Warning: Objects in this post may be the only way to successfully live through the NASCAR off-season. For best results, read rearview mirror early and often.
Driver: Juan Pablo Montoya
Team: No. 42 Chip Ganassi Dodge
'08 Final Standing: 25th (-3355)
Best Race: Aaron's 499 at Talladega (2nd-place)
Worst Race: Dickies 500 at Texas (43rd-place)
Season in a box: The most telling reason why Juan Pablo Montoya found himself finishing 25th in the season standings may have been the turmoil Chip Ganassi Racing was feeling financially.
Ganassi started the season with three drivers -- Dario Franchitti, Montoya and Reed Sorenson -- and finished the season with Franchitti only have run roughly half of the season due to sponsorship woes and with Sorenson taking off for Gillette-Evernham in 2009. A lack of sponsorship sent CGR into a merger with Dale Earnhardt Inc., to create Earnhardt-Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates.
Montoya's season hit its highest note after the second-place at Talladega in April but was run off track by a lack of consistently good finishes. The Columbian driver earned two Top-5s and three Top-10s and an rough average finish of 24th.
Through the crystal windshield: 2009 could be more than interesting for Montoya with the merger that will see him pilot a Chevrolet for the new EGR racing team. The team, as of November, was lacking half a season's worth of sponsorship for the coming season and team co-owner Chip Ganassi has shown with Franchitti that shutting down a race team due to a lack of funding is entirely a possibility.
If the team stays afloat, Montoya shouldn't be a force to make the Chase for the Sprint Cup based solely on how the Ganassi and DEI programs weren't stellar in any regard in 2008. Montoya's got the talent but unfortunately for the NASCAR world that could so use a competitive foreign influence, he just doesn't have the equipment.
Next up: Elliott Sadler
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