Brickyard offers Montoya a shot at redemption

INDIANAPOLIS -- Brian Pattie was having a conversation next to his transporter in the rear of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway garage area, near a chain-link fence where fans gather in search of autographs. Walking over to sign a few, Joey Logano turned to the crew chief of the No. 42 team. "You guys need to slow down," he said with a grin.

Brickyard 400

Lineup

Pos.	Driver	Make
1.	Juan Montoya	Chevrolet
2.	Jimmie Johnson	Chevrolet
3.	Mark Martin	Chevrolet
4.	Jamie McMurray	Chevrolet
5.	Ryan Newman	Chevrolet

• Race Lineup | Photo Gallery
• Montoya grabs Indy pole

It was a somewhat incongruous setting, the favorite for the Brickyard 400 parked back among the also-rans. But that's the kind of year it's been for Pattie and driver Juan Montoya, whose hopes of building on last season's breakthrough Chase berth have been derailed by a series of accidents and breakdowns. Sunday's event has always loomed large for this team, ever since they let a sure thing get away with a pit-road speeding penalty a year ago. But it's made even bigger by the events that have led up to it, and now stands as their best chance to salvage a little pride out of a frustrating campaign.

They've been working toward this, really, in the same, steady way they worked toward that first playoff berth last season. Montoya and Pattie brought a new car to Indianapolis in April for a Goodyear tire test involving 14 teams, and were so fast they left many on hand awestruck. They brought that car back to the Earnhardt Ganassi shop, and fine-tuned it with one race in mind -- the one where they led 116 laps and were schooling the field before the speeding penalty with 35 remaining relegated them to an 11th-place finish.

Even then, though, the season was already turning into an unforeseen train wreck, with engine failure at Fontana and a crash with teammate Jamie McMurray the next weekend at Las Vegas tossing Montoya into a points hole that would eventually grow wide enough to swallow his championship hopes. Now comes Indianapolis, and an opportunity to make up for not only one race last season, but also all the shortcomings they've faced the past six months.

"At that point we were in the Chase, finished 11th, went to Pocono and finished second," Pattie said, recalling the scenario surrounding Indianapolis last season. "It still continued our nice run through the summer. If that were to happen this year, [Montoya] would probably park the car to make a statement. Probably not the right statement, but it's just about where you're at in points. We've changed our goals a little bit trying to get some wins on these ovals, trying to get that [stuff] out of the way, and be back in the Chase next year."

Of course, that doesn't mean what unfolded a year ago at Indianapolis didn't sting. Montoya, true to his nature, had put his blown Brickyard behind him by the time he met with Pattie that following Tuesday. The crew chief seemed to have moved past it, too, satisfied with the bigger picture and the looming Chase, until a few weeks later when he had a conversation with three-time championship crew chief Ray Evernham at Michigan.

"Ray Evernham is one of my idols, and I talked to him at Michigan a few weeks after, and he said, 'Man, that's really unfortunate,'" Pattie said. "Making the Chase was a big deal to us, and our objective was making the Chase. He said, 'No dude, you don't understand. The Chase you can do every year. You're not going to win the Brickyard 400 every year.' He obviously knows more than I do. That's kind of stuck with me." (Continued)