Montoya is hoping to regroup with new crew chief

He is driving under his third crew chief in a month and will compete next at Pocono.

CONCORD, N.C. (AP) — Juan Pablo Montoya requested a meeting with his boss and got it the day before the Indianapolis 500, when owner Chip Ganassi flew to North Carolina to talk with his emotional driver.

The early morning meeting Saturday at the team shop gave Montoya the opportunity to express his frustrations over the race team’s direction. Crew chief Jimmy Elledge had been fired earlier in the week — a move Montoya vehemently opposed — and the driver entered Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600 with his third crew chief in a month.

Finally face-to-face with Ganassi, Montoya voiced all his concerns.

“I told him everything I was thinking and how it was,” Montoya said. “The hope of the meeting is that everything that has happened turns into results. And if he was hoping he could just come here and calm me down, well, I need to run better. That’s what will calm me down.”

For a while Sunday, Montoya did run better. After a frantic few days of adjusting to new crew chief Brian Pattie, the two teamed to make the necessary changes to drive the No. 42 forward after a miserable qualifying effort put them at the very back of the field.

Montoya even cracked the top 20 at one point in the race. But contact with Patrick Carpentier forced Montoya into the grass, where he spun, lost track position and erased all the progress the team had made.

“If I would have stayed on the track there, I probably would have caused one of the biggest wrecks you’ve seen all year,” Montoya said. “The 10 car came out of turn four and came down and hit me. I moved down, and he just ran me all the way to the grass. I had nowhere else to go.

“I could have wrecked him and half the field, but I decided to go to the grass.”

Montoya wound up 30th, disappointed in the results but eager to put the week behind him.

“I tried to do the smart thing. If I would have gone aggressive, I would have wrecked him though he rightfully deserved it and I would have probably been OK,” Montoya said. “It was a tough week, but that’s racing.”

He and Pattie headed to Pocono Raceway on Tuesday for what Pattie has called the most important two days of their season.

The test session at Pocono will give the two a chance to figure each other out and set a course for the long summer months that will make or break the season. Pattie wants to work with Montoya, and make sure the driver knows the team understands his frustration and wants to help him turn it around.

He took steps toward proving that by sitting with Montoya and helping him understand the numerous changes he made to the car between Thursday’s horrible practice and qualifying sessions to Sunday when the car showed forward progress.

“I just want to get better,” Montoya said. “I’m very focused on that, and I hope people understand that’s all I want right now.”