Montoya excited about DEI link up

Montoya expects the combined effort will allow them to share a lot of data and help the four-car effort to run better than their current form as separate organisations.

"I think it's great for everybody," Montoya said. "It's going to make us better overall as a team and a company. It's exciting, I'm looking forward to it. I think Martin (Truex Jr) and everybody there has so much to give us.

"We've got so much information together and to have it is going to make us a lot better and stronger race team."

Despite Ganassi having to switch from Dodge to Chevrolet and the DEI resources being moved into the Ganassi facility, Montoya believes the partnership can start to deliver immediate results in 2009.

"I think it's going to (work) right away," said Montoya. "My relationship with (Martin) Truex is really good, with (Aric) Almirola is pretty good and whoever is going to be my teammate we're probably going to have a great relationship.

"Everybody wants to win pretty bad and our team itself is getting really good and I think with the help from them it's going to be huge."

The 33-year-old said he was happy to hear from Chip Ganassi about the new direction for 2009 and he believes the progress made by his team recently can transfer to the association with DEI.

"He said 'hey we're going to do this', I said "hey this is freaking great! I think we need it'," said Montoya. "I think between the experience that DEI have as a team, their drivers and what we have, I think we're going to be a great team.

"You look at our performance in the last four mile-and-a-halves and we've been there every week. Short tracks we're not there, but (DEI) are. I'm really, really excited. I think it's going to make us a great team."

Despite the ban on testing issued by NASCAR for next year, Montoya doesn't expect the ruling to work against the team's progress. The Colombian is happy that his schedule for next year will be much less busy than he was expecting.

"I think it's great," he said. "If you look at my schedule at the moment, it would've really sucked.

"It's good, I'm happy. It's a shame that we can't test at all because sometimes you want to do a little bit, but I think our simulations and stuff, and mixing up the information with ourselves and DEI, are going to be huge for us."