Juan Pablo Montoya tossing distractions aside, focusing on the Chase
Earnhardt Ganassi Racing's Juan Pablo Montoya is fifth in the Chase For The Sprint Cup standings heading into Sunday's race at Talladega Superspeedway. // LaDon George, NASCAR Scene
TALLADEGA, Ala. – Juan Pablo Montoya isn't buying into any controversy, not from how he races other competitors to comments being made about him.
Instead, the Earnhardt Ganassi Racing driver is calmly picking his way through the best run of his three-year NASCAR Sprint Cup career.
Montoya enters this weekend's Amp Energy 500 at Talladega Superspeedway fifth in the standings with six races run in the title-determining segment of the season. Don't let the fact that three drivers are between Montoya and leader Jimmie Johnson mislead you, though. Montoya's has arguably been the best team on the track, outside of Johnson's Hendrick Motorsports group, throughout this Chase For The Sprint Cup.
He's simply seen his Chase hopes hampered by a 35th-place finish at Lowe's Motor Speedway, a finish that came after Montoya was caught up in a chain-reaction crash and struggled to race with his damaged Chevrolet.
Still, Montoya - who has five finishes of fourth or better in those six races - knows just how strong his team has become.
“Do we need to be more competitive? I think we are there every week,” he said at Talladega. “We have probably been the closest car to being competitive against the No. 48 [of Johnson] and I think if we didn’t have that problem in Charlotte, we could have been pretty close in points. But, ifs and buts don’t count. If you could get 10 points for every if, and 20 points for every but, it would be a lot different. But, you don’t. You look at what this team has accomplished, everybody says you need to have a four-car team, big this and a big that and a big thing. We have shown that you just have hard working and determined people to get the job done and we have got all that.”
As to racing at Talladega this weekend, Montoya says that one simply does his best to take care of his equipment and tries to accomplish as much as possible. He isn't complaining about blocking or tight racing or any of the elements of competing at the drafting track.
"For me it's not an issue, it's part of the racing," he said of blocking. "I never heard anybody complain about blocking. Most of the time when somebody blocks you, something bigger happens. When you block in an open-wheel car, somebody behind you has to lift. Here when you block, it's a little bit different."
It's just part of racing to the driver, as are the on-track battles and their varying levels of aggression.
During his postrace interview last weekend at Martinsville, Jeff Gordon questioned the aggressive way Montoya drove him. The two had talked after the race and Montoya scoffed at the idea of more conversation being needed between them.
“At the time, he started racing me really hard and [I] can do the same,” he said. “If he wants to race hard, I can race hard. I have done that all my life, so I am good with that. Why you do it, I don’t get it, but, I’ve been pushed around, moved around and try to give them room, then he’ll give you room and he doesn’t. At the end of the race, he came and got inside of me, we never touched, I gave him enough room. After about three laps side by side, I said he is faster than me and I needed to let him go. And then he let me go afterwards. It is OK. Problem solved. What are you going to talk about it? Are we going to kiss and make up? No, we’re not. We are big boys here, we understand each other.”
Montoya is also continuing to express his lack of interest in the case of ESPN football commentator Bob Griese, who has been suspended one game for his comment that Montoya "was out having a taco" when asked on the air where the driver was in the standings last weekend. Montoya said at the time that he paid no attention to the comment and maintained that stance in relation to the suspension.
“It is not my responsibility and it is not our sport,” he said. “It is completely out of my hands. I never paid attention to the comment and I as I said, I didn’t really care. If they wanted to suspend him for what he did, it is their problem. I don’t think it is either NASCAR or myself. I was good with [the comment].”
