The Colombian was second fastest in the first two practice sessions on Friday and then backed that up in qualifying, securing a front row starting position. He was also reasonably happy with his car following the final practice on Saturday afternoon.
"I'll tell you the truth, we unloaded, I think the only thing we've done to the car is changed 20 pounds on the left rear spring. That's all we've done. The car is that good," Montoya said.
"I don't know. My first year here, I qualified second and finished second. Last year we didn't qualify that great, like 11th or something, or 13th. We were running fourth when the tyre blew up.
"I think we've got a very good car. I would have been happier for the race if we didn't practice [on Saturday] because I think people will find things that will make their cars better, as well."
But despite his pace all weekend long, Montoya remains focused on points rather than thinking of a possible win. Ahead of Sunday's Allstate 400 at the Brickyard, the 33-year-old ranks ninth in the points following nine top-ten finishes but not a single top-five.
"If we have a top five, great," said Montoya. "You know, we probably could have had a top five in Sonoma. We decided to be careful. If somebody was coming inside, let him go, take the points. It was a great points day. We finished sixth and it was good.
"Do we want to finish better? Yeah, of course you want to finish better. I think here, the way the track is, I think overtaking is really hard. So we'll see. We'll do what we can, pick our winning and losing. If we have a good stop, clean track ahead of us, we'll go. If we're in traffic, be smart about it, take our time."
Since winning the Indianapolis 500 in 2000 with Chip Ganassi Racing, Montoya has competed at the Brickyard every year and despite leading laps on his first US Grand Prix with Williams, his best ever result in the race was a fourth place in 2002.
He said he entertained many times the idea of winning at Indy while competing in Formula 1 but he now looks forward to becoming the first driver to win both the Indianapolis 500 and the Brickyard 400.
"In Formula 1 it went across my head a lot of times because I had a chance to win, but it blew up and all kinds of things happened," said Montoya. "I think today if I looked at it, I'd rather win this than the Formula 1 race here, to be honest. I think it's a bigger deal, so...
"I finished second once. Started second once, started twice second actually. So we'll see. From practice, we have probably the fastest car. But not always the fastest car wins. We'll see."
Montoya's second place on his first Sprint Cup Series race at Indianapolis remains his best race result in an oval to date. Last year he equaled the feat with a runner up finish at Talladega behind Kyle Busch.
Brown hopeful on NegredoMontoya puts penalty behind him
