DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – At a time when drivers and teams tend to display all the confidence in the world and declare how they will challenge for championships, leave it to Juan Pablo Montoya to bring some objectivity back to the art of previewing a season just days before the first practice for the Daytona 500.
The No. 42 Earnhardt Ganassi Racing outfit has only four of the same team members a year after Montoya finished 21st in the standings. A shock specialist, tire specialist, his spotter and the hauler driver remain from last year. Everyone else is new.
It would be easy for Montoya to say that all those changes will produce better results.
But Montoya, a former Indianapolis 500 and Formula One race winner, puts a fairly blunt twist on things as he looks forward to 2012.
“We have prepared ourselves the best we could and [we’ll] see what happens,” Montoya said Thursday during NASCAR Media Day. “We go to Phoenix [after Daytona] and start seeing how good and how much we have evolved over the winter.
“I know we have made some numbers and things. We have evolved a lot and I think we are going to be way more competitive, but we will wait and see.”
Montoya will take that wait-and-see approach as he enters his sixth year of Cup competition that followed a highly publicized move from Formula One.
It appeared Montoya was on the brink of cracking NASCAR's elite when he made the Chase For The Sprint Cup in 2009. But he followed that season-best finish of eighth in the standings with finishes of 17th and 21st. His teammate, Jamie McMurray, had even a worse year in 2011 as he finished 27th.
“We just got a little bit behind the curve in terms of our performance, it was because we weren’t changing with the sport,” team owner Chip Ganassi said.
Ganassi made several changes in the offseason. Brian Pattie was released as Montoya’s crew chief in July and the team has hired former Hendrick Motorsports engineer Chris Heroy. Max Jones has replaced Tony Glover and Steve Hmiel as team manager. John Probst, who came from Red Bull Racing, is the new technical director.
“Our car was so far behind last year that it is hard to perform,” Montoya said. “It does not matter who you put in a car, when the car doesn’t perform, it doesn’t perform. It was a frustrating year, but in a way it was good because a lot of the changes were needed.”
The changes represent a new engineering look at the cars and how they’re built.
“It has been a noticeable change,” Montoya said. “I feel I had really good people and we had some really good guys last year, but I think these guys, something that is really good is a lot of the engineering base changed as well.
“Everyone has an open mind. You do not have people that have been here and go, ‘Oh, this just can’t be done.’ Everything is, ‘We have to do this, and it gets done.’ That is really, really good.”
Heroy believes the key is how quickly the team can implement the changes.
“The one thing that I really enjoy about Earnhardt Ganassi Racing is it’s a commitment to get better and the freedom [to change] and the speed that provides – we can make changes incredibly quickly,” Heroy said. “It’s an open book. All the engineers, the fab shop guys, everybody is working together and enjoying the momentum of change. It’s great.”
Despite the struggles the last two years, Montoya has not regretted his decision to move to NASCAR. He enjoys the NASCAR lifestyle and while he races hard, appears to appreciate the increased camaraderie of the garage.
Most of all, he enjoys the competition.
“I don’t regret it one second,” Montoya said. “I love being here, I really enjoy it. There are of course good memories in Formula One and everything, but I don’t miss it. I miss some of the guys but do I miss the racing? No, I don’t.”
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