Where's Juan? Atlanta

Juan Montoya posted a fifth-place finish at Atlanta to mark his best finish in five Nextel Cup Series starts.

Montoya started 16th in the Kobalt Tools 500 and was the highest finishing rookie for the second consecutive race. He also unofficially took the Raybestos Rookie of the Year lead by one point over David Ragan.

"I think this was a good weekend," Montoya said. "I think the next ones are going to be pretty hard. We've got Bristol, that's going to be a nightmare. Martinsville will probably be another tough one. Darlington, let's not even talk about that one. I'm getting comfortable with this one. I need to work on the other ones.

"We're going to have up and downs, but when the car's good and I'm comfortable we're going to get momentum. I think the second half of the season when we start going to tracks I've been to and we run the setups and a little bit of what I need to run, that's definitely going to help."

Montoya can be heard on Sirius Speedway (3-7 p.m. ET Mondays) with Dave Moody on Sirius channel 128, and NASCAR.COM will track Montoya's first full Cup season:

• Next week: Bristol
• Last week: Las Vegas