With confirmation this week that Juan Pablo Montoya will not return next year to the No. 42 Chevrolet SS fielded by Earnhardt Ganassi Racing in NASCAR's Sprint Cup Series, we sat down on Thursday with the former CART World Series champion, Indianapolis 500 winner and Formula One race winner to talk about his plan for 2014. But that's not all Montoya, who turns 38 next month, opened up about.

Autoweek: What's on your agenda now that we know you won't return to Earnhardt Ganassi in Sprint Cup?

Juan Pablo Montoya:

I don't know yet. But what I told everybody is, whatever I want to do, it's gotta be in a car to win races. You need to be in a winning car, that's the No. 1 thought for me right now. What am I gonna do? I dunno. You know, one side of me of course wants to stay in NASCAR, I've put a lot of effort and time into it. But the No. 1 thing for me is being in a winning car.

AW: As for the rest of this season? There are still 14 races to go with this team.

JPM:

I'll be honest with you. This time right now, I'm sure people are going to be asking this a lot, it's fun because I have such a good relationship with the guys on the team. They want to make sure we win races before I leave. And there's no pressure.

This year in a way, at some point I knew I probably wasn't gonna be here next year. But Chip [Ganassi] is still behind me, the team is behind me, and I'm behind the team. From here until the end of the year. I'm 100-percent committed to them and we still have a lot of fight in ourselves this year, and we're gonna drive the hell out of the car and have a good time. This is actually gonna be I think a pretty good, fun four months because I think my relationship with the guys is very special. I treat all the guys, they're all my friends. Everybody who works on the car is a friend of mine and we have a very close relationship so everyone wants to make sure I do well and I want to do well for them, too.

Does it suck that I'm not there next year? For a lot of reasons, yes, but for a lot of reasons no.

AW: Have you enjoyed your time in NASCAR?

JPM:

Oh yeah.

AW: Compared to CART, Formula One?

JPM:

I'll tell you the truth, each one has its good things and its bad things. You know, the relationship I have with Chip, even today, is really good. Actually now is even way better than it used to be.

AW: But in NASCAR …

JPM:

No, I mean, come on, we've been doing it for seven years. And I wanted more success, he wanted more success, you know what I mean? And it gets to a point, you know you've gotta move on.

It's not that we don't get on, we as friends, you know, it's not that he's doubting my ability to drive the car. It's just, he feels like we gotta do something else. Do I stop believing in him [or vice versa]? No. For him, his killer thing has always been [winning] the Cup. And I know he's done a lot of changes and things got better … And you can see the results, from where we were last year to this year, it's night and day.

AW: So what's been lacking to get to the point of being a consistent front-runner or race winner in Cup?

JPM:

If you look at the bigger picture, how many employees are at Hendrick [Motorsports]? More than 600, and we have 170. Somebody told me that there's more engineers at Hendrick than personnel at Ganassi. So when you're racing every week against them, yeah, you might have a shot a couple weeks a year because they screw it up and you got it all right, but being realistic, year-round ain't gonna happen.

You might get closer and closer. In 2009 we found something in the aerodynamics that nobody else did and our car had a lot of downforce, and we were good, and we were good every week. You know what I mean? It's not, it's like, our car this year doesn't drive better than what it drove last year, the difference is the car is just quicker, has more speed.

But it gets to a point, something that for me I've been lacking is winning. You know? I like winning. And I knew the process in NASCAR was gonna take time and we were really close a lot of weeks and things were looking up but it always kind of goes [well] and then it flat-lines.

You gotta be realistic. [Ganassi] wants to win and he's changed a lot of things. For the long-term they're gonna be probably good changes.

AW: Are you open to looking at IndyCar again, or other series besides NASCAR?

JPM:

Absolutely, looking at everything, yeah. Yeah, I would think, I mean I gotta look at, as I told you, it's gotta be a winning car. Whatever I do has gotta be in a winning car.

AW: If you could choose your destiny today to do anything as a race driver, what would you choose?

JPM:

Right now? Anything? The 24 [Jeff Gordon's car at Hendrick]. That would be an ideal scenario because to be honest, how many years Jeff's got left? But it's timing. The timing is not there to be there.

For me right now it's not about money, for me right now is about winning.

AW: Is winning in NASCAR more appealing than winning again in, say, IndyCar?

JPM:

I don't know, I really don't know. That would be a tough question.

AW: Have you already targeted who you want to talk to about opportunities for next year?

JPM:

Do I have an idea? Yes, of course. Am I gonna tell you? No.

AW: Well, what have you had the most fun doing over the years, results excluded? Just from a pure driving, fun standpoint? Was it the F1 car with its incredible performance?

JPM:

No, OK: This is a very complicated question because [there are different types of fun]. This is like taking a 1950 beautiful convertible that you go out with your kids and you have the time of your life. If you have kids, you cannot take the [Corvette] ZR1 for a cruise. The ZR1 wants to be driven the hell out of it.

Or on the other hand you can have … think about Formula One, think about a Ferrari. You know what I mean? Nothing drives like a Ferrari but if you want pure horsepower, you know, you want your ass to get tight when you get on the gas? You want to drive a ZR1!

I mean, the first time I drove a ZR1, I went, #$%&!

AW: And it's not just fast, it's frightening …

JPM:

Exactly! I've been to the [GM Milford Road Course proving ground]—that [track] in the ZR1 with [stability control and traction control turned off], holy #$*!. You know when you go over that hump at the back [of the track]? 140 mph over the hump, you spin the tires down it. You're wide-open through there! On a car like the ZR1, you turn off the electronics, you better know what you're doing! Because now you're gonna end up against the light pole somewhere (laughs)

AW: You need to drive the C7 then, it feels like what was traditionally a European car, it feels small …

JPM:

Is that a good thing or a bad thing?!

