Making his trip to Atlanta Motor Speedway Juan Pablo Montoya needed a strong finish to rebound from his consecutive 37th place results from the ‘Wild Wild West.’

Collecting the third fastest lap on Georgia Power Qualifying Night, Montoya put himself in good position to contend for the win. Noting that he didn’t really have one of the fastest cars throughout much of the race, the No. 42 team was able to put something together towards the end of the race allowing Montoya to defend his starting spot to come home with third.

“It was good. Never really had the fastest car except at the end before the last pit stop,” said Montoya following the race. “We were coming.  I thought we had a chance to get to the 2. Once you moved up the bottom in three and four, I thought, ‘Here we go, I think we got him.’ I could stay on the bottom. It was good. I was pretty happy.”

Had the Kobalt Tools 500 not gone into a green white checkered finish, Montoya feels that he could have caught Kurt Busch to steal the victory.

“I was within three car lengths just coming two to go. I was, you know, taking 3 or 4/10ths a lap. So definitely I thought if I got anywhere close to him, I'm sure I could make a move.”

Montoya continued, “It's one of those deals. It's okay. It is what's. I told the guys anyway at the end, ‘We need to finish, we need the points.’ It's a good points day for us.”

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