CHARLOTTE, N.C. — With the Daytona 500 in his rearview mirror, Juan Pablo Montoya now moves on to California Speedway to face one of the biggest challenges of the season.
He’s terrible on 2-mile tracks, totaling an average finish of 32nd in the four races at California and Michigan last season. Improving at those places could be critical to his success this year.
“I’m really bad at California,” he said. “We went there, we tested, we threw a lot of things at the car, and we ran a little better, but not great. I don’t know if its a place we don’t like, or if I am doing something wrong.
“By tradition, I think Michigan and California are some of the worst tracks for the team. Going there, it will be interesting to see if we can make it work.”
Montoya and car owner Chip Ganassi are hoping to put the Colombian in the Chase for the Sprint Cup this season, and a berth in the title hunt will depend as much on the driver as it will on the improvements the team makes. The gains at Daytona were obvious as teammate Reed Sorenson had a strong Speedweeks and finished fifth in the race.
Montoya was running near the front at the end of the race, but was collateral damage in contact between Dave Blaney and Kevin Harvick. One of the cars clipped his right rear, forcing him out with less than 10 laps to go to pull a fender off of his tire.
He had to settle for a disappointing 32nd-place finish.
“With about 12 to go it looked like it was going to be pretty good,” crew chief Donnie Wingo said. “We kind of got shuffled out and somebody got in the left rear of us and knocked us out.”
Associated Press Auto Racing Writer Jenna Fryer’s Q&A with Montoya:
Q: There was talk during Speedweeks about the IndyCar Series and Champ Car merging. As a former CART Series driver, what do you think of that?
JPM: I don’t know. Is it too late? I don’t know, I don’t care. I raced there many years ago, but when I raced there, they were split. It was good at the time. It would be good for the general sport and for teams to find sponsors in that series. But people in America are a lot more interested in NASCAR than they are in open wheel.
Q: Unification can’t hurt, though, right?
JPM: Is it going to bring open wheel back to greatness in America? I really doubt it. I really, really doubt it. All the really good teams are in IndyCars, apart from Newman-Haas. So, is it going to change that much? It’s just that they are going to go to places they aren’t going. They are going to go to Australia, to Japan, back to Long Beach. Yeah, they are going to go to a few places that the traditional open wheel fan goes. The guy who goes to Long Beach, whether it’s CART or IndyCars, he’s still going to go there.
Q: On one of the off days at the track, you went to a professional wrestling event in Orlando and hit one of the wrestlers in the head with a folding chair. What was that about?
JPM: It was fun, it was a little different. They invited me and they said you can be part of the show and part of a team, and if something happens, you can even hit somebody with a chair if you want to. And the chance came, and I said ‘What the heck?’
Q: Did you really hit him?
JPM: Oh yeah. It was about 85 percent. I didn’t want to kill the guy. But when I hit him, it was so loud, I just quick dropped the chair and was like ‘It wasn’t me!”
Q: Is there anything you will not do?
JPM: Parachuting. I would never jump out of a parachute. There is just no way.
Q: Jacques Villeneuve’s NASCAR career appears to be over after just one race. What do you think happened?
JPM: Well, I think he didn’t have a sponsor and I think they were very dramatical in his setup. I think he had the speed to do it, but I think his approach was different — sort of like an open-wheel race, just go, go, go, go. And he didn’t settle into it a little bit, and that’s what hurt him.
Q: Do you think he’ll be back?
JPM: I hope so.
Q: The Oscars are Sunday night after the race in California. As a movie buff, will you try to go to the ceremony with teammate Dario Franchitti and his wife, Ashley Judd?
JPM: Hell no.
Q: Who is the better actress? Ashley Judd or Helio Castroneves.
JPM: I would say Ashley is a better actress, but Helio is a better dancer. Hey Dario! is Ashley a better dancer than Helio?
Franchitti: Yes. Helio is the best actor I know. Remember the hero card Jimmy (Vasser) had? He said that Helio Castroneves is his favorite actor.
JPM: That’s right. Helio is a great actor.
Q: What are your picks for the Oscars?
JPM: I don’t know. Dario was supposed to bring DVD’s of all the choices but he forgot them at home. He really screwed that up. I hear ‘Michael Clayton’ and ‘No County For Old Men’ are the best. But I haven’t seen them because I’m just trying to wait for them to come out on DVD so I can watch them on the bus. The last month or so has been so crazy, I’ve had no time to go to and I get to the bus and I just don’t want to move. So I have all kinds of things to watch, and I have all kinds of recordings to watch.
Q: You know, Ashley Judd caused quite a stir for wearing a dress at the race track …
JPM: Nobody can wear a dress, I thought.
Q: She did, and it turned into a big deal when ESPN wrote about it. Would (wife) Connie ever wear a dress to the track?
JPM: No. I wouldn’t let her.
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