Montoya eager to put fiery crash, mediocrity behind him at Daytona

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Forgive Juan Pablo Montoya if he doesn’t find the fireball jokes very funny. He’s just totally over them a year after crashing into a jet dryer during the Daytona 500.

The wreck in last year’s race caused a raging inferno that stopped the event for two hours, and made Montoya an instant punch-line.

“People are dumb enough to think I hit the thing on purpose, like I really want to try and kill myself,” said Montoya, who has a short fuse when asked about the crash that occurred when something broke on his car as he raced around the track under a caution flag.

“That was a freak accident, and in a way, I was very, very lucky to walk away from that one. Not only myself, but the guy driving the jet dryer. To walk away with nothing out of that it was a miracle.”

But it set the tone for yet another disappointing season that Montoya is eager to put behind him. Montoya finished 22nd in points last year with only two top-10 finishes. Since leaving Formula One midway through 2006, he’s yet to find the success he’d been accustomed to his entire career.

The Colombian driver has had no consistency whatsoever in NASCAR. He’s got just two Sprint Cup Series victories, both on road courses, and his 2009 berth in the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship is his only appearance.

“It is not humbling. It sucks,” he said. “I’ve won at everything I have been in, and I came to NASCAR and I’ve been good. I know I can do it. To run where we’ve run, it hasn’t been fun.”

It’s been a constant battle at Chip Ganassi Racing to get Montoya and teammate Jamie McMurray running up front, and the team owner made wholesale behind-the-scenes changes before the 2012 season. But the performance never improved for either driver, and both Montoya and McMurray insisted change wasn’t going to happen overnight.

After a full year, though, Montoya is determined to do his part off the track. He’s working out harder than he ever did in F1, he said, and looks considerably slimmer. And he’s clearly buoyed by driving the closing stint in the Ganassi team’s win last month in the prestigious Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona sports car race.

Although it was Montoya’s third Rolex win, he’d never before closed the race.

That was a confidence booster for a driver who perhaps has been tested by this rash of mediocrity.

“The racing is still amazing. I still love it. I still love being here. But when you’re not running good, it’s not fun. I don’t think it is fun for anybody,” Montoya added.