Montoya embraces offseason changes

CONCORD, N.C.

Change is good — or at least so goes the motto at Earnhardt Ganassi Racing this season.

It's one that is being embraced by Juan Pablo Montoya as he tries to return to the elite ranks and challenge for a spot in NASCAR's Chase for the Sprint Cup.

BIG MOVERS

Not all Cup stars are staying put after 2011. Who's on the move?

After an offseason filled with internal personnel moves — a run actually started in September with the hiring of John Probst as technical director and followed by the exodus of longtime managers Steve Hmiel and Tony Glover and the addition of former Roush Fenway Racing general manager Max Jones — Montoya is looking for an improvement in performance.

That actually wouldn’t be that difficult after a dismal 2011 in which he finished 21st in points. Teammate Jamie McMurray, a three-race winner in 2010, fared even worse.

“We were 21st and 27th in the points and that’s pathetic for a team with our ability and our resources,” team co-owner Chip Ganassi said Tuesday.

Montoya echoed those sentiments: “It’s not really acceptable to run that bad.”

Now, though, optimism runs high. Montoya seems quietly confident. He talks about the team having a clear direction, about dropping into meetings in which it’s clear a true game plan is in place.

He sees significant changes in the engineering program and a whole lot of new faces in the shop.

“I’m really happy. . . . It’s been exciting. As (McMurray) said earlier, I think we got the right people,” Montoya said. “I know it’s very early days, but you can see the changes. You can see there’s a direction where we’re going. The team is heading somewhere that is good. Sometimes, you’d go there before . . . there was a lot of long faces and no answers. Now you can ask and (it’s) ‘We’re doing this, we’re doing this, we’re trying that.’ . . . And it’s exciting. There’s a direction, and there’s so much potential.”

A strong start at Daytona International Speedway certainly could engender more confidence in the changes, but the fact is Montoya enjoyed a strong opening segment last season.

He’s looking at more than the opening race of the year.

REVVING UP

The 2012 NASCAR Media Tour offered a glimpse into drivers, crew chiefs and owners as they prepare for the season. PHOTOS.

And right now, he’s doing a lot of getting to know his team, including new crew chief Chris Heroy, who moved over from a different role at Hendrick Motorsports.

The team is doing a lot of testing these days, planning treks to tracks at Disney World, New Smyrna and Nashville before the season opens.

“We’re doing a lot of testing,” he said. “It’s a brand-new group of guys. It’s like 90 percent of my road crew changed. It’s exciting. . . . We had a really good bunch of guys last year, but I think a change was needed. And Chip saw that, as well.”

Soon, they will find out if all the hard work and changes are paying off.

“I think this year, once we get everybody together and the results start coming in, it’s going to change, I think the attitude is going to change, the approach is going to change,” Montoya said. “I’m excited. I’m real excited.”

And if they don’t? Ganassi said that he was willing to continue to make changes — and team co-owner Felix Sabates said it really might not take long to start making those if there’s not a dramatic improvement quickly.

“It’s very important,” Sabates said. “. . . The second race of the year is going to tell us if we’ve made any improvement or not. We’ve got to come out of the box pretty quickly with both cars and by the fourth race of the year. That will tell you what we’re made out of.”

Would they make changes that early?

“I think one of the problems that we had in the past is that we kept people too long,” Sabates said. “That’s not going to happen again. If somebody’s not doing the job, then we’re changing. . . . (Chip’s) willing to make them. I don’t think we’re going to have to, but if we do, we do.”