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The path to a NASCAR Sprint Cup championship begins by finishing 14th.

That's the philosophy crew chief Brian Pattie followed last year in helping Juan Pablo Montoya make the title Chase for the first time.

Pattie found that in the last three seasons, the last driver to qualify for the Chase averaged 121 points per race. That's the equivalent of finishing 14th in every race from the Daytona 500 to the September Richmond event. Big risks aren't needed to make the Chase.

"By the time you get to Richmond, you don't want to go, 'Oh, remember those 150 points that we gave away last weekend? It would be nice if we had them today,' " Montoya said. "So, you've got to be smart. You've just got to wait and see how the year plays. If we have great race cars every week, then by the time you get to Richmond or a few races before Richmond, you're already in and you can take a different approach."

Pattie's equation shows the value of finding the right pace during NASCAR's seven-month "regular season."

With Montoya three spots out of the final Chase spot last May, Pattie preached consistency and the need to average at least a 14th-place finish for the first 26 races. While they would have preferred victories, the need for top-10 finishes proved a key.

A nine-race stretch in which Montoya finished sixth to 12th in all but one race (he finished second in that event) helped him secure a Chase spot.

Jimmie Johnson and his team have been experts in this area, with crew chief Chad Knaus knowing when to push the team and when to ease off before the Chase. It's why, some say, Johnson has won the last four championships.

"The only thing I can come up with at the end of the year is we have been less affected by pressure than other teams," Johnson said about his success in the Chase. "We prepare the cars the same. Our approach is the same."

Other teams don't have the luxury. Mark Martin finished 30th or worse in three of the first four races last season, dropping him to 34th in the points a month into the season. It helped that he had one of the fastest cars -- provided the engine held together -- but it still took him two months to climb into a Chase-eligible spot.

Once in the Chase, the strategy changes. Pattie, who preached conservative racing in the regular season, then became more of a risk-taker. Montoya had new cars for each of the first three races of the Chase and for half of the 10 races. Four of Montoya's six top-10 finishes during the Chase came with new cars. By comparison, every car Johnson used in the Chase had been raced earlier in the year.

Pattie's reasoning was that using a new car provides the opportunity to take lessons learned from older cars and make improvements.

Not everyone agrees.

"For me personally, and what I feel as getting the driver confidence and the race team confidence, I would have wanted to have run those cars at least once ... to know I had the bugs worked out," said Darian Grubb, crew chief for Tony Stewart. "Every chassis is its own animal. Everything needs a little bit of tuning."

Even the strategy.

Contact Dustin Long at 373-7062 or dustin.long @news-record.com