Will Juan Pablo Montoya Make the Chase?
NASCAR Dot Com ran a feature on Juan Pablo Montoya recently. Montoya could become the first non-American to make NASCAR's Chase, the 10-race "playoff" where the racing series' top 12 drivers compete for the Sprint Cup Championship.
Montoya is currently 9th in the Sprint Cup standings, 15 points behind 8th place Kasey Kahne. While there are three drivers behind him in the current standings going in to tomorrow's Brickyard race in Indianapolis, Montoya is 563 points behind series leader Tony Stewart and only 36 points in front of 13th place Greg Biffle. So he doesn't have much room to make mistakes at the moment.
Counting tomorrow's race, there are seven Sprint Cup races left before the field is set for the Chase – after the Richmond, VA race on Spetember 12. We'll see in Montoya can stay in the top 12 until then.
© janebelindasmith
July 27th, 2009 at 8:01 am
L.A is proud of him, it doesn’t matter what was the race result.
September 10th, 2009 at 8:51 am
Yes ! he will make the chase and this is what’s going on for this weekend:
Chasing History: Juan Pablo Montoya is contending for his first appearance in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup since entering the NSCS full-time in 2007. Montoya could become the first international, the first Hispanic and first former Formula 1 driver to make the Chase.
Beyond the Numbers: With only one race remaining before the Chase cutoff, Montoya sits eighth in the NSCS standings. He is now 88 points in front of 13th position and just 17 points out of fifth. The following Chase scenario’s will fall into place at Richmond; Montoya will need to finish 18th or better, finish 22nd and lead at least one lap or finish 24th and lead the most laps in order to clinch a spot in the Chase.
Richmond History: Juan Pablo Montoya will be making his sixth NSCS start at Richmond International Raceway this weekend. He has an average starting position of 17.6 and an average finishing position of 27.8 in his five prior NSCS starts. Montoya’s best finish of 10th came in his last NSCS start at the 0.750-Mile Oval. Montoya has the second-most green flag passes at Richmond with 2,207. In the spring race, Montoya qualified 29th and recorded his first top-10 finish. In the NNS garage, Montoya has one start which resulted in an 11th-place finish.
2009 In Numbers: Montoya and the Target team have one pole award, two top-fives, 12 top-10 and 16 top-15 finishes in the 2009 season. In the 25 Cup races run this season Montoya has earned 20 top-20 finishes. He has led 164 laps and averages a starting position of 12.8 and a finishing position of 13.6 for the season. They have completed 6919 of out 6936 possible laps (99.8%) this season.