Juan Montoya ran solidly at Michigan International Speedway, in the top three for the first three-quarters of the Sunday’s LifeLock 400 and appeared to be one of the few cars able to keep pace with Jimmie Johnson, who dominated up to that point. But a mismatched set of tires following a stop near the midway point caused a change in the handling of the car. Montoya came out of the pits sixth after his final stop and faded to eighth before Greg Biffle and Johnson both ran out of fuel on the final lap.
Still, compared to his previous Michigan finishes of 43rd, 26th, 38th and 25th, a sixth-place finish here was a good reason to smile.
“I think we had a bad set of tires there and we made changes based on that, and we screwed up,” Montoya said. “I think we had a top-five car all day and we finished sixth, so that’s pretty good. It’s just momentum. It’s all about momentum. The Target team did an amazing job. We’ve just got to keep coming with those results and make the Chase.”
And sometimes it’s better to be lucky and good. With a new set of tires on the final stop, Montoya’s car returned to its previous raciness. But he was willing to settle for a good top-10 run when all heck broke loose at the front of the field on the final lap.
“At the end when we got it better, we were lucky to have the good fuel mileage,” Montoya said. “This car is so good on fuel mileage. We ran good that whole last segment and we still made it.”
“Right now, I don’t really care where we go,” Montoya said. “We seem to run good everywhere.”
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