Juan Pablo Montoya hoping to keep hot streak intact at Charlotte

By David Exum - SceneDaily Staff Writer

Thursday, October 15, 2009

Earnhardt Ganassi Racing's Juan Pablo Montoya is third in the Chase For The Sprint Cup standings heading into Saturday's race at Lowe's Motor Speedway.

David Griffin
NASCAR Scene

RSS Feed
Email to a Friend
Increase Text Size Decrease Text Size RESIZE
Share
- Facebook
- Del.icio.us
- DIGG This
- Reddit
- Newsvine
- Stumbeupon
2 Comments

CONCORD, N.C. - Earnhardt Ganassi Racing's Juan Pablo Montoya has no complaints about his start to this season's Chase For The Sprint Cup.

"The first four races have been pretty good,” Montoya said Thursday at Lowe's Motor Speedway, site of Saturday's NASCAR Banking 500. “Shame we still haven’t won a race. We have been running pretty good."

Indeed, in his first Chase appearance, the former Formula One driver has recorded four consecutive top-five finishes, but he’s uncertain of his prospects at the 1.5-mile Lowe’s Motor Speedway. He has not run well in the past at LMS, but he did finish eighth in the rain-shortened Coca-Cola 600 back in May.

"What is going to happen here, I have no idea," Montoya said. "We think we brought our best car. We hope it is good enough and we get a good setup and see what happens. I think overall it is nice to see how good everybody on the team is working and how hard they are working and how everything is coming out. From that point of view, I can’t really complain too much.”

Of the 12 drivers competing in the Chase, Montoya is one of four who have yet to win this season. He has six top-five finishes this year, with all but two of them coming in the Chase.

"There are still six races this year," Montoya said. "We have had four top-fives in the last four races. That is very good, and we have had pretty good cars."

Montoya is also keeping an eye on the race at Talladega Superspeedway on Nov. 1. In five starts at Talladega, he has one top-five and one top-10 finish. His best finish at the 2.66-mile track was second in the spring race in 2008.

"If we are still in the hunt by the time Talladega comes, it is going to be a stressful race," Montoya said. "It will interesting to see what kind of strategy you play during the race because there is always two ways of looking at it: Do you need points and you want to try and lead as many laps? Or do play conservative and play it at the end?"

For now, Montoya sounds content to focus on getting as much out of each race as possible.

"We run as good as we can,” he said. “We are bringing the best cars every week and making sure we don’t leave anything on the table, whether it is qualifying or practice. You are still going to make mistakes. But, hopefully, you make the least mistakes."

RSS Feed
Email to a Friend
Increase Text Size Decrease Text Size RESIZE
Share
- Facebook
- Del.icio.us
- DIGG This
- Reddit
- Newsvine
- Stumbeupon
2 Comments

Comments

2 responses to "Juan Pablo Montoya hoping to keep hot streak intact at Charlotte". Post a Comment.

1

dtk1952 said:
Oct 16, 2009 at 5:57 PM
I would like to see this foreigner make a hot streak back to his homeland.
Report as Abuse

Report Abuse

This feature is intended to allow you to report comments that are abusive in terms of foul/vulgar language, harassment, racial/religious prejudice and any words/phrases of a related nature. This feature should not be used to report users who simply make a comment about your favorite driver, with which you do not agree. Commenting is a forum in which we can all express our opinions. Reporting abuse of others should be done with this in mind.
» Confirm Abuse Report
2

ipopakeg293388 said:
Oct 17, 2009 at 7:26 PM
10/4 I want an "AMERICAN" to win this thing!
Report as Abuse

Report Abuse

This feature is intended to allow you to report comments that are abusive in terms of foul/vulgar language, harassment, racial/religious prejudice and any words/phrases of a related nature. This feature should not be used to report users who simply make a comment about your favorite driver, with which you do not agree. Commenting is a forum in which we can all express our opinions. Reporting abuse of others should be done with this in mind.
» Confirm Abuse Report