NASCAR: Juan Pablo Montoya has run out of patience with Jeff Gordon

Eight years ago when Jeff Gordon swapped his NASCAR Chevy, with Juan Pablo Montoya Formula One Williams they called it “Tradin’ Paint” for fun.

Now that Montoya is in the Chase for the Sprint Cup with Gordon, it’s trading paint for real.

In the last few races Montoya’s new good guy persona has melted away when it comes to the four-time Cup Champion.

It could have been out of frustration, last week at Charlotte when on a restart, it appeared to the Columbian that Gordon couldn’t get off the line fast enough and there was a chain collision which ultimately resulted in Montoya’s poor finish.

On Sunday, in Martinsville, matters got worse when the faster Chevy Impala of Montoya had trouble getting around Gordon’s car on NASCAR’s shortest, and paper-clip shaped, track.

After the race Montoya complained “it's just every time we've been around racing against him, he runs the hell out of me.  He moved me out of the way before, and he was starting to do the same here today.

You know, I was running the outside of him, and every time he was just getting wider and wider.”

And it got to a point, it's like, hey, I'm here, and you're not going to push me around; you know what I mean?  If you give me room, I'll give you room.  He wasn't giving me any.”

Gordon said, on television, before talking to Montoya, “Please ask him because I have no clue. That came out nowhere.”

His appraisal reminds one of the “old” Montoya style.

"He's aggressive and always been aggressive. He just started driving into my door and then I got in front of him and he just ran me all the way down the straightaway trying to pick up my back bumper up or toss me into the corner."

After the race the two drivers talked. Montoya said “we’re good.”

He explained that, late in the race, he was able to get both their spotters to make an agreement that the drivers would each other room to race.

Montoya moved ahead of Gordon anyway.

“Right at the end we ran together and he gave me room and I gave him room.  I mean, you can do it.  It's just you've got to be -- sometimes you've got to set a precedent so people back off a little.”