Q. Juan, you have two races to go. What is the outlook for moving up in the final standings over these last two races? If you can give us a quick overview on that in English and then Spanish, then we’ll go to the media for questions.
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA: Yeah, it’s been a great season. It’s been a great Chase. We’ve just been involved in too many accidents, you know. I see two of them not even being our fault. You can understand the Talladega one. We had Mark Martin run over us in Charlotte. And last week, you know, carl ran really close to me, took the air out of the car, and I just got really loose.
You know, he came later and apologized and everything. But it just happens. It’s what racing is all about.
But overall it’s nice to see how good the performance of our cars are, you know. To be honest with you, we didn’t have a great car over the weekend. But even like that we were running fifth, sixth place. And even with a car that was pretty bad balance‑wise, we had a good chance to finish in the Top 5 again and scoring great points. So we’ll see.
Q. On the heels of the double file restarts that NASCAR added this year, they’ve certainly added excitement. But given how boring some fans still think the single car qualifying is, and considering you’ve done both Formula 1 and NASCAR qualifying, do you think that given the right officiating and, you know, the right circumstances that the Formula 1 open knockout style qualifying could work in NASCAR?
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA: No. Come on. I think what we’ve got is great. I think the qualifying is great because there’s no excuses. If you look at a Formula 1 qualifying and you hear interviews after, oh, this guy got in the way. And that guy got in my way. And I had a great lap but somebody blocked me, and this blocked me and that happened.
If you go to a different qualifying, the only thing you’re going to hear is excuses. I tell you the truth, I think people that complain about a NASCAR race they haven’t watched anything else of motor racing. Honestly, if you don’t like what you’re seeing, you shouldn’t be seeing it because it’s the greatest racing you can have in any Motorsport scene. It doesn’t get any better than this, I’ll tell you the truth.
I’ve been in Formula 1. I’ve been in IndyCars, I’ve been in CART. I’ve been in you name it, Grand Am. And the best racing is right here. I’m not saying this because I’m here. I’m saying this because I’ve lived all of them, and nothing compares to this.
I don’t get it. You know, I understand maybe complaining a lot of times. The Talladega race with people being very conservative and then a huge wreck. But if you go to Talladega, you can expect that. It’s not something new. I don’t know why people complain about it when the racing is so good.
Like last week was good racing. You know, it was a blast. A lot of things happened, so it’s very ‑‑ I don’t understand when people complain about things like that.
Q. How important is it for you to maintain continuity into next year regarding continuity of your team as it is set up now, and also regarding organization and technical level? I mean how important is this to maintain or improve the results you have achieved this year?
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA: Well, for us that is mostly what we have been doing. That is the key to the future of this team, more so for next year than for this past one. Keeping the development and quality of this year’s team will be the key for the future.
Q. At the beginning of the year it was apparent that a pilot like (indiscernible) was a favorite for the title. He won 9 races the previous year. Didn’t win any this year, but that was before he was in Chase. What is necessary to maintain the drive and transfer performance from one year to the next?
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA: Well that’s a tough question. It depends a lot on the work that is done during the winter. I mean depends on the people here in the United States that work during the months of December and January. This is the time in between seasons. This time is very important because it is key to being positioned for the following year. It is key to achieve a good level and to be well prepared. It is also important to have good cars, good engines and good things. I think this is the key.
Q. Before the Chase in New York during the press conferences you said you think your team was close to being a championship team, but you weren’t sure. Now that you’ve had a pretty good chase. I think five Top 5 finishes, just look ahead to next year. Do you feel you’ll be one of the top contenders?
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA: I guarantee a lot of people are going to be asking me. Now you’re going to come here, and this is going to be the year you have to win the championship when we get to Daytona, people are going to be asking that. This is exactly the same question they just asked me a minute ago.
The key for our team is to be able to match the performance that we have this year next year. Of course we want to win races, and of course we want to do better. But if we can match what we did this year, I think the whole team is going to settle as a top team, and I think that’s the key.
Q. You’ve adapted to stock cars, sponsorships, and now media, too, like Twitter. What do you like most about Twitter? And do you enjoy new challenges of any kind or is it just new ways to race and communicate that excite you?
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA: You know, the racing is really cool. I’ll tell you, I’m very glad to have Target as a sponsor. It’s a great sponsor, a great company. They really look after the driver. It’s awesome. You know, racing for Chip and Target, it’s an awesome experience for that side. It was when I was here ten years ago and it is now.
The Twitter thing, I think it’s a cool thing to give the fans a little bit more. I know a lot of Hispanics complain because I only type in English. But I say, come on, 90% of the people, if not more, speaks English. You know what I mean? And 90% of the people speaks English don’t speak Spanish. So I figure if I do it in English, I can cover both grounds. Of course they want to hear in their own language and stuff.
But if you start Twittering in Spanish and English, you spend so much time Tweeting that, you know what I mean, you stop actually thinking, you know what, I don’t want to do this. So I figured if I just do it in English, people can actually understand what I’m saying as well in Spanish.
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