Montoya out to rediscover magic at site of only victory

SONOMA, Calif. -- The numbers are eerily similar, the expectations perhaps even higher.

One year ago, Juan Montoya entered the Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Infineon Raceway coming off a highly disappointing last-place finish at Michigan a week earlier. The 43rd-place finish dropped him to 22nd in the point standings, and everyone wanted to know if the former Formula One and IndyCar star was going to make a stand on the Infineon road course where he figured to be strong.

Montoya won that race, registering his first Sprint Cup series victory. The governing body of NASCAR gave him credit for it even if fellow driver Robby Gordon didn't, saying Montoya took a "15th-place car" to Victory Lane only because he played the fuel-mileage game better than everyone else.

Crew Chief Corner

It's now up to Brian Pattie to help Juan Montoya turn the 42 team's season around.

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This year, Montoya enters Sunday's Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Infineon coming off a highly disappointing finish at Michigan last week. He didn't finish last, but came close while finishing 38th to fall to 22nd in the standings.

And this time, everyone wants to know if he's going to make a stand again on the road course where he won in 2007. It's obvious to just about everyone but maybe Gordon that he can do it -- if he's got a car that can get it done.

That has been the question that has dogged Montoya and the No. 42 Dodge he drives for Chip Ganassi Racing all year. Is Montoya's equipment good enough? After struggling to qualify 21st on a lap of 91.025 mph that was .936 seconds slower than that of the one turned by pole-winner Kasey Kahne, even Montoya admitted he isn't certain.

"Mainly, it's the rear grip. I don't know why we just can't ever seem to get in good qualifying form on this car. I don't know," Montoya said. "Like I told the guys, I could have maybe have gone a tenth [of a second faster] or a tenth-and-a-half faster if you nailed the whole lap, but that's about it. We've been struggling with rear grip and we seem to struggle with it every week.

"In the races, it seems to get better. So I think when the race comes, I still think we'll be pretty good."

Besides, Montoya already will be starting 11 spots in front of where he came from to win last year's race, when he started 32nd. And despite his struggles of late -- he's finished 38th in each of the past two races and has only one finish of higher than 23rd since placing second at Talladega on April 27 -- Montoya insists his cars, on average, have been better this year than last year.

"Compared with last year, we're definitely running better. I think our car has definitely improved," Montoya said. "It's just that we've struggled big-time with the rear sliding. In race trim, you might not even notice it that much. But when everybody else has that ultimate grip, we just don't have it."

It hasn't helped that there has been turmoil inside the Ganassi ranks. Montoya started the season with the same crew chief he had a year ago, Donnie Wingo; then Wingo switched with Jimmy Elledge, who had been crew chief for Reed Sorenson's No. 41 Ganassi Dodge; and finally, after Elledge was dismissed following a dispute with another team official, Brian Pattie was handed the job of righting the Montoya rocket ship.

What has made this season more frustrating than last are the higher expectations the No. 42 has wrestled with after Montoya's solid, if not spectacular, rookie campaign a year ago. Instead, after surging to 12th in the point standings following the great run at Talladega, Montoya has fallen off again and seems mystified as to why.

Asked how frustrated he is, Montoya smiled and replied: "Right now I'm good. I was very frustrated a couple weeks ago. But I see everybody working hard; I see everybody pushing the same way. You can't expect from the way we've been running to go out there and run great every week, from one week to another. It's going to take time and we just need to build on it."

There wasn't much to build on after Michigan, when his car was junk pretty much from the very start of the race.

"It was the same thing," Montoya said. "We had a tight car in practice. Then we made two small changes and went out to race, and I couldn't even keep it underneath me. Why? I don't know. I don't understand. What are we doing wrong? I mean, how wrong can you get it?"

Meanwhile, as Montoya and his Cup teammates have struggled, Ganassi's open-wheel teams have gone about their business in a much more successful manner. Ganassi driver Scott Dixon won the Indianapolis 500, has four race victories overall this season, and leads in the Indy Racing League point standings.

Everyone seems to want to know why Ganassi -- and Montoya -- can't match that kind of success in NASCAR.

"Chip is frustrated. We're all frustrated," Montoya admitted. "But being frustrated doesn't make you go any faster, does it? Working harder at it will. So that's what we're doing. We're working at it. It's tough because we all want to run better -- especially on a weekend like here where we know we can have a really good result. I just have to be patient. There is a lot more pace there in the car for the race, so I think we'll be OK."

Asked point blank if he still thinks he can win this race again, Montoya did not hesitate in his answer.

"Yeah, we think so," he said. "I have a much better front end than last year. If we can get that rear end working, we'll be golden."

• Unleashed: Riki Rachtman with Juan Montoya