COLUMN: Hard to figure

            INDIANAPOLIS – Four years into the great experiment of Juan Pablo Montoya, the mystery remains. Why can’t he win? It can’t all be luck. He can obviously, to borrow the favorite cliché of one Barney Hall, “drive the wheels off that car.”

            Something always happens. What the late Jerry Reed wrote about automobiles in general almost applies to the ones Montoya drives on the great speedways of the land. To paraphrase, if he’s not out of gas in a driving rain, he’s changing a flat in a hurricane.

            Comparatively speaking, that is. More accurately, if Montoya isn’t running too fast down pit road, he’s spinning out trying to make up for a bad strategic decision.

            Indianapolis Motor Speedway may be Montoya’s Waterloo, but he has missed opportunities to win at many. It’s a valued gift when a driver can win at every kind of track. Montoya could do that. He just hasn’t. One of the more talented drivers on the planet has competed in NASCAR’s Sprint Cup Series 129 times and won once. His winning percentage (.008) is a fraction usually reserved for a description of the amount of mercury in groundwater or some such.

            A year ago, he made the Chase but didn’t win. This year he is more likely to win than make the Chase simply because almost anything is easier than making up 325 points in the next six races.

            The No. 42 Chevy he drives is fast almost everywhere. Montoya drives it impressively almost everywhere. Either he’s come out on the wrong end of a deal with the Devil, or his failures are somehow more than coincidental. It’s difficult to tell what he’s doing wrong by watching, though.

            Excuses are gradually being stripped away. The notion used to be that Chip Ganassi’s team was substandard, which can be disputed merely by noting that three drivers – Jamie McMurray, Casey Mears and Reed Sorenson – have done better driving for Ganassi and partners than with other teams, and the notion becomes even more dubious when one realizes that two of those other teams are owned by Rick Hendrick and Jack Roush.

            Consistency remains an issue because neither Montoya nor McMurray is likely to make the Chase for the Sprint Cup. Consistency was, however, Montoya’s hallmark when he made the Chase a year ago.

            Within the Earnhardt Ganassi hierarchy, McMurray, with victories in two of the sport’s signature races, is outperforming Montoya in virtually every statistical category: wins, poles, points and money.

            What’s still clear is that Montoya is destined to be the next Gordon. The question is whether it’s Jeff or Robby.

You may contact Monte Dutton at mdutton@gastongazette.com.