Football coach?

After his third-place finish at Martinsville Speedway in Virginia, Juan Pablo Montoya was asked about the comment Bob Griese made about him and how it made Montoya feel after being spoken in that light by a football coach.
There are so many things wrong with that question, but let's start with the football coach part. Griese was a Hall of Fame college quarterback at Purdue, a great NFL quarterback for the Miami Dolphins and a pretty mediocre football commentator for ABC. But he has no official experience as a football coach.
As for how Griese's comments made Montoya feel, it's surprising Montoya wasted his breath with an answer.
"Football coach? I don't know who it is," Montoya said. "Somebody mentioned it to me. I don't really care to tell you the truth. Yeah, I don't. I could say I spent the last three hours eating tacos, but I was actually driving a car. But that's okay, I don't care."
Good for Montoya. He shouldn't care what Griese said. It's even funnier that Montoya doesn't even know who Griese is.
What is a shame is that a sportswriter from assumably Virginia doesn't know or more likely mistook Griese for a football coach.
As for the race and the Chase standings, Montoya talked about his chances of catching Jimmie Johnson, the leader in the Chase.
Denny Hamlin won the race at Martinsville. Johnson was second and extended his lead with four races to go in the Chase. Montoya jumped back into the top five after the Martinsville race, so Chris Speilman, Griese's broadcasting partner at ABC, shouldn't have any trouble finding Montoya. But time is running out and Montoya doesn't think he has a chance of catching Johnson.
"I'm too far. It doesn't matter," Montoya said. "You've got to say the 48 team (Johnson) is doing an amazing job and they deserve everything they're doing right now. Do we want to beat them? Yeah, we want to beat them. But it's not over.
"You've got to be honest, you go to Talladega and he might have a bad race, or even the race after. He might blow a motor have a bad pit stop. There's still a lot of racing to go, so anything can happen. We've just got to keep running hard and hope for the best."

Photo: Jimmie Johnson led five times for 164 laps, but finished second in the TUMS Fast Relief 500 at Martinsville Speedway. (Photo Credit: John Harrelson/Getty Images for NASCAR)