RICHMOND, Va. -- One can only imagine the frustration that might be visiting Juan Montoya these days, just a third of the way into the race to the Chase.

Montoya, who's starting just his fourth full season in Cup after a stellar open-wheel career, qualified for the 2009 Chase and ended up eighth in the championship standings. With that, more was expected this year, and the Earnhardt Ganassi Racing team's season began with a 10th in the Daytona 500.

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It's hard when they wreck and the track's blocked, and you've got to run into people or somebody wrecks you or your engine blows up -- completely out of your hands. So when things like that happen, you've got to go out and score big points and hopefully it's enough.

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-- JUAN MONTOYA

But after nine races, with 17 remaining before the cutoff for the 2010 Chase -- which coincidentally also comes at this track -- Montoya finds himself in a far different realm: 20th in the drivers' points and 123 out of the Chase, heading into Saturday night's Crown Royal 400 at Richmond International Raceway.

And he's not fretting, or freaking out.

"I think we're as good as we were [last year] in the Chase," Montoya said Friday morning. "We're not making too many more mistakes than we did last year, we still have to work on our pit stops but I think in general it's a little bit better."

Montoya could be right, as last year he was 16th in the standings coming into this race -- but with only two top-10 finishes. In 2010, he has twice that many after starting the season with a bang, bouncing back to notch a third at Talladega and running third at Atlanta and fifth at Phoenix.

But other than those four good ones -- the only races in which he's finished on the lead lap -- strong finishes have been much harder to come by. Montoya has ended up 34th or worse four times, with 26th being his other result. Accidents badly affected three races (Las Vegas, Bristol and Texas) and his engine broke at Auto Club Speedway.

"It's hard, because we've been trying to race smart," Montoya said. "But it's hard when they wreck and the track's blocked, and you've got to run into people or somebody wrecks you or your engine blows up -- completely out of your hands.

"So when things like that happen, you've got to go out and score big points and hopefully it's enough."

What Montoya has managed to do is assemble an array of overall season loop data statistics that equate to how well he's been running. He's ninth in Driver Rating with an 89.1, which makes Montoya the only driver ranked in the top 15 in that category that sits outside of 14 in points. (Continued)