Where's Juan? Texas

After back-to-back Car of Tomorrow races on short tracks, Juan Montoya and the Nextel Cup Series drivers get to throttle down at the 1.5-mile Texas Motor Speedway.

Montoya finished 16th at Martinsville -- his third top-20 finish of the season -- and is now 16th in the point standings. He trails David Ragan by 1 point in the rookie of the year standings.

The last time Montoya was on a 1.5-mile track he posted a fifth-place finish at Atlanta. Could that be a harbinger of things to come this weekend?

"We knew we were going to have good and bad days," Montoya said after Martinsville. "When the car is good you look good. If you come in and have a good car you're going to be fast. If you come in and the car isn't working you're going to have a tough time.

"I guess I'm surprising myself a little bit. We're doing well, but we'll just have to wait and see how it all shakes out."

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:

• Last week: Off
• Next week: Phoenix