Piloting the same car he used in his dominant run at Indianapolis last weekend, Juan Pablo Montoya once again showed that he is hungry to make this year’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Chase. The Earnhardt Ganassi Racing driver overcame a number of issues during Monday’s matinee at the Pocono Raceway to score the second-place finish. With another strong showing, the former open-wheel star is beginning to prove his worth in the stock car ranks and has moved into a solid Chase spot in eighth.

On the final restart with just fourteen laps remaining in the Pennsylvania 500, Montoya lined up fourth on the outside line and pushed Clint Bowyer into the lead as the field headed for Turn 1. As Kasey Kahne made a move three wide under Sam Hornish Jr. the No. 9 Dodge slid up the track and into the left rear of Montoya’s car, sending him up the race track and out of the groove. The contact allowed eventual race winner Denny Hamlin to sneak by on the inside, but Montoya was able to recover and eventually put the pressure on Bowyer and move past for the runner-up spot.

“We had a lot of problems,” Montoya admitted following his best finish of the 2009 season. “I overshot the pit stops once. Actually first time I pit in, you never go through any boxes. The perception was different. I thought I would be fine. I screw up a couple times. Was a good learning thing.”

“We had a loose wheel,” Montoya continued to say of his struggles on the day. “Everybody came in and took two tires. I came in and took four. We lost like 15 places there. But we had great fuel mileage. I think that really played into our hands today.”

By playing in to his hands, Monday’s finish allowed Montoya to move up another two spots in the standings to eighth, putting him now sixty-eight points ahead of Greg Biffle in twelfth. In addition to his strong runs the last two weeks, Montoya has finished outside the top-10 only twice in the last eight races, and those two finishes were a twelfth in New Hampshire and the much disappointing eleventh at Indy.

Now halfway through the Race to the Chase, Montoya is proving to the competition that he is doing all he can to finally make his mark in NASCAR and make the Chase. Headed to Watkins Glen this weekend, Montoya has his eyes set on the trophy and earning ten bonus points as he looks towards the Chase. In two attempts at the road course, Montoya has a best finish of fourth which came last year.

“For us going to a road course is good, especially that one,” Montoya explained Monday after the race. “In Sonoma our car never runs good. Watkins Glen we normally got a really good car. For us, if we can get a top five out of there, I know we can probably win the race, but if we get a top five out of there, the points for the Chase would be huge.”

For Montoya, making this year’s Chase would be more than huge. Securing a spot in NASCAR’s version of the post-season will show that the former open-wheel star not only belongs in NASCAR, but may very well become a staple at the top of the standings for years to come.

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