Smith: Top-10s won’t win a championship

Posted on June 13, 2014 by Nascar

In tight points race, near-perfection is necessary to contend

BROOKLYN, Mich. — He’s the only driver to finish inside the top 10 in all 12 NASCAR Nationwide Series races this year, but Regan Smith knows his team has to continue to improve if it hopes to contend for the series championship.

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"We know top-10s have been great — a good figure and good stats to have," Smith, driver of the JR Motorsports No. 7 Chevrolet said Friday at Michigan International Speedway. "But that’s not going to win the championship."

Smith, winner of the season-opening event at Daytona International Speedway, has been consistent, and as a result is the points leader heading into Saturday’s Ollie’s Bargain Outlet 250 at MIS.

Joe Gibbs Racing‘s Elliott Sadler trails by four points while Smith’s teammate Chase Elliott is third, 22 points back.

Trevor Bayne (Roush Fenway Racing) and Ty Dillon (Richard Childress Racing) round out the top five.

"As good as everybody’s running this year, and as strong as it appears the five or six cars that are going to be in the hunt are, it’s going to take more than top-10s," Smith said. "You’re going to have to get more wins, top-fives consistently."

The Michigan stop holds much promise, wrapped in a bit of apprehension. Smith is the defending race winner here, but he also hasn’t forgotten the back-to-back finishes of 30th or worse that he earned in ’13.

It’s one reason he says the title battle remains wide open.

"You’ve got Elliott, who’s been running well; Trevor, who’s been running well," he said. "Some guys that maybe stumbled early. Brian Scott, it seems like he’s been really fast here lately.

"Last year we had a huge points lead leaving here and all of a sudden after two races we’re sitting there and it’s a six-point lead and everything is completely different.

"So I think it’s too early with our (points) system the way it is … but having two cars up there definitely makes you think about it and think our chances are as good as anybody’s at this point."

Smith, Elliott, Sadler and Hornish (running a limited schedule for JGR, are the only Nationwide Series regulars to visit victory lane this season.

Improvement, Smith said, can come in a variety of ways.

"Just little things," he said. "When you have team meetings and discuss things after the race every week, there are little things you can highlight and say, ‘Hey, we did a good job here’ or ‘we didn’t do a good job here,’" he said. "Maybe it’s something as simple as one pit stop halfway through the race, or something a little more exaggerated, (maybe) we just missed it. Like Dover — we just missed it at Dover. For whatever reason, I didn’t like the feel I had in my car and we never got that better all weekend long."

His 10th-place finish on the Monster Mile was his fourth of the year. His average finishing position through this year’s 12 races is 7.08.

"The 9 car (of Elliott) ran better than us at Dover," Smith said, "So we can look at them and say why did they do better … and how can we improve?

"Do I need to change what I do as a driver to improve or was there something different on paper that we can look at and do?"

Qualifying for Saturday’s race begins at 10:40 a.m. ET with the race scheduled to begin at 2 p.m.

"I don’t know if you ever have a good handle on any race track," he said. "We qualified 20th (last year) so we obviously did something wrong there and have something to improve.

"I’m comfortable here; I’ve always enjoyed racing at Michigan. For whatever reason it’s a track I picked up quick…

"Anytime you win somewhere, you have a (high) confidence level and feel like you understand what you need to do."

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Posted on June 13, 2014 by Nascar

Big, wide ovals could suit Montoya’s style in 2014 return

BROOKLYN, Mich. — The possibility of what could be isn’t lost on Juan Pablo Montoya.

He’s seen how well Team Penske‘s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series teams have performed this season. He knows Michigan International Speedway, site of Sunday’s Quicken Loans 400, is a high-speed 2-mile track full of possibilities for a driver such as himself.

But can Montoya, who has been out of Cup competition since the end of the 2013 season, be a contender in what will be his first of only two scheduled starts for Team Penske in the No. 12 Ford?

Montoya prefers to dream big.

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"This is probably one of the best tracks for the Fords," the 38-year-old said Friday prior to opening practice at Michigan, where he placed 37th. "They always excel here and have a car that can win. The way Team Penske is running right now, if it clicks from the beginning and we hope it does, we might have a shot at winning this."

Montoya spent seven full seasons in Sprint Cup before leaving Chip Ganassi Racing at the end of 2013, eventually signing to compete in IndyCar for owner Roger Penske. He won twice for Ganassi, at the series’ road courses of Sonoma (in 2007) and Watkins Glen (2010). His best year came in 2009 when he tallied 18 top-10s en route to an eighth-place points finish.

To prepare for Michigan, Montoya said he and the team tested. Once. In that test, which took place at Nashville Superspeedway, he said it took him only five laps to get comfortable in the car.

Of greater importance, he said, is how well teammates Joey Logano and Brad Keselowski have fared this season. Logano has two wins and sits ninth in points while Keselowski, the 2012 series champion, is fifth and has one win. The Penske cars clearly have speed.

"With the way Team Penske is running here, it’s a hell of a chance," Montoya said. "You see Joey’s comments sometimes and he says it was a terrible day and he finished fifth or sixth, so from my history here I would have killed to have a car that would do that."

In 14 career starts at Michigan, Montoya scored three top-10s. He was 11th in his final start at the track last season.

"If we do a good job here and we have a decent race, we’ll easily get a top-10, and if I’m really comfortable in the car we could even look at a win," he said. "I think this track, with my background in open wheel, coming here is going to play into my hands a little bit because it’s a really fast track. It’s a track (where) you don’t brake … where you’re really controlling the throttle and you do that a lot in IndyCar."

His goal, he said is to "take it as it comes."

"But the way to really look at it is good preparation for the Brickyard (at Indianapolis Motor Speedway).

"Working with Greg Erwin, who is a real experienced crew chief — he’s won races and he knows what it takes to get it done. If we do a good job here understanding what I want out of the car, then going to the Brickyard we might be looking really, really strong. It could be fun."

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