Call it a tale of two seasons. Three, actually.
Juan Pablo Montoya put in two full seasons of hard work before finally qualifying for the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup in 2009, in which he ultimately finished eighth.
It was effectively a break-out season for the native Colombian.
Then there was last year. Despite winning his second career race at Watkins Glen International and adding three Coors Light Poles, Montoya was up and down in yo-yo fashion.
A Driver Rating of 90.9, 11th best among all drivers, couldn’t offset the reality of eight DNFs – just one fewer than 2008 when he finished 25th in the standings. Last season’s struggles landed him 17th in the final points standings.
Some of Montoya’s travails could be assigned to bad luck of the wrong-place, wrong time variety. But the driver agrees that a bit of anger management has helped return him to his current ninth-place championship ranking.
“I said ‘If I can get out of here without screaming on the radio or screaming at somebody, I did a really good job,’” said Montoya prior to the most recent race. “That is what we are doing. Trying to run smarter. Learn to pick your battles.”
You might consign Talladega Superspeedway’s race to the character-building category. Montoya appeared headed for at least a top-10 finish until contact with a competitor damaged his car’s right-front suspension.
Still, Montoya can point at a pair of top fives – the best a third at Las Vegas – among four top 10s along with laps led in three races as proof the new approach works.
“I think I put myself, a lot of times, in bad positions and it didn’t help [last season],” said the 39-year-old Miami resident. “[Now] even if we get bad breaks in a race, we are like ‘Don’t worry about, we’ll go through this … make it work.’ And we always do.
“I think when things go wrong, you start over-doing things and it keeps getting worse and you are making the hole bigger. I did that last year, at least personally.”
The bottom line? The points confirm that Montoya and his Earnhardt Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates team are back on track.
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