Updated July 30
Juan Pablo Montoya in the Chase? This season?
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| Juan Pablo Montoya sits 200 points behind 12th place in the Cup standings. (Getty Images) |
Exhibit A: Montoya sits an even 200 points behind 12th-place Dale Earnhardt Jr. in the standings. Not insurmountable by any means.
Exhibit B: Aside from Watkins Glen, a road course where Montoya is expected to excel just as he did in winning in Sonoma, all the remaining races on the schedule ahead of the Chase are at tracks the series and Montoya have previously visited this season. So there are no surprises awaiting. Montoya should have a better feel for the tracks the second time around, and his team should have a better idea how to set the car up to his liking.
"I tell you the truth, if you could get this type of finish for the next three races, then you have a chance," Montoya said. "If you go next weekend and you have an average weekend, then you're out. It doesn't mean that we're going to give up. I think we're going to go more forward to try to get wins than get into the Chase.
"We're getting closer. We've just got to get through the weekend, and we've just got to be a car to beat."
For now Montoya and the rest of his Chip Ganassi Racing cohorts can bask in a successful weekend that also saw a pole and fifth-place finish by teammate Reed Sorenson.
"It shows where the team is going; it shows that the potential is there," Montoya said. "But it's a little bit like my season. We're going to go to places where we're still going to suck and places where we're going to do really well."
Power Rankings after Indianapolis:
| POWER RANKINGS | ||
| Current | Driver | Previous |
| 1 | Jimmie Johnson | 1 |
| Next to Martinsville, there probably isn't a better track for Johnson and his 48 team to try to rebound than Phoenix, where he has three wins, seven top fives, 10 top 10s and an average finish of fifth in 12 starts. | ||
| 2 | Mark Martin | 2 |
| Martin was OK in the first half of Sunday's race but really came on in the second half to snag a top five. That allowed him to close the gap on Johnson from 184 to 73 points. And there's even more good news for the 5 team as the series shifts Phoenix: Martin won at the track in April. | ||
| 3 | Jeff Gordon | 3 |
| Troubles at Talladega and Texas left him outside the top 10 in back-to-back races for the first time since May. | ||
| 4 | Tony Stewart | 5 |
| A good, solid effort from the 14 team throughout at Texas, just didn't have enough to challenge the Busch brothers for supremacy. | ||
| 5 | Juan Pablo Montoya | 4 |
| He started 20th and had made gains into the top 10 until he got loose running next to Carl Edwards, taking them both out. | ||
| 6 | Denny Hamlin | 6 |
| He was stout early, racing from 25th into the top five, but poor pit stops and contact with the wall had the 11 car reeling in the second half of the race. So his team gambled and won on fuel mileage to pull out second. | ||
| 7 | Kurt Busch | 7 |
| Not only did he have a great car, but great fuel mileage as well. He was always one of the last to pit after every long green-flag run at Texas. | ||
| 8 | Kyle Busch | 10 |
| On the verge of an historical triple victory weekend at Texas, he runs out of fuel just a couple laps from the finish. Tough way to end Dave Rogers' first race as crew chief of the 18 car. | ||
| 9 | Ryan Newman | 9 |
| Struggled with a loose car at Texas, running just 61 laps in the top 15. | ||
| 10 | Matt Kenseth | 12 |
| His 17 team continues to show late-season improvement. He had the best finish (third) of those who pitted for gas instead of gambling. | ||
| 11 | Clint Bowyer | 14 |
| A steady run for Bowyer, who finishes in the top 10 at Texas for the third time in his past four visits. | ||
| 12 | Greg Biffle | 13 |
| Notched his second consecutive top 10 and third of the Chase. | ||
| 13 | Kasey Kahne | 8 |
| After starting second, he dropped like a rock. Ran in the teens most of the day until his engine went sour in the waning laps, leading to a 33rd-place finish. | ||
| 14 | Carl Edwards | 11 |
| Four consecutive finishes outside the top 10 including two finishes of 39th. There wasn't a whole lot he could do to avoid Montoya getting up into him Sunday at Texas. | ||
| 15 | Kevin Harvick | 15 |
| Earns his fourth top five of the season at Texas, his first since a second-place run at Atlanta in early September. | ||
