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“It’s funny, everybody always says I’m aggressive,” said Montoya. “I don’t see myself that aggressive. Honestly I don’t think I drive aggressive. I don’t like being pushed around, I don’t think anybody does. That’s about it. I do what I have to.”

It was ironic that Montoya had a run-in with Tony Stewart in the season finale at Homestead. In his first Sprint Cup race at Homestead-Miami Speedway in 2006, Montoya clashed with Ryan Newman over the issue of territory coming off the corners. Newman, how of Stewart-Haas Racing later retaliated, knocking Montoya out of the race.

This year at Homestead, Montoya tagged Stewart exiting one of the corners. After Stewart body-slammed Montoya’s Chevy, it was Montoya who found himself retaliating. After being in the wrong place at the wrong time in Charlotte and Texas, the final blow in Homestead left Montoya eighth in the points. He was as high as third midway in the Chase after posting four top-5 finishes in the first four races in NASCAR’s playoff.

His best shot at victory eluded Montoya when he overcooked his entrance to the pits in the Brickyard 400 after leading 116 of the first 124 laps. Although he never called him out in public, Pattie said two days after the race that the car was taken apart and everything was working properly – including the tachometer system used to alert the driver to the proper pit road speed.

The failed bid to become the first driver to win the Sprint Cup and the Indy Racing League events at Indy was the lone major drawback to the season.

“I think if you sit down with Brian and say what have we missed, we missed winning races because we started too far behind and to close the gap is really hard,” said Montoya, who didn’t record his first top-5 finish until running second at Pocono in August, the week after the Indy race. “We know what we did, we know how hard we had to work over the winter last year to get where we were and to stay here we’re going to have to keep doing the same and Brian understands it and everybody in the shop does. Hopefully we can keep improving and give ourselves a shot at winning races next year. That would be nice.”

The remaining big hurdle for Montoya and Pattie concerns late-race adjustments.

“If you look at it, 80 percent of the races we probably have always the fastest car this side of the races, by the end of the race we’re probably like third or fourth best,” said Montoya. “I don’t know if we start too good or if we don’t have much room for improvement and everybody else does. I think that’s our weakest thing right there.”

If he begins to find victory lane regularly, can a Colombian-born open-wheeler become a major star in a sport now known for heroes from the South, California and the Midwest?

“He’s three years into a NASCAR career and he’s knocking fenders with the best of ‘em,” said Steve Lauletta, who became president of Earnhardt Ganassi Racing after Ganassi’s team left Dodge behind to merge with Chevy entrant Dale Earnhardt Inc.

“Personality-wise, he’s a straight-shooter,” said Lauletta. “What you see is what you get. He’s not a phony. The more fans learn about him, and hear him and listen to him, the more that they’re attracted to him in a positive light as opposed to ‘He’s too aggressive. He’s not from here.’ That’s the kind of stuff that people who don’t like him, that’s the kind of stuff he’s overcoming.”

According to Pattie, the battle for respect on the track has been won.

“You have to earn your rank here in this series,” he said. “I think Juan’s proven he deserves to be here.”

Jonathan Ingram has been writing full-time about the world’s major motor racing series and events since 1983 for newspapers, magazines and web sites.

John can be reached at jingram@racintoday.com

The opinions reflected herein are solely those of the above commentator and are not necessarily those of SPEEDtv.com, FOX, NewsCorp, or Speed Channel