Juan Pablo's complaint, and other musings

By DAVID GREEN

Ironic, isn't it, that little ABC Sports featurette with Juan Pablo Montoya praising Mark Martin for helping him get competitive in Cup cars, and then suggesting that Martin "screwed me" after the finish of the Sylvania 300 Sunday.

You'd think Martin threw a cinder block out the window of his car in front of Montoya's, the way the Colombian has pouted about that incident.

I give Montoya credit for not causing a wreck. But he didn't refrain from roughing up the leader out of the goodness of his heart; he was surprised.

The natural instinct in such a situation is to go as hard as you can and hope, if your cars are nearly equal, that the other guy makes just a tiny mistake or has a tiny bit more wheelspin under acceleration than you do, something to give you the edge to make the pass or, if you're the leader, to stay in front.

It takes discipline, in the heat of a late-laps duel, to temper that instinct and to drive that corner to your best advantage rather than merely trying to go as fast as you can go. You also run the risk of the other guy taking you out if he's not paying attention, or of making a banzai move (kind of like Carl Edwards tried at California) and executing the pavement equivalent of a slide job on you.

Martin did absolutely nothing wrong. He did something Montoya wasn't expecting. That's what old pros do.

For better or worse, the Chase is with us. Some things to be thankful for:

...that Fox Sports is not doing the coverage. I had a nightmare last night that the Dover race was about to begin and DW was screaming, "BOOGITY BOOGITY BOOGITY! LET'S GO CHASIN', BOYS!" Scary stuff. Woke up in a cold sweat.

...that NASCAR turned thumbs down on a suggestion from Bruton Smith that we use four-abreast formations for restarts instead of the mundane two-wide. Hey, just because it was a hit at zMax Dragway...

...that Flavio Briatore is not a NASCAR participant.

Dover predictions, anyone? I have a feeling a non-chaser is going to steal the thunder at the Monster Mile. Kyle Busch, maybe? Clint Bowyer?