Montoya, Busch ready for roads as Cup leaves ovals

PRINT EMAIL FACEBOOK DIGG TWITTER RSS SHARE

Don't be surprised if Sunday's race at Infineon turns into a duel between Juan Pablo Montoya and Kyle Busch. Jason Smith/Getty Images Sport

The Sprint Cup hits a road course for the first time this season on Sunday at Infineon Raceway -- a tight, 1.99-mile track in the wine country of Sonoma, Calif. It should be a showdown, sabers drawn, between Juan Pablo Montoya -- a fabulous road racer who has been learning to drive stock cars the past three years -- and Kyle Busch, a great stock car driver who suddenly became a winning road racer in NASCAR last year.

Montoya's sole Cup victory was at Infineon in his rookie season of 2007. He used his extensive experience on road courses to stretch the fuel mileage on Chip Ganassi's No. 42 farther than anybody thought possible, cycling into the lead with seven laps to go, and finishing 4.1 seconds in front of Kevin Harvick.

The Colombian, a winner of seven Formula One races, arrives to Infineon in Chase contention with 11 races to go, and running stronger than he ever has in Cup. Montoya's sixth-place finish at Michigan last Sunday leaves him only 43 points behind the 12th and final Chase spot, which is held by Jeff Burton.

Montoya has four top 10s in the past six races and six for the season. The merger of the Dale Earnhardt Inc. and Ganassi organizations last winter that put him into the Target Chevrolet has clearly made a major difference. Last season, Montoya had only three top 10s (including sixth at Infineon) and was 25th in the points.

Even with the change in the structure of the team, Montoya has continued with crew chief Brian Pattie for a second season. Montoya credits Pattie for building better cars.

"A good car makes a driver look good, a bad car makes a driver look really bad," Montoya said. "Everybody at Earnhardt Ganassi is doing such a good job. Everybody's pumped up and excited. It shows where the team is heading."

Montoya has never lacked motivation or confidence, but his position in the points and racing at Infineon will undoubtedly send his energy level soaring. He's got momentum, too, and that all points to an extra shot of aggression to go with those world-class road racing skills.

Remember, this is a driver who knocked his teammate, Scott Pruett, out of the way to take the lead in Nationwide race in 2007 at Mexico City. It was Montoya's first NASCAR win.

For his part, Busch won last season's Nationwide race at Mexico City, but he wasn't considered a threat at Infineon. Jeff Gordon, with five wins in nine races there from 1998 to 2006, and Tony Stewart (two wins) were the drivers to beat, with Robby Gordon (one win) a top contender. Busch had finished 40th, 11th and eighth in his starts at Infineon.

But from 30th starting position, Busch charged up to 13th in a long green-flag run, caught the cautions right and led 78 of the last 80 laps.

Busch proved it wasn't a fluke by winning Cup's other road course at Watkins Glen six races later. He had transformed a vulnerability into a strength, and became the first driver to win at three road courses in the same season in NASCAR history.

"I'm really impressed with Kyle because I've been around him and I don't think he's a very good road racer," Gordon said after the race last year at Infineon. "I'm kind of shocked, actually, because I was really bad one time and he went by me at the beginning and he wasn't much better than I was and he was out of control.

"I think that you've got to give that guy a lot of credit for his talent because to be able to get the car up front and maintain that position, and if you keep it on the racetrack all day, then you get credit from me. I would not have bet on him keeping it on the track all day after watching him over the weekend and watching him in front of me that one time when he went by me. Obviously, he's maturing and learning."

Busch, like most of the Cup regulars, grew up racing ovals and learned road courses in Cup.

"In the beginning, I was lost to be honest with you," he said in the post-race media conference last year at Infineon. "I raced legends cars and road courses here five years ago and stuff, and learned the technique and stuff of shifting and braking and all that, and then got to Cup cars and they are so different. I was just lost.

"I give a lot of that credit to testing with Jimmie [Johnson] and Jeff [Gordon] a lot of the times and learning a lot from those guys when I was at Hendrick (2004-2007) and working with them. And, of course, more of that expertise goes to Max Papis, our test driver at Hendrick, learning stuff from him and reading the reports that he did and picking up on it, following guys like Boris Said and Robby Gordon, the guys that are good at it and fast at it."

Jeff and Robby Gordon and Stewart will be threats to win Sunday, but my money is on Montoya and Busch running nose-to-tail in the closing laps. I wonder which driver will be running in which spot.