every lap,” Ganassi said. “He races every lap. Having said that, there are certain tracks … there are certain things guys like. If you were to, say, look at Jamie’s career, you’d say, ‘Boy, great speedway guy.’ … Everybody’s got something they like. And for some reason, Juan gets around Indianapolis well.
“You look at Clint Bowyer [of Richard Childress Racing], he gets around Kansas well. Guys, they just seem to like certain places. Denny Hamlin [of Joe Gibbs Racing], he gets around Pocono for some reason every year. He’s right in it at Pocono. There are just little things. Drivers are always looking for particular feel in a car, and they get that feel at certain tracks and they take off. So what does that for Juan at Indianapolis? I don’t know. But he and Jamie like that place, so I’m excited.”
Ganassi drivers have performed well in big events. With wins by McMurray in the Daytona 500 victory and Dario Franchitti in the Indianapolis 500, a Brickyard victory would make Ganassi the first owner to capture all three in the same year.
“Our drivers get up for big events,” said Ganassi, who already is the first owner to win the Daytona 500 and Indy 500 in the same year. “They seem to like those places, … and they seem to be good at the places where the big races are. So many times you have drivers who are good at a particular type of track. Fortunately, our guys are good at the tracks that have the big races. Believe me, that’s a big help.”
