Q: Talk about how the chase has gone for you so far:
Montoya: “Well, I can’t complain. The first four races have been pretty good. Shame we still haven’t won a race, we have been running pretty good. Same story as always. What is going to happen here (Lowe’s Motor Speedway), I have no idea. 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.”
Q: Now that incident with Denny Hamlin has moved on, do you have any idea what he might have been doing there?
Montoya: “I think he just went to block and when we went to block, he was too late. It was just a simple mistake. I was being pushed by the No. 48 (Jimmie Johnson) so I couldn’t move. It is either him or me, I had no choice.”
Q: Was he trying to get the points for leading a lap?
Montoya: “I know he had led a lap before that so I don’t know what he was trying to do. So I don’t know.”
Q: Did you hear what he said?
Montoya: “I heard he said he just made a mistake. From my point of view, honestly, he restarted and came down and didn’t know I was there. That was it.”
Q: How much of the improvement this season has been you and how much is the team?
Montoya: “I still feel like I don’t them (the cars) completely. I still feel there is a lot I need to improve. We are getting better. We understand the car better. I think during the race, I still feel like I need to do a better job in the race understanding what the car needs to be done to make it better. I think the whole team…our motors are really good. Our chassis are really good. We seem to be good every week. The team is doing a very good job at home bringing a great car and a great setup. And, it can change this week, but so far every week of the Chase especially, we come off the truck and we are just fast and it great when you see that.”
Q: Do you think you can win the championship without winning a race and if you did win the championship without winning a race, would you take any less pride in that?
Montoya: “Oh no! It is points, isn’t it? At the end of the day? It is not like I am not trying to win a race or the championship, I am trying to win both. There are still six races this year. We have had four top-fives in the last four races, that is very good and we have had pretty good cars. I felt like in New Hampshire we had the fastest car, the other races, we had good cars, but people had us covered. It is ok. It is what it is. Thinking about ‘oh my gosh, if I win this without winning a race, what am I going to say.’ If I win the championship, I still won the championship. We are still a long way away. In my opinion, mentally, I don’t even think about it right now. I just go every week and run as hard as I can and see what it brings us.”
Q: Do you think it is possible of your earlier strategy to get in the chase; you didn’t really know how strong you had gotten?
Montoya: “To be honest with you, you look before the Chase; we were running second at Bristol when I had a flat tire. We finished third in Atlanta. There are races that, apart from Richmond, we were out there. We were a top-five car and we finished sixth or seventh. We did a lot of that. We improved a little bit. Where that came from, I don’t know. I think I went a little more aggressive with my driving and understanding a little bit more the car and it is paying off. My relationship with Brian (Pattie, crew chief) is really good and it helps. We have got to a point now; it always takes time when you have a new crew chief. Right now it is starting to click so it is good.”
Q: Talk about your relationship with Felix Sabates:
Montoya: “With Felix, we have a very good relationship, us both being Latinos. I asked him for help last night with the Jail and Bail cause and it is a great cause and being able to help a cause here in NASCAR, it is big. Everybody really supports everything you do to help people and the support they give what you believe in and support is great. Felix is Felix, I guess. (LAUGHS).
Q: Talk about your thoughts about restrictor plate racing and racing at Talladega:
Montoya: “For a fan, it doesn’t get much better than that. I get a kick out of it. I always get a kick out of it. If we are still in the hunt by the time Talladega comes, it is going to be a stressful race. It is like the same thing every week. You go there, especially there, are you going to save then engines. You come off the truck with whatever you think is fastest. And if it doesn’t do anything crazy, you park the car. You probably do 10 laps of practice; make sure all the temperatures look good. Qualify the car and race it and see what happens. 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? It is always a challenge especially with the side-by-side restarts; it is going to be “whew”, pretty wild. I think it is going to be cool.”
