Juan Pablo Montoya prepares for final NASCAR race

HOMESTEAD, Florida (AP) There's a handmade Colombian flag inside Juan Pablo Montoya's motorhome that was given to him by a fan several weeks ago.

Three words are embroidered into the stripes: IndyCar Champ 2014.

Eight years after Montoya came into NASCAR amid great hype and high expectations, he'll quietly close out his stock car career on Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway with unmet goals and his 14-year relationship with Chip Ganassi at a crossroads.

Montoya is headed back to the IndyCar Series. He will drive for Roger Penske next season, a job he jumped at in September after Ganassi informed him a month earlier he wouldn't be bringing him back in 2014.

His NASCAR record shows two wins in 252 starts both victories on road courses and he hasn't been to Victory Lane since 2010. He never won on an oval and his best season was 2009, when he made the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship and finished eighth in the final standings.

Many will call his NASCAR stint a bust and ultimately remember Montoya for the explosive fireball created when he crashed into a jet dryer during the 2012 Daytona 500.

But three-time NASCAR champion Tony Stewart said there's no denying Montoya's talent. He won the Indianapolis 500, a CART championship and seven Formula One races.

"He can drive," Stewart said. "So who knows what was the missing piece of the puzzle for him over there? Something wasn't in the equation."

Montoya was careful when discussing Ganassi. He chose his words carefully and declined to comment when asked if he thinks he'd have been more competitive with another NASCAR team.

"I decided to come here and do it with Chip, and we knew from Day 1 he told me it was going to be an uphill battle and it was," Montoya said. "We worked as hard as we could. If you look at all the years of Ganassi, the only guy who made the Chase was me. From that point of view, I'm happy.

"I think the hardest thing over the years was the amount of changes. There was just no consistency."

He's correct on the consistency issue, as Ganassi made five different crew chief changes on Montoya's team. The organization, which is among the best in IndyCar, has been on a cycle of rebuilds in NASCAR to try to reach a similar level of performance.

Ironically, this year Montoya is finally showing consistency on the track. Although he's 21st in the standings, he has had chances to win on ovals, including Richmond and Dover.

"I put a lot of time into NASCAR and I feel I've done as a driver a good job," he said. "Of course I wanted better results. But there were a lot of weeks we had really good cars, and when we did, we competed well. The only thing I didn't like was that the ups and downs were too big. It seems like the downs were bigger than the ups, and that was hard.

"But the way I look at it, every time I've been in a competitive car, I can perform."

Much like Montoya, Ganassi took the high road publicly.

"That's great that he's got a great ride. It's certainly going to open up the field for some banter back and forth," Ganassi said. "While it may test our friendship, I don't think it will perforate it."