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| Pattie and Bowyer have been a feel-good story. |
After a season that saw the former
F1 and IndyCar star finish a woeful 21st in championship points,
with only two Top-5 finishes in 36 starts, Pattie and longtime Ganassi
employees Steve Hmiel and Tony Glover were handed their walking papers in a
housecleaning move designed to give the team a fresh start in 2012.
Almost a year later, Montoya
is once again 21st in championship points, with no Top-5 finishes
and only two Top-10 showings in 26 races to date. Pattie, meanwhile, has become
one of 2012’s best feel-good stories. He and driver Clint Bowyer are in the
thick of the hunt for the Sprint Cup Series championship; one of two teams to
make the Chase out of the Michael Waltrip Racing stable.
Pattie admits, albeit
grudgingly, that the sting of last year’s dismissal has motivated him to
achieve this season.
“Clint and I both need to
prove ourselves,” said Pattie this week. “Clint lost his ride at Richard
Childress Racing last year and I lost my job at Ganassi. We have a lot to prove,
and hopefully we will do that in the next 10 weeks.”
Asked if he and Bowyer carry
chips on their respective shoulders after unhappy endings to the 2011 campaign,
Pattie admitted, “Yes, probably so.
“I’m a modest person, and I don’t
talk bad about anybody,” he said. “I guess both of those organizations (RCR and
Ganassi) did what they felt like they needed to do, but I’d be lying if I said
that hasn’t been a bit of a motivator."
He stressed, however, that
he is firmly focused on the challenges of the next 10 weeks, rather than on the
past. “We’re not going to let (last year) distract us from our goals,” said
Pattie. “I want to beat the No. 48 this year. I want to beat the 24, the 5 and
the 11. I want to beat them all.
“It doesn’t really matter
what happened in the past,” he said. “It’s the future that matters, and right
now, the future looks pretty bright.”
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