NASCAR Sprint Cup Series: Kobalt Tools 500

Topics:  Kobalt Tools 500

Juan Pablo Montoya
March 7, 2010

HAMPTON, GEORGIA

THE MODERATOR: We're with Juan Pablo Montoya. Juan, you had a good day today. Tell us about your run.
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA: It was good. Never really had the fastest car except at the end before the last pit stop. We were coming. I thought we had a chance to get to the 2. Once you moved up the bottom in three and four, I thought, Here we go, I think we got him. I could stay on the bottom. It was good. I was pretty happy.
Came in, put tires on. First restart was pretty good. Second one spun the hell out of the tires. Kind of surprised me. We had those two lines. Went a little bit before the first line.
THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. Juan, you worked on the car all day today. Was this a good day for you in terms of being able to keep up with it?
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA: We kind of got lost in the middle of the race a little bit, made some changes. Didn't make a lot of ground on the car, then we kind of understood where we needed to go. And it worked out pretty well.

Q. Were you disappointed that it had to go to a 'green-white-checkered'? You thought you might be able to catch him. Did you think you had a realistic shot?
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA: I was within three car lengths just coming two to go. I was, you know, taking 3 or 4/10ths a lap. So definitely I thought if I got anywhere close to him, I'm sure I could make a move.
It's one of those deals. It's okay. It is what's. I told the guys anyway at the end, We need to finish, we need the points. It's a good points day for us.

Q. Juan, tires weren't an issue for your team, but how did you feel about the tires on the track?
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA: I think when you have a good balance, I think you can look after the tires a little bit better. I struggled. I'm one of the cars that used to blow tires here always. To be on the other side is actually kind of nice.
It's a very hard racetrack. The pace is really hard. You know, Goodyear improved the hell out of the tire from what we had last year. It's still going to drop away and you're still going to be sideways.
It's fun. For me this is probably one of the better races if I would choose to go to one. It's so much fun seeing everybody. If you get a ticket out of turn four, you're going to see a lot of sideways racecars going very fast, so it's fun.

Q. Juan, at the end of last season you told the 12 crew chief to bring a couple of old cars to the racetrack because Keselowski needed to watch his rear-end. Is there something that was involved with having a bit of honor today on the racetrack?
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA: I tell you the truth, I was ahead of it, so I have no idea what you're talking about. I said that last year because he wrecked a lot of people. I'm sure a lot of people wanted to pay him back. Looking at the TV, somebody did.

Q. Juan, you indicated on the radio after at race that you thought Kurt went a little bit too early on the last restart. Could you comment on that.
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA: We have those two lines we're supposed to he restart on. To be honest, the lines are very short between them. I don't know. I need to ask NASCAR exactly how the rule is. If you're within three car lengths of it or four car lengths of it, can you go? Do you got to really cross the first line, how they're going to police it.
I'm not saying he doesn't deserve the win because he did. I was on the outside. I was probably destined to finish second there. When you have the bottom, you can hold it wide open between one and two, you have the bottom in three, you're done.
THE MODERATOR: Congratulations, Juan.