(By Reid Spencer NASCAR Wire Service)
Posted: Sunday,March 28th, 2010
MARTINSVILLE, Va.—Juan Pablo Montoya hasn’t had the sort of performance this season that carried him to the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup last year, but it’s not because his cars have been off the pace.
“Out of five races, we’ve had three wrecks,” Montoya said Saturday at Martinsville. “It makes it really hard—hard for the points. The bright side out of it is that we have a really fast car and we have led four out of five races.
“I think that is really exciting and I think here we can lead again. Hopefully, we lead the right lap.”
Juan Pablo Montoya (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images)
Montoya was fourth fastest in Saturday’s first practice session and sixth fastest in Happy Hour. His Earnhardt Ganassi teammate, Daytona 500 winner Jamie McMurray, paced final practice at 95.869 mph.
Close Encounter With Stewart
Tony Stewart was steamed Friday after running into Travis Kvapil during opening Cup practice. Kvapil explained Saturday morning that he had tried—unsuccessfully—to get out of Stewart’s way.
“To me, it was just Martinsville,” Kvapil said. “I was on new tires trying to get a qualifying run at the end of practice, and the track was really crowded. On new tires, it takes a lap or two until they get going, and I was still slipping and sliding and trying to get my tires to hook up.
“Tony was on his last lap, I guess, and had a lot of speed. To cut to the chase, I was in his way. My plan was to get down the backstretch and move over to let him go, but I never got good enough traction off the corner to get going and get out of his way. I’m sure he’s upset, and our guys are upset that the racecar got beat up a little bit.
“To me, it isn’t a big deal. It’s just a product of things that happen when you go short-track racing.”
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