Saving face in Chase

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Before the race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Juan Pablo Montoya believed he had almost no chance to make the Chase for the championship.

Then he finished second – his best career NASCAR finish on an oval — and his tune changed a bit.

Montoya is 18th in the standings but just 200 points out of Chase contention with six races left to make the field.

“I’ll tell you the truth – if we could get this kind of finish the next two races, then you have a chance,” he said Sunday at Indy.

With all due respect to the former Formula One star, he’s not exactly been knocking down solid finishes. He won on the road course in Sonoma, Calif., in late June, but his only other top-five finish was back in March at Atlanta.

“I am not saying we are giving up,” he said. “But it’s really going to take a couple of wins and a couple of great finishes and bad finishes by the people in front of us.”

He got all that Sunday at the Brickyard, where his second-place finish put him on the same podium as Nextel Cup champions Tony Stewart (first) and Jeff Gordon (third). It moved Montoya up two spots in the standings, and he closed the gap on Dale Earnhardt Jr., who blew a motor and finished 34th Sunday. Earnhardt is clinging to the 12th and final spot in the Chase field.

But Montoya remains hesitant, knowing his Chip Ganassi Racing team is still working toward consistent finishes. NASCAR’s elite teams run at the front every week, while he and his teammates still are working toward that level.

The next two races, at Pocono Raceway and the road course in Watkins Glen, N.Y., will be telling.

If Montoya can gain ground, making the Chase will be the focus. Otherwise, he’ll have to adjust his goals.

“We’re not going to give up,” he said. “I just think moving forward, we’re going to be trying to get wins more than we are going to be trying to get into the Chase.”

Either way, he and Ganassi are adamant Montoya’s rookie season will be considered a success no matter where he winds up in the final standings.

“I already have my first win under my belt. Do we always want more? Yeah. But I think where we are, and where we started, I think it’s been a good job,” Montoya said. “Who would have bet I won a race this year? Honestly, there were more people looking for me to fail than to do good.”

With his resume and experience, it’s hard to believe that people expected Montoya to fail.

“Not so much in NASCAR, because people in the sport understand it,” Montoya said. “But a lot of fans and a lot of outside media, they expected me to flunk. There were even people who said that by Indy, I wasn’t going to be in NASCAR. That I would have left.”

Montoya said one of those people was Robin Miller. He has a proper response to the SpeedTV analyst.

“I say that I am happy in NASCAR,” he said. “I really couldn’t be happier, and I don’t care what he says.”