“You see opportunity, you take it or you don’t.”
—South Florida-resident Juan Pablo Montoya, who qualified 14th for tomorrow’s Sprint Cup race at Sonoma
South Florida-resident Juan Pablo Montoya has 11 races to lock in a Chase “playoff” bid, and he’s currently 189 points outside the cut-off. That next opportunity to gain points comes tomorrow at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma—the road course where Montoya scored his first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series victory in 2007—for Race 16 of 36 en route to NASCAR’s series-crowning Ford Championship Weekend at Homestead-Miami Speedway Nov. 19-21.
Montoya qualified 14th for tomorrow’s race at Sonoma and had this to say of taking chances on a road course: “When you do, there [are] always consequences. They can either give you room, or you belt in and you hit each other. It can go really smooth or it can be really aggressive. You want to make sure every time you do something, if it’s going to get aggressive, you’d better know that you’re going to get out on top.”
Montoya has started all 15 races of the Sprint Cup season but has fallen victim to an inordinate amount of engine issues and on-track tangling—which makes the following stat all the more remarkable: Last week’s 13th place finish at Michigan represented the first time all year that the driver of the No. 42 finished outside of the Top 10 in races in which he has completed all scheduled laps. Included in that run for South Florida’s hometown’er are four Top 5s and three Top 10s.
That said, Montoya needs to be in the Top 12 overall points to make the Chase cut-off (Sept. 11) to qualify for the Sprint Cup “playoffs” that culminate in Miami this fall, and he has 11 races remaining to accomplish the feat. It is worth noting that one year ago, he rattled off nine Top 10s in a span of 14 races to vault from 15th to a Chase spot.
Tomorrow’s race at Sonoma (3 p.m. ET, TNT TV) is Race 16 of 36 en route to Ford Championship Weekend at Homestead-Miami Speedway (Nov. 19-21).