Juan Pablo Montoya says making Chase field heightens 2010 expectations
Earnhardt Ganassi Racing's Juan Pablo Montoya is sixth in the Chase For The Sprint Cup standings heading into Sunday's race at Phoenix International Raceway. // Tim Parks, NASCAR Scene
Earnhardt Ganassi Racing's Juan Pablo Montoya says the success his team enjoyed in making the Chase For The Sprint Cup this season will raise the bar and prompt questions about his chances of continued success in 2010.
"I guarantee a lot of people are going to be asking me," he said Tuesday during a national teleconference. "Now you're going to come here, and this is going to be the year you have to win the championship. When we get to Daytona, people are going to be asking that. …
"The key for our team is to be able to match the performance that we have this year next year. Of course, we want to win races, and of course, we want to do better. But if we can match what we did this year, I think the whole team is going to settle as a top team, and I think that's the key."
Montoya, the former Formula One and Indianapolis 500 winner who is in his third season of full-time Cup competition, has enjoyed a breakout year. The native of Bogota, Colombia, had a best series finish of 20th in the standings his rookie season, the year in which he won at Infineon Raceway in California for his lone career victory, and he was 25th last year. He entered the 2009 season with nine top-10 finishes to his credit, five of them top-fives, including the win.
This year, Montoya has 17 top-10 finishes, including seven top-fives, and he made the Chase for the first time.
Montoya started the Chase on a roll, finishing fourth or better in the opening four races, and five of his top-fives have come during the eight Chase races.
A pair of accidents and subsequent finishes of 35th (at Lowe’s Motor Speedway) and 37th (at Texas Motor Speedway), however, have seen him drop to sixth in the standings, 236 points behind leader Jimmie Johnson.
Still as he looks down the road, Montoya knows that he and his team need to be sure to keep up the pace in the offseason and continue this momentum swing into next season in an attempt to keep getting improved finishes.
"That is mostly what we have been doing," he said. "That is the key to the future of this team, more so for next year than for this past one. Keeping the development and quality of this year’s team will be the key for the future."
Montoya is also making sure that he balances racing with his life. While the 34-year-old driver says that he hasn't really been impacted by the pressure of the Chase, he has picked back up some hobbies from his past - and seems to be enjoying the balance they bring to his life.
Perhaps that has also helped him in this season in which he has gained more NASCAR success than in the past.
"I was playing a lot of golf this year," he said. "… And [remote control] airplanes I used to do years ago. I picked it up again. I picked up wind surfing, something I used to do years ago.
"It's just fun. It's relaxing. I love working on the planes. I spend a lot of time in my warehouse building and fixing and figuring out how you're going to run this and how you're going to do that. It works good. It's a good balance, a good compromise, and it works really well."
Now, he just wants to close his racing year well and keep his team on track for another strong run in 2010.
"This time is very important because it is key to being positioned for the following year," he said. "It is key to achieve a good level and to be well prepared. It is also important to have good cars, good engines and good things. I think this is the key."
