At one of his best tracks, Juan Pablo Montoya was a serious contender for much of Sunday's Pep Boys Auto 500 at the Atlanta Motor Speedway. After starting twenty-fourth due to qualifying being rained out, Montoya had a fast car and showed it early.

By Lap 100, Montoya had broken into the top-10 and was not ready to stop there. Benefiting while others struggled to keep up with the track and the handling of their cars, Montoya took the No. 42 Texaco/Havoline Dodge as high as the fourth-spot.

When the eighth caution flew for debris on Lap 298, crew chief Brian Pattie called Montoya in for four tires and fuel. A great stop and a promising run were quickly vanquished when the No. 07 of Clint Bowyer clobbered Montoya as he pulled out of his stall. The damage was mostly to the right front fender of the No. 42 Dodge and the team quickly went to work making repairs.

A quickie yellow - meaning all cars in the field are allowed to pit at the same time regardless of whether they are a lap down or not - brought a number of cars in for service and made getting on and off pit road cleanly quite the challenge. Bowyer was a lap down to the leaders at the time, while Montoya was looking to put himself in position for the win.

"We had a top-flight car at the end," Montoya explained. "We decided to take tires (during the 8th caution). I think most of the people came in and took tires. It's annoying, because you could say we shouldn't have taken tires because we were wrecked. I think it would have cost us if we hadn't and was the right call. I came out one lane and I think Bowyer was fighting for the lucky dog and he came down and hit us. It's kind of stupid. I came out one lane and he was following another car and just came down and clipped our front tire."

As if Montoya's problems weren't bad enough, just laps later the No. 42 was caught up in the biggest wreck of the day when Dave Blaney made contact with Jeff Burton on Lap 304. With Blaney sliding up and across the track, Montoya was unable to get his car slowed in time. The Columbian-born driver drove right into the back of teammate Reed Sorenson, crushing the nose and hood of the car and ending his day. The incident relegated the No. 42 to a 40th-place finish.

Despite the frustrating finish to the day, Montoya was able to look on the positive side of things.

"It's exciting to see where everything is heading and the team is heading," Montoya added. "We're a lot closer. In my opinion, we're still not there, but today shows where we the team is heading."