"People that complain about a NASCAR race haven't watched anything else in motor racing," Montoya said on a Tuesday conference call. "[NASCAR] is the greatest racing you can have in any motorsports scene. I'm not saying this because I'm here. I'm saying it because I've lived all of them."

Before competing in his first Chase for the Championship, Montoya wasn't sure whether his No. 42 Chevrolet team was ready to challenge for the title. Montoya began the Chase impressively with four consecutive top-five finishes, putting him in third place, only 58 points behind leader Jimmie Johnson.

In the next four Chase races, however, Montoya has only one top-five, and has drifted to sixth place, 236 points behind Johnson. With two races remaining, Montoya was asked whether he'll be a serious championship contender next year.

"I guarantee a lot of people are going to be [telling] me, 'This is going to be the year you have to win the championship,' " Montoya said. "The key for our team [next year] is to be able to match the performance that we have this year. [Also] a lot depends on the work that is done during the winter, because it is key to being positioned for the following year."

Montoya was asked how successful Danica Patrick could be if, as reported, she races a limited schedule next year in the Nationwide Series while continuing in IndyCar.

"I think you're going to have a lot of traditional NASCAR fans hoping she doesn't [succeed]," Montoya replied. "But at the same time, you're going to have a huge amount of people hoping she does well. I hope she does well. If I can help her in any way, I would."

Biffle Chasing momentum

"Making the Chase this year was a lot of momentum for the team, and this sport is a lot about momentum," Biffle said. "Certainly, we'd like to win one of these last two races, but we're looking forward to finishing off the season the best we can and then being better next year.

"The season has been a little disappointing for the 16 team. We came very close [to winning]. We almost won California [finished fourth]. We were right there at Las Vegas [seventh]. We would have probably won Texas, had we not dropped a lug nut. We would have won Michigan if we [hadn't] run out of gas 800 from the start/finish line.

"The biggest gain for us was Kansas, the third race into the Chase. We felt we were on to something that had a lot of speed. But we haven't been able to hit on anything since then."

While Biffle hasn't won a Sprint Cup race at Phoenix, he has three Nationwide victories and one truck series win there. At Homestead, where the Cup season finale will be, Biffle won three in a row (2004-'06).

After Jimmie Johnson was involved in an early wreck Sunday at Texas, his lead was trimmed considerably to 73 points over Mark Martin. Biffle remains hopeful that Martin can still overtake Johnson and prevent a four-peat.

"There's a lot of pressure on the 48 team because of what happened last week," Biffle said. "Mark runs well at these last two racetracks."

A year ago, Johnson carried a 106-point lead into Phoenix. He won the race, widening his advantage over Carl Edwards to 141 points before Homestead.

France: Tone it down

During a roundtable discussion with the Roanoke Times before the Texas race, France said he'd like the analysts for NASCAR race telecasts to be more like those who work other pro sports.

"We welcome criticism on calls that are made, strategy, policy," France said. "What we'll ask the commentators to do [is] look at how other professional commentators call other sports."