Montoya not focused on Chase yet

The Colombian is currently 16th in the Nextel Cup standings,having scored a fifth place at Atlanta as his best result of the season to date. He has finished every race so far and has taken a conservative approach to his racing.

"I think things have gone pretty well. It's hard to say, you know, are we going to make the Chase or anything," Montoya said.

"We're just going race by race, making sure we bring the car home. I was more concerned about dropping out of the Top 20 than getting into the Top 12.

"You've just got to take advantage of when you're comfortable, score good points, and when you're not, just bring the car home. If you manage to stay away from wrecks and stuff, you'll be fine.

"I think you've got to wait probably ten more races to sit down and say, okay, we've can make the Chase, we've got to focus on this or that."

Montoya's crew chief Donnie Wingo stated after their fifth place in Atlanta that this weekend's race at Texas could provide their best chance of victory so far. However, the former Formula One star is staying cautious.

"Well, I didn't know he said that, but we were working on it like every weekend. You go into a weekend, you're comfortable with the car, the car looks good, you have a chance. Here when you have a chance it's not like it used to be [in Formula One].

"When your car was fast and you were the fast guy, you had about a 90 percent chance to win. Here you've got about 50 because on any given day there's easily five cars that can realistically win the race.

"So you need to make sure you've got to be one of those cars and play smarter than anybody else out there, and then you have a chance."

Montoya will compete Saturday in the Busch series race after sitting out last weekend's event at Nashville, where Ganassi development driver Kevin Hamlin took his seat in the No. 42 Texaco Havoline Dodge.