Where's Juan? Atlanta

It might not help a whole lot this week, but Juan Montoya heads to Atlanta with another "victory" in his pocket following testing at Phoenix International Raceway.

Montoya, who earned a top-20 finish at Las Vegas Motor Speedway last week after pacing testing there in January, will come to the fastest track on the Sprint Cup Series schedule on a roll after being the fastest driver on one of the slowest tracks on the circuit.

Juan Montoya

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His lap of 27.385 seconds at 131.459 mph was the fastest of the two-day test, and it came on Tuesday morning in the final session.

On the other hand, it might help him just that extra little bit that he needs on Sunday.

"I'm really starting to get a better feel for the car," Montoya said following the test. "I'm starting to get a better understanding of where to go with it."

At Atlanta, the place not to go with it is into the wall. Crashes at AMS tend to be pretty big, and Montoya struggled with grip at Las Vegas in the new Dodge, crashing on Friday morning in practice.

"I don't think there was a lot of grip at LVMS," he said. "When you have no grip, you start having a lot of issues. The tire was very edgy, but we didn't have any issues with it. It was just a real handful to drive."

Last season, Montoya entered this event having never before set wheel to pavement at AMS, but walked out with his first top-five finish. He was eighth in the Nationwide Series event the day before.

Tracks like Atlanta Motor Speedway and its sisters Texas, Las Vegas and Charlotte are good for Montoya. Two of his three top-five finishes last season came at Atlanta and Texas -- the other was, of course, his victory at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, Calif.

Montoya at Atlanta Motor Speedway
• Montoya will be driving the bold red color of Wrigley's Big Red this weekend on his No. 42 Dodge. This is the first time this paint scheme will take to the track this season. Montoya drove the Bid Red Dodge twice last season, at California and Watkins Glen.

• Montoya and his wife Connie will host NASCAR officials during an unprecedented trip to Cartagena, Colombia, March 10-11, to visit their charitable foundation Formula Smiles. A contingent from NASCAR, Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates and the Victory Junction Gang Camp will be arriving in Colombia on March 10. The purpose of the trip is to visit the Formula Smiles' project in Cartagena and showcase NASCAR's support through the NASCAR Foundation with a $25,000 donation to the program. For more information visit: www.formulasmiles.com.

• Montoya and his Donnie Wingo-led team rallied from falling almost two laps down at the midpoint of the UAW-Dodge Dealers 400 to finish 19th and on the lead lap in a backup car. Montoya and the team battled a loose-handling Dodge the entire race weekend in Las Vegas, but never gave up and after making massive changes to the car earned the top-20 finish.

• Montoya and the team gained another three spots in the Sprint Cup standings after their 19th-place finish in Las Vegas. They moved up from 27th to 24th and sit just 72 points out of 12th, the cutoff for the Chase to the Sprint Cup.

• For the second year in a row, listen to Sirius Satellite Radio every Monday on channel 128 for the Juan Pablo Montoya Report. Montoya will provide exclusive updates on the No. 42 team, give post-race downloads and share his thoughts on the events of the season. He will chat with hosts David Poole and Mike Bagley on The Morning Drive every Tuesday at 8:30 a.m. ET.

• Wingo and the team are bringing chassis No. 805 to Atlanta Motor Speedway for the 500-mile race in Georgia. This chassis has not been raced this season, but was run at the two-day test at California.