Juan Pablo Montoya puts focus on points

Juan Pablo Montoya and crew chief Brian Pattie said last season that their main goal in the first 26 races was to finish consistently enough to make the 10-race Chase for the Sprint Cup. Once that was accomplished, they challenged for the points lead in the early Chase races, then dropped to eighth in the final standings.

The team appears to have faster cars this season, but Montoya is in a position where he needs to think about points. He’s 24th in the standings heading into Sunday’s race at Talladega Superspeedway.

“We don't need top-12s; we need top-5s to be able to come back to where we need to be,” Montoya said. “It's hard to know what's going to happen. But it's kind of weird because we're behind in points from last year, but we're not that far off, and we've had three DNFs [Did Not Finish]. ... We're behind on points from where we need to be, but we've got a car capable of the win."

Sponsor change

Shell/Pennzoil is ending its sponsorship of the No. 29 Chevrolet at Richard Childress Racing at the end of this season and moving to Penske Racing, with Kurt Busch carrying the colors on a 22-numbered car. Busch's teammate, Brad Keselowski, will move from the team's No. 12 car to drive the No. 2 Miller Lite-sponsored car that Busch will vacate.

Busch is in the final year of his contract with Penske, but the sponsor move seems to assure that Busch will stay in the Penske camp. Less certain is where Kevin Harvick, in the last year of his contract with RCR, will wind up next season.

The new deal also means that Shell/Pennzoil will become the preferred supplier of fuels, lubricants and related products for Penske’s non-racing automotive businesses.

Indy testing

Fourteen Sprint Cup teams spent two days testing at Indianapolis Motor Speedway this week. They worked on several combinations of Goodyear tires and studied how they worked with a blade spoiler instead of a wing affixed to the rears of the cars.

"It's a little bit different feel," Kyle Busch told reporters at the track. "I'm never really good here. This is a place I struggle at. We're trying to get better and find something that really works for us. Right now, the tires are good."

Tony Stewart, winner of the Brickyard 400 in 2005 and 2007, said he didn't notice a dramatic difference between the spoiler and the wing.

“The spoiler is a little bit of a balance change,” he said. “It’s not going to be a huge deal on the Goodyear side. It’s more for the team side of finding the balance and what they have to do.”