Raybestos Rookie Juan Pablo Montoya leads David Ragan by 21 points (236-215) in the Raybestos Rookie standings entering Sunday’s Ford 400. Montoya was the top rookie in Saturday’s first practice session, posting the 15th best overall speed.

JUAN PABLO MONTOYA, No. 42 TEXACO/HAVOLINE DODGE: HOW IS YOUR CAR? “I don’t know [laughs]. I don’t really know. There’s about five laps that I feel I’m going to kill myself, the next five laps I feel like a hero and from there on it’s like, aaaahhhhhh I’m too tight. The track is changing a lot. It’s just a handful.”

DID THE CHANGE IN WEATHER CONDITIONS THROW YOU A CURVE? FRIDAY WAS WARM AND SUNNY AND TODAY IS CLOUDY. “You’ve got to keep up with it. I think the hard thing here is the track and the tires. I don’t know if they are worrying too much what it is, but whooo. I think that’s the best description: whooo. That’s as good as it gets [laughs].”

YOU HAVE SAID IN RECENT WEEKS THAT YOUR CAR IS TIGHT. HOW DIFFICULT IS IT TO GET A CAR LOOSE ENOUGH TO GO FAST BUT NOT SPIN OUT? “Exactly. I was pretty loose a couple of runs ago and it was fast but it was like ‘I don’t want to hang on to this for like 400 miles.’ But the other side of the coin is like five minutes later you go out and you’re so tight you’re screaming tight. I think you’re going to have to be loose here.”

ARE YOU A LITTLE DISAPPOINTED TO NOT WIN A POLE THIS YEAR? “Yeah, a little bit. We were so close so many times it’s freaking annoying.”