Juan Pablo Montoya encouraged by Chip Ganassi Racing's progress

By Jared Turner - SceneDaily Staff Writer

Thursday, November 06, 2008

Chip Ganassi Racing's Juan Pablo Montoya is pleased with his team's recent performances, if not its finishes.

Robert Laberge
Getty Images for NASCAR

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The 2008 NASCAR Sprint Cup season hasn’t produced the kind of results that Juan Pablo Montoya hoped for or wanted. But the campaign has left the Chip Ganassi Racing driver optimistic about his team’s progress – and encouraged about its prospects for 2009 and beyond.

“It’s like I tell the guys, ‘Yes, it’s frustrating that we’re not able to get the results that we deserve, but we’re [getting] there,” Montoya said in a conference call with reporters. “I’m driving the car better than ever. I can push the car further than I ever have before, and I think that goes a long way. Knowing what I can do with a car now that I couldn’t do before, I’m comfortable in the car now.

“It goes a long ways. It’s exciting.”

While 2008 has at least on paper been a step down from Montoya’s rookie season of 2007, when he won a race at the Infineon Raceway road course and racked up six top-10 finishes, this season hasn’t been a complete disappointment for the former open-wheel champion. Even though Montoya has no wins and just three top-10s in 34 races, he is confident that his team is headed in the right direction. For evidence of that, look no further than last Sunday’s Dickies 500 at Texas Motor Speedway.

Montoya was running in the top 10 late in the race when he was wrecked – Montoya believes intentionally - by Yates Racing’s David Gilliland. Instead of snaring a top-10 or even possibly a top-five, Montoya limped home 43rd.

It’s situations such as the Texas race when Montoya has seen good runs ruined by trouble not of his own making that make him say his finishes this year haven’t always been a true indicator of his performances.

“To tell you the truth, it was frustrating what he did, especially when you ran in the top 10 all day and he’s like four laps down,” Montoya said of Gilliland. “It was his decision and his responsibility. Am I OK with that? Am I happy with that? No. It’s what he did, and we can’t change that. My mind now is on Phoenix and to make sure that we run well, and hopefully, we can finish.”

Montoya also watched a good day go out the window a week earlier at Atlanta Motor Speedway, where he placed 40th following a late pit-road incident and subsequent crash. Montoya had been sixth before the final stop, with 27 laps to go.

“The last few weeks, we’ve been running top 10 every week, and something happens,” he said. “We need to start getting some finishes because we’ve been running better than we have all year, and the only thing that we’ve done is lose points and places in the standings.”

With two races left in the season, Montoya is 25th in the series standings. He ranked 20th as a rookie.

“It’s been a difficult year for the results, but I think you see from the middle of the season where we were running to where we are running now, it’s incredible,” said Montoya, who has led just 12 laps all season. “If we would have run in the middle of the season like we are now, we probably could have made the Chase [For The Sprint Cup].”

Montoya credits his recent improvements to two factors: his team getting a better handle on NASCAR’s new car and crew chief Brian Pattie, who replaced Jimmy Elledge atop Montoya’s pit box in May. Montoya started out the year with crew chief Donnie Wingo, who gave way to Elledge for just three races before Pattie stepped in.

“We made a lot of changes in the geometry of the car, geometry of the suspension and the weight of the car,” Montoya said. “The engine has improved. I think the entire package has improved. My relationship with Brian has grown a lot. I think all of that has helped us be as competitive as we are right now.”