: How do your think Dale Jr, would do in an Indy car?
Montoya: I think in an Indy car he’d do pretty good because the Indy car now you ride wide-open everywhere. It’s like Talladega everywhere and he’s pretty good at drafting.
: Have your considered Dario at all lately?
Montoya: I’ve talked to him a little bit. This week I called him on Monday but he didn’t answer. I know he’s feeling pretty good. It’s got to be tough for him. It’s tough because he was getting good at it. The first few races he struggled – you look at Phoenix he run pretty good. And now you think, ‘He did pretty good’, and now that (broken ankle) happens. It’s pretty frustrating.
: Why has CGRFS struggled in Cup racing?
Montoya: I think he’s (Chip Ganassi) been in Indy so long and used to the ovals with a lot of grip. And then all of a sudden you take 70 percent of the grip away, what do you do? You’re still going pretty fast, that’s the problem.
: Has the length of Cup races been a tough transition for you?
Montoya: For me it hasn’t. I don’t mind it. It’s pretty good because you have all that time to work on the car and make it better and make good changes and stuff. It’s frustrating when you have a really good car to start with, sometimes you can only make it worse. Those are the kind races that want to make them short. Martinsville and Bristol are the worst ones. You run three cautions and you look up and you’ve done 80 laps, you think ‘OK, 420 to go’. That’s pretty hard.
: What’s the perfect length for a Cup race?
Montoya: I think a three hour race. Three – maybe three and a half. There are some that go too long.
: For a driver, would it be a burden to be a team owner?
Montoya: You might ask me in five years, and I’ll say ‘maybe’. But now… no. And deal with a guy like me? No. I don’t think you want to do that (laughs).
: Do you think that you’ve been around long enough to win a championship?
Montoya: Somebody would be dreaming if somebody tells me that. I think as a company we’re getting better. I think we need a little bit more time.
: What about you as a driver?
Montoya: I think I’m pretty good. I still got to learn a little bit – understand what the car needs, but that’s part of the whole experience.
: What do you personally have to learn?
Montoya: I think the racing part I’m pretty good at. I think it’s more of, ‘Do I need a track bar? Do I want to pull rubber out? Is it the wedge? Is it the track bar on the left or right?’ It’s all kinds of things. When the car is really good, then it’s very easy to adjust like that because you all want to pick ‘here’. When the car is bad, it’s very hard to decide which is the worst pick.
: Does it drive Chip nuts that he hasn’t had more success in NASCAR?
Montoya: It drives all of us nuts. We all want to do really good in NASCAR. Chip’s a guy who has won pretty much everything. He’s been close winning here before, but we’re not going to win overnight. It’s all about a process.
: What was Chip like when he changed crew chiefs on the 41 and 42 cars? He seemed pretty intense?
Montoya: Not with me. He just told me that everyone is thinking that for the best of the team, that we should swap the crew chiefs. You should work better with Jimmy (Elledge) and Donnie (Wingo) would work better with Reed (Sorenson). I said, ‘If you want to do that, go ahead.’ I’ll work with any of them. I really like Donnie; I didn’t mind him.
: Do you want to win a championship here in NASCAR?
Montoya: Of course. Do you think I came here for holidays?
Of course you want to win races. If I didn’t think that I could – every week – come out here have a chance at winning, I shouldn’t even show up.