Montoya still committed to Ganassi

The Colombian wished Truex well with his new team next season, while saying that he is not worried about who will replace him in 2010 as his focus remains on making this year's Chase for the Sprint Cup, which would be a first for a Ganassi driver.

Montoya currently ranks 11th in the drivers' standings, while Truex is 24th in the first season of the merger between Dale Earnhardt Inc and Chip Ganassi Racing.

"Good for him," Montoya replied when asked about his team-mate's departure from EGR. "If he wanted to go and he thinks he has got more stability at Waltrip's, you know, good for him. It doesn't really... you know what I mean. Ourselves as a team, we have got to look for the good things and the bad things.

"I think he said he had too many questions and you know, tough luck. Hopefully he runs better there than he is here. For me right now my focus is not who is going to be my teammate or whatever. My focus right now is making the Chase and making sure this team runs good."

The 33-year-old says he remains committed to turning his team into a championship-contending outfit. When asked if he thought he would be winning races regularly if he were driving for Hendrick or another top team, he replied his goal is to achieve that with EGR.

"I think we are bringing the team together to do that," Montoya said. "It doesn't matter if I am in a Hendrick car or a Ganassi car or a Gibbs car. It is what it is. I am happy where I am. I am working hard to make sure we become one of those teams. Right now we are a smaller team and I don't think it makes a big difference.

"We've shown that as long as you have the right people working for you, you will be fine. I think our car today is as good as anybody's. We need a little bit more but everybody does.

"You see where we came from last year to where we are right now, when you run third, fourth, fifth...from there to winning, it is what it is. We keep working, keep trying to come up with new ideas, new things."

Three years after Chip Ganassi announced he had signed Montoya to drive in NASCAR, while he was still under contract with McLaren Mercedes in Formula 1, the former grand prix winner believes he and his team are starting to see the fruit of their hard work over the past two seasons.

"Time really flies," Montoya said. "It's actually surprising that three years ago I flew up here and did the press conference and it was the first time really looking at the cars and everything. It was really exciting.

"To see how far we've come over the three years, I think everybody, really, when I came in, didn't know what to expect. For me, when we talked to Chip (Ganassi), we knew the team wasn't where it needed to be.

"We needed to do a lot of changes and things were going to happen and it was going to be up and down. And I was okay with it. And we built a team. Things are getting better. We're getting more competitive and right now where we are in points is all about surviving and bringing the car home every week and see what happens."

Montoya, who is in his best season in NASCAR to date, has scored eight top ten finishes this year and he is 86 points inside the Chase zone, with eight races left to start the Sprint Cup Series 'play-off'.