Would Montoya search for greener pastures?

[Schwartz Fan]

Would Montoya search for greener pastures?
Special to FOXSports.com

Updated: June 4, 2008, 6:51 PM EST

Juan Pablo Montoya cruised home to a solid 12th-place finish at Dover International Speedway Sunday, his best finish in weeks, and his second best of the season.
Yet Montoya was not entirely happy.

"We had a pretty good car. It's just not fast enough yet," he said. "We are making a little bit of progress ... but we are still miles off the pace to be winning races."


The implication was clear: Montoya, one of the top race-car drivers in the world, did not come to NASCAR to race for 12th.

He came from Formula One to win races, something he concedes he is not close to doing in his current situation at Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates. As intense as any racer in the world, Montoya is not happy with his team and his prospects, and his frustration is starting to surface.

A year after an impressive debut in stock cars, Montoya believes his team has taken a step back. A year ago, he had already won a NASCAR Nationwide Series race and was closing in on his first Cup win. He finished a respectable 20th in points — not bad for a driver who had never raced stock cars full-time.


In 13 races this season he sits 17th in points, but has shown no real progress over last season. His lone top-10 finish was second at Talladega, a crapshoot of a race where a driver can often take matters into his own hands.

On tracks where car and crew mean as much — if not more — than the driver, Montoya and his No. 42 team are struggling, leading Montoya to admit that he is both "frustrated" and "annoyed."

"I think it's really hard that in my first mile and a half Cup race (in the 2006 season finale), I was very close to getting a top-10 finish. Two years later, we're running 20th," Montoya said. "We should be a lot further. We should be a lot better of a team right now, and we're not."

All of the Ganassi organization seems to have taken a big step backward.

Reed Sorenson, in the final year of his contract with the team, has slipped to 30th in points. And highly touted IndyCar star Dario Franchitti has yet to get the hang of stock cars, failing to qualify for one race and falling outside the top 35 in owner points before missing the last five Cup races with a broken ankle.

Six years ago, Ganassi was contending for the Cup championship before veteran driver Sterling Marlin was injured in a crash, forcing him to miss the final third of the 2002 season.


Jamie McMurray stepped in and showed promise, winning in just his second Cup start. He then finished 13th, 11th and 12th in points before leaving for Roush Fenway Racing. Casey Mears also showed promise, improving to 14th in points before bolting for Hendrick Motorsports.

Montoya, a former Indianapolis 500 winner, Champ Car champion and Formula One star, was supposed to put the team over the top.

Instead, now even he is struggling.

"I don't think we have made as much progress as we need to," he said.

Montoya is particularly aggravated by a host of changes to his team. After getting off to a slow start this season, his veteran crew chief, Donnie Wingo, swapped roles with Jimmy Elledge, Sorenson's crew chief.

Montoya and Elledge finished second together at Talladega, and then struggled in the next two events. Suddenly, Elledge was gone, too, released from the team and replaced by Nationwide Series crew chief Brian Pattie.

Livid over yet another crew chief change, Montoya recently demanded a face-to-face meeting with team owner Chip Ganassi, expressing his displeasure with his team and the organization.

"If he was hoping he could just come here and calm me down, well, I need to run better. That's what will calm me down," Montoya said.

The question is whether Ganassi can turn things around and give Montoya the personnel and equipment he needs to win. The Colombia native has proven that he has the talent to contend in NASCAR's top series. He already has two stock-car wins on road courses and has shown enough flashes on both short tracks (eighth at Martinsville) and big ovals (second at Indy and Talladega) that his driving skill and transition to NASCAR are not in doubt.

But Ganassi has yet to prove that his organization can run with NASCAR's top teams. It has not finished in the top 10 in points since 2001 and has just one Cup win — Montoya's last year — since 2002.

Despite trying a variety of veterans and young drivers, the organization has not found the right mix to make it a consistent threat. Montoya remains its best hope, yet now he appears to be nearly fed up.

Montoya has always shown immense loyalty to Ganassi, who led him to an Indy 500 win and a Champ Car title. It was Ganassi who convinced him to move from Formula One to NASCAR in 2006.

Would Montoya consider leaving Ganassi if a better opportunity came along? If so, he would certainly be in high demand. What if Joe Gibbs Racing comes calling if two-time champion Tony Stewart does indeed leave to own his own team? Would Montoya leave Ganassi to join what is currently the most dominant team in the sport?

He would be crazy not to.

Gibbs, meanwhile, would have a long list of candidates to replace Stewart in the No. 20 Toyota. Greg Biffle, Ryan Newman, Martin Truex Jr. and others would likely jump at the opportunity. Where would Montoya rank on that list?

In terms of potential, at the top.

When you consider what Kyle Busch has done behind the wheel of a Gibbs Toyota in his first year with the organization, Montoya could potentially be just as effective.

Would he make such a move?

If things don't get better with Ganassi soon, it's possible.



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