juan montoya

No team has been more impressive through the first two chase race than Juan Montoya and the #42 Target team.

So far they have defied the odds, working past his poor average finish at both New Hampshire, and Dover to finish in the top five at both.

Now the struggle for Montoya continues, while he is hot at the right time, many fans wonder how long can his team keep that up?

Juan Montoya had an uphill battle in this year's chase. It is his first chase, and he had a poor average finish on many of the 10 Chase tracks.

On top of that he has yet to win on an oval, and he isn't exactly driving for one of the Elite NASCAR Cup operations.

With all that being said, no one should count out Montoya in this battle.

The weekend couldn't have gone much better for Juan Montoya and his #42 Target team. Sure he could have won the race, and he had a shot too had he bumped, race winner Mark Martin out of the way.

However he did win the pole, lead the most laps, and raised himself six places in points in the first week of the NASCAR playoffs.

Not a bad way to start his first ever chase for the Championship.

This should be a bigger story then it is for several very good reasons. First and foremost having a popular driver, born in another country, in the chase brings in a whole new group of fans to the world of NASCAR.

While there are a few Hispanic men making in roads into the world of NASCAR, having Juan Montoya in the chase should bring in more fans that may not have paid attention to NASCAR.

Kyle Busch and Matt Kenseth have one two things in common, they both won multiple 2009 Sprint Cup races, and they both failed to qualify for this year's chase.

Since there are four drivers; Car Edwards, Greg Biffle, Ryan Newman, and Juan Montoya all made the chase without winning a single race, the question must be asked, should a team with multiple regular season wins earn an automatic Chase birth?

Let the debate begin.