David Stremme is the top Dodge driver in the Nextel Cup Series this season and he has never finished better than 11th in a race.

He is also the top driver at Chip Ganassi Racing, even though teammate Juan Pablo Montoya – a former Formula One star – has been stealing most of the headlines this season with his NASCAR debut.

Stremme doesn’t mind operating in the background. He’s relishing the good fortune and more importantly, the surprising consistency of his second-year team.

“When we went into this year, we decided our first objective would be to get as many points as we can to make sure we’re established in the top 35 (of car owner points). We’ve been real conservative,” said Stremme, who has finished 20th or better in all five races and is 11th in points this season.

“I still think we could have some better finishes than we have, but we’re looking at the big picture. We can get more aggressive later.”

With Penske Racing South and Evernham Motorsports off to struggling starts, Ganassi has been the best performing Dodge organization. Although he has yet to crack the top-10, Stremme’s consistency has him far ahead of his rookie season, when he finished 33rd in points.

“I guess Chip (Ganassi, owner) kind of has a reputation of changing drivers fast. Last year my season was horrible, and he believed I could do it,” Stremme said.

“I think he looked at the position he put me in and probably thought it wasn’t the greatest position with the people that were around me. So, he made changes and things are much better.”

Stremme was on the verge of his first top-10 finish last Sunday at Bristol, Tenn., and ran as high as fourth. Unfortunately, radio communication problems late in the race led to Stremme failing to pit for new tires on the next-to-last pit stop with most of the rest of the lead-lap cars. He ended up 13th.

“It was disappointing we didn’t get a better finish, but we had a good run,” he said. “That’s probably the best I’ve ever run in a Cup car at Bristol. We stayed 11th in the points, so we’re getting top 15 finishes and doing what we wanted to do to start the season.”

Stremme was uncertain how the Ganassi organization would fare with the debut of the “Car of Tomorrow” last weekend. “We’d done a lot of work at the short tracks, but it was mostly flat tracks,” he said.

“I think we’re a little behind on the new car. It’s like starting over, but then everyone is starting over. But part of our plan was to build up a good points lead before the COT races then we can go back and hit it hard at Texas with the old car.

“We’re just trying to play it safe right now. Our main goal continues to be first and foremost to finish races.”

Although performance-wise he is ahead of Montoya, Stremme has no problems with the media focus on his teammate.

“Juan is a really good teammate to have. (Casey) Mears was a good teammate and I was sad to see him go. Montoya came in and I really didn’t know what kind of person he would be,” Stremme said.

“We’ve actually become very good friends and hang out together. I actually lean on him on a couple things – his mental side of racing, what’s he’s been up against, the challenges of competing in different series.

“I’ve tried to help him out with what I’ve learned through the years in these cars. The main goal is make sure all three teams here are up to speed.”