SONOMA, Calif. -- Was this really Juan Montoya?

The guy in the sunglasses with the hip Colombian accent and smooth delivery sure looked and sounded like the Sprint Cup driver. And on the track during Saturday's Happy Hour, the final practice for this Sunday's Toyota/SaveMart 350 at Infineon Raceway, he sure drove like Montoya usually does at a road course -- posting the fourth-fastest lap of 43 competitors at 92.307 mph.

But something seemed amiss. This fella was talking about "Chase racing."

As unlikely as that might have seemed a couple of years ago -- maybe even a couple of minutes ago -- that is indeed what is foremost on Montoya's mind as he heads into Sunday's event at the road course where he claimed his only career Sprint Cup victory two years ago.

Asked if this was the place where his team stood poised to possibly gain significant ground in the point standings, Montoya cut off his questioner.

"Or lose a lot," Montoya corrected. "That's why you've got to be very smart and while you're trying to take a victory, don't screw yourself in the championship."

Asked then if that meant he would be satisfied with a good points day, Montoya was quick to answer again.

"I will Chase race, yes," he said, arching an eyebrow and chuckling just a little. "Surprising, isn't it?"

That Montoya enters this race in Chase-race mode is a sign in itself of the improvement he and his No. 42 Chevrolet team have displayed in this, his third full-time Cup season. This is the 16th race in a stretch of 26 that make up the regular-season portion of schedule and sets the 12-driver field for the Chase -- and Montoya currently sits in 14th in the standings, just 43 points out of 12th.

Whenever NASCAR ventures to a road course and Montoya is in the field, he's bound to be one of the favorites to win the race because of his extensive road-course experience as a former Formula One and IndyCar driver. In addition to winning at Infineon two years ago on the Cup side, he also earned his first NASCAR win in what is now the Nationwide Series in Mexico earlier that same year.

And don't get Montoya wrong. He would love to win Sunday.

He said he's just going to be careful about how he tries to go about it, lest he take a big hit in the point standings.

"I'm gonna run hard. It's just avoiding stupid mistakes, avoiding the stupid wrecks," Montoya said. "Going down the stretch late in this race, there are always people taken out. I was a victim of that last year. And if you can avoid that somehow, then you have to.

"It doesn't mean you're not going to try to win. You're going to run as hard as you can to try to win. But the same goal is, we've got to try to make the Chase. And if I'm here and I try to take the lead and I end up spinning out and we finish 25th, if we didn't win, we lost. If we don't take that chance and we still finish second, we can be 11th or 12th in points when we go to New Hampshire [next week]."

Montoya laughed when it repeatedly was pointed out that he obviously rates as one of the favorites to win Sunday.

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I think we've got a car that's capable of winning the race -- and if we've got a chance of taking it, we probably will.

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JUAN MONTOYA

"In this business, I think all that matters is how good you are in that moment," he said. "I think my background in road courses will help us some here, and I think we've got a good car. But it's all about how it plays into our hands.

"We've been really good the last few weeks, everywhere we've been. It's all about timing, doing everything right, not making mistakes -- and seeing what happens. Last year I was running second here with 20 laps to go and I got spun. I got taken out by [Marcos] Ambrose (watch video). That could happen again -- so you've got to be, in the position where I am in points this year, more aware of that."

Montoya also pointed out that whatever road-course experience he piled up while driving other cars matters little now. The new car the Cup Series went to full time last season is unlike any other he's driven.

"It's kind of funny, because when I talk to people about these cars on road courses, they're so different to drive from anything I've ever driven before," Montoya said. "Anything I've ever driven before, it was always about how brave you were. How brave are you? How late you brake? How hard do you run?

"This one, you don't. I mean, you've kind of got to cruise and try to go fast -- and cruising is pretty hard. It's very different from anything I've ever driven before."

The position in which Montoya finds himself and his team at this point in the season also is very different than any he has experienced since coming over to stock-car racing. Again, that is why he continued to insist that he will be conservative and patient -- which seems to go against the very grain of his being as a driver -- if he needs to be on Sunday.

He insisted that he will choose points over a wild gamble for a victory if the risk vs. reward ratio appears too great down the stretch of Sunday's 110-lap event at the 1.99-mile road course.

"I think our cars have come a long way from one year ago and we're very competitive right now," said Montoya, who will be driving a new Earnhardt Ganassi Chevy that has been built for this race. "It would be nice to win here -- but still, it's the same goal: we've got to try to finish better than where we're running in points. That's our goal every week.

"As much as it can be a big points swing in your favor, you could get in a wreck and finish 30th. So we've got to really keep that in mind."

It is different than it was for him two years ago when fuel-mile strategy helped him win at Infineon.

"We were nowhere near this two years ago, and it was more about trying to prove a point," Montoya said. "Now, of course we want to win races and of course we want run well, but I think anybody in the position where we are can't afford to take too many risks. We'll see."

Then again, he is still Juan Montoya. It was impossible to detect a twinkle in his eye because he was wearing sunglasses, but there seemed to be a hint of mischief in his voice as he added: "I think we've got a car that's capable of winning the race -- and if we've got a chance of taking it, we probably will."

Despite all the pre-race rhetoric, he may not be able to help himself.

Joe Menzer is the author of "The Great American Gamble: How the 1979 Daytona 500 Gave Birth to a NASCAR Nation." Click here to purchase.