Monday, April 28, 2008
Juan Pablo Montoya back in gear—give some credit to new crew chief Jimmy Elledge
Juan Pablo Montoya comes alive at Talladega....now what can he do at Richmond?
(Photo by Todd Warshaw/Getty Images for NASCAR)
By Mike Mulhern
TALLADEGA, Ala.
Juan Pablo Montoya was back on his A-game Sunday, and give some credit to new crew chief Jimmy Elledge.
Adding Elledge to the mix certainly seems to have perked up Montoya, who broke out of the doldrums here and came within a few lengths of winning his first race since last summer.
But Montoya takes it in stride. He says the season has been going better overall anyway.
“The average finish is a lot better this year,” he says. “ Last year we would normally finish 22nd to 24th everywhere, and then two or three times a second place here, a fifth place there…and the rest were 20ths.
“Now we are running 15th average every week.
“But we never really had a result like this.
“I think it really motivates everybody back in Charlotte…and hopefully it’s time we are headed in the right direction.
Jimmy Elledge, Montoya’s new crew chief, is a sharp, veteran NASCAR crew chief....and now he’s finally back working with a veteran driver
(Photo by Todd Warshaw/Getty Images for NASCAR)
“I’ve loved restrictor plate racing since the first time I came to Talladega (two years ago). I love it—The bumping, it’s tough, because you can finish 20th in a heartbeat, or 30th.
“It’s pretty exciting because it takes a lot of strategy, and you have to learn to pick the right lane. And when you pick the lane, you make sure you get enough to make sure the line moves.
“The problem is there are people that, when you bump them hard (bump-draft), they brake.
“It was pretty hard here, with so many drivers over-checking (braking) down the straight, and pretty hard.
A 200-mph pack four-wide on the backstretch at Talladega is quite breathtaking
(Photo credit: Toyota Motorsports)
“I really helped Kyle; I managed to get on his bumper, and when you can get on somebody’s bumper you can actually push them all the way around the corner the whole lap.
“And I made up a bunch of ground. I got up to second, then dropped to fifth, then got up to second again.
“It was pretty cool, pretty interesting race.
“What’s different here (over Daytona) are the bumps. And you do get a little different handling. You can even run three-wide.
“During the race I was getting hit and hit, and it felt like a car crashing over and over again: Boom! Boom! Boom!
“It’s pretty cool.”
Sebastian Montoya, Juan Pablo Montoya’s son, on the window ledge of his father’s NASCAR stocker
(Photo by Todd Warshaw/Getty Images for NASCAR)
The end-game? Montoya says “I don’t think you plan anything.
“You depend so much on what people behind you do. If they are going to drop you (hang you out to dry), it’s just pretty tough.
“You’ve just got to learn.
“I screwed up a couple of times; I just couldn’t do it because the car was just too tight.
“At the same time in the last few laps you have to find ways to slow them down.”
Maybe Juan Pablo Montoya’s Talladega charge will help California Speedway boss Gillian Zucker (left) with her Hispanic initiatives in the LA market
(Photo Credit: California Speedway)
In one of the day’s incidents Montoya and Paul Menard tangled late. “Ryan Newman got pushed, and David Stremme pushed me, and I actually got in sideways,” Montoya said. “So I went in below the (yellow out-of-bounds) line not to wreck him (Menard), and he just didn’t give me any room.
“I had nowhere to go. I felt so sorry.
“As soon as he spun, I called to see if he was okay.”
David Stremme did a brilliant job subbing for injured Dario Franchitti at Talladega...until that late crash robbed him
(Photo Credit: Todd Warshaw/Getty Images for NASCAR)
For Denny Hamlin the day was a blast. But then Hamlin may be the tour’s most aggressive driver at Daytona and Talladega (remember the crash at Daytona with teammate Stewart?) And Kyle Busch has taken exception a few times to Hamlin’s aggressive driving.
Hamlin himself, third, never really had a shot at Busch and Montoya for the win, when Michael Waltrip’s engine blew the last lap, with Jimmie Johnson right on his tail, triggering a huge race-ending crash.
“But it was really fun,” Hamlin said. “I had a car that could do whatever I wanted to do. Whenever I wanted to pull up to somebody’s bumper, I would. And I would push him as long as my water gauge would let me…or as long as they could hang on to it.
“That’s all you can ask for, to have a car as good as ours. The best car don’t always win.
“You’ve got to put yourself in position, and we were with 20 to go, and just made a bad move, got shuffled out back to 20th. With all the cautions we had time to get back to was third. But that shows how strong our car was.
When Denny Hamlin (11) is on your tail and bump-drafting, better hang on tight
(Photo by John Harrelson/Getty Images for NASCAR)
“If Kyle weren’t a teammate,” Hamlin said of his own end-game thinking, “I probably would have pushed Juan out to the outside. And followed him, if the guy (the leader) stayed on the inside, simply because we worked really well to stay together, Juan and me.
“Then I was going to go for the win myself if the door opened that last 200 yards.”
Carl Edwards (right) and chief engineer Chris Andrews: too many tire problems at Talladega
(Photo credit: Autostock)
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