AW: No it's good because now the Corvette still makes all those muscle-car noises and has that same kick in the pants, but it feels like a small European sports car with -- OK, it's not a ZR1, but even the standard car, 460 horsepower. As if that's not enough!

JPM:

That's something, isn't it? I remember when I was in F1, the M5 came out with 400 horsepower and that thing, oh my God. Even … We did a guys' trip with M3s, I had my M3 and was racing for BMW, and they lent us two more and it was six of us in three M3s around Europe, and they had the [top-speed] limiters off. They do over 300 kph with the M3s -- and you can bump draft!

AW: Uh, bump-drafting M3s?!

Another example: We'll be driving the new 911 Turbo soon, that's another car that's going to be insanely fast.

JPM:

I hate the Porsches.

AW: What? You hate Porsches?

JPM:

They drive like $#!^!

I know a lot of people that love Porsches and I always break their heart (laughs). I'll tell you something, honestly, the only Porsche I like is the Cayenne.

AW: Come on.

JPM:

I'm being honest (laughs). Actually you know what didn't drive that badly was the GT3, the RS. I had one of those for like two months.

AW: What don't you like about them?

JPM:

They drive like $#!^ with the engine back there. You turn, it doesn't turn. You get on the gas, the front bounces and, oh my God.

AW: You should try the mid-engined cars, then.

JPM:

Yeah, yeah. But honestly I saw, right when I started in IndyCar I met [someone] who buys and sells used cars and I told him hey, if you ever get a convertible, a Porsche, let me know, I want to try one. So he lives a half-hour drive from my place, so I picked it up, I drove down to downtown Miami. By the time I got home I already had called him to send a flatbed to pick up the car.

AW: The horsepower of these modern cars is definitely impressive, though. But again, even for a professional race-car driver, honestly, what do you do on the street with 500, 600 horsepower?

JPM:

I was a big fan of Ferraris so I had a 355, then the 360 coupe, 360 Spider, 430 Spider. But by the time we got to the 430 I said, there's two things that are gonna happen with this: Either I'm gonna kill myself or I'm gonna end up in jail.

I put 200 miles on it and I said you know what, to enjoy it -- for me, if you're not pushing the car, if you have a Ferrari and you go through a ramp exit, that thing, you better be drifting! And when you do that in a Ferrari, you aren't doing 80, you're doing 130 mph. And at 130 mph if something goes wrong … yeah.

AW: Did I just hear that you have a Chevy Volt?

JPM:

Yes I do. I love it! For me when I was 25 it was all about those [performance] cars and now I use a Tahoe with a bike rack that I take my bikes everywhere. And if I need to go anywhere [else] I'll take the Volt.

My wife gave me a Nissan GT-R when they came out and I've still got it -- it's got 5,000 miles on it and it's five years old.

AW: See, like you with Porsches, I don't love that car …

JPM:

Oh it's the baddest $#%&*@! car!

AW: But it's almost like a video game, it does everything for you.

JPM:

OK? That's a Formula One car. A Formula One car will do whatever you want, however you want it. You look at an F1, they never fight with the car, F1 it's on rails, the thing is on rails.

At least when I was there, the difference between the really good drivers and the good drivers is, a lot of the places -- and that's why it's so hard for the younger guys -- the limit is not the car, it's you. Especially in the faster corners.

AW: So basically you just have to believe that the car is going to stick to the road?

JPM:

This is a true story. We [the Williams team] were testing with Ralf Schumacher just when I went there right before the first race in Melbourne. We were testing in Jerez and he's braking 30 meters deeper -- we come out of a really fast left-hander in sixth gear and you've gotta brake for a second-gear right. And like, I'm braking -- bang bang bang [on the downshifts] -- and turning. And he's braking 30 meters later than me. It's like, how the hell are you braking 30 meters later and actually making the corner?

AW: Thirty meters, that's about 100 feet …

JPM:

That's 100 #%$^&*! feet, yes!

AW: And a world-class road car, like a C7 or ZR1 or Ferrari or Porsche -- granted, it's still a road car on street tires, but still -- usually needs 100 feet or more to stop from just 60 mph!

JPM:

Exactly. That much distance he was braking deeper than me. And I got that distance down to like half and then they put on new tires, and I tried to go deeper, and I ended up in the tire barrier.

And then a year later, because you understood the car and learned the car, I could actually go deeper than him everywhere and faster than him in all the fast corners. 'Cause the faster corners, the problem with having so much grip, think about the middle of the corner: Let's say you can go through the middle of the corner at 150 mph. But it's how do you get [down] to the 150 mph? Do you lift early and get to it or do you come all the way here, brake all the way in and hope it sticks? And that's where F1 was unbelievable. You could go so far.

Silverstone, the first corner? It was wide open. When we went from the V10s to the V8s, it was -- the minimum speed through the corner was 305 kph. And it was seventh-gear, floored. And then you come out of there into Becketts, the left-right? The first one was wide open. I mean, the first time you do it? One of the harder things with racing like that is, as you're not used to it, you stress yourself [physically]. The first time you go to do it wide open, you try to hang on [to the wheel] harder and you actually turn in faster and screw it up. If you know it's wide open, you just go [make tiny little smooth steering inputs] and take it wide open.

AW: Anything else to say about next year?

JPM:

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Just, again, it's gotta be in a car that can win.