Montoya realistic on Chase chances

The Colombian had been 12th in the standings following his second place finish at Talladega, but fell down to 16th just a week later after having a difficult race at Richmond.

He had claimed his best qualifying effort of the year at the 0.75-mile oval but was involved in a multi-car wreck during the race that sent him to the garage for a while, putting him several laps down.

Some had suggested after his second place at Talladega that he could be a championship challenger, but he says that despite some clear improvements from last season, he and his team still need to make a step forward.

"Somebody would be dreaming if they tell me that," said Montoya about challenging for the title. "I think as a company we're getting better, but I think we need a little bit more time."

"We haven't run in the top 10 but once this year. All of a sudden are we going to run in the top 10 every week? No, that's not going to happen. It's not going to happen overnight just because we finished second at Talladega.

"Are we going to have more top fives and top 10s? Probably. yes. We just have to make it a little bit better. Making the Chase is more about everyone else making mistakes and us being consistent."

The Formula One race-winner says he still needs to learn more about the cars and how to get the best out of them from a set-up point of view, especially when the handling is far from the optimum.

"I think I'm pretty good at the racing part," he added. "I think it's more of, 'Do I need a track bar? Do I want to pull rubber out? Is it the wedge? Is it the track bar on the left or right?' It's all kinds of things.

"When the car is really good, then it's very easy to adjust like that because you all want to pick 'here'. When the car is bad, it's very hard to decide which is the worst pick."

Montoya also stressed that his recent crew-chief change was not something he requested from the team. Since Talladega, Montoya has been working with Jimmy Elledge, while his former crew chief Donnie Wingo is now with his team-mate Reed Sorenson.

The former Indy 500 winner is currently the best placed of the Ganassi drivers in the standings as he gets to Darlington, where he will compete for the second time in his Cup career next Saturday.