Where's Juan? Pocono

Last week was a special one for Juan Montoya.

After qualifying second for the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Montoya backed it up by staying in the top five most of the day and finishing second behind winner Tony Stewart.

"It's exciting. I tell you, I'm happy," Montoya said. "It's the first actual race that I could pass. Normally I get to like 12th and you start to try to get runs on people and you can't and [Sunday] it was something I could really go at it."

Now 18th in the points standings, exactly 200 behind 12th-place Dale Earnhardt Jr., Montoya says he still has a shot at the Chase, albeit an outside one.

"I tell you the truth, if you could get this type of finish for the next three races then you have a chance," he said. "If you go next weekend and you have an average weekend then you're out. It doesn't mean that we're going to give up. I think we're going to go more forward to try to get wins and get into the Chase."

And that all starts at Pocono, where in the June race Montoya started 38th, made it all the way to third until he had to make a green flag pit stop which led to a 20th-place finish when the rain came.

"Well, from starting 38th and it only being half a race we made a lot of progress," Montoya said. "I think we could have finished a lot higher.

"Our racecar was getting very good, actually. All three Ganassi cars were pretty good. And strategy and everything, a lot of guys played it off and it played for them. I was just a little bit unlucky."