Brush with Bowyer, crash doom Montoya's good day

HAMPTON, Ga. -- The 2008 Cup Series season has been a disappointment for Juan Montoya and his No. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing team. Expected by some to make the Chase in his second full-time season, Montoya has yet to visit Victory Lane and has just two top-fives and three top-10s.

All that looked like it would change in Sunday's Pep Boys Auto 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. But a late-race crash on Lap 302 left Montoya seething and refusing to talk to reporters as he left the track.

"It's annoying," Montoya said later. "We had a top-flight car at the end."

After starting 24th and struggling with the handling of his car early on, Montoya worked his way into the top-five and was in position to score his highest finish since his sixth-place run at Watkins Glen in August. But a late-race pit stop turned his day into a catastrophe.

On Lap 298, Montoya was running sixth and was the highest-running car to come in for fresh tires. The caution was a quickie yellow, which meant lap-down cars could pit with the leaders. Clint Bowyer, who was a lap down, came in for tires and fuel as well.

As Montoya was leaving his pit stall, Bowyer came down and hit the nose of Montoya's No. 42 Dodge, causing serious damage. On the next lap, Montoya came in for repairs and the pit-road contact eventually dropped him to 15th, the last car on the lead lap.

That track position would eventually do Montoya in. When the race restarted on Lap 302, Dave Blaney and Jeff Burton got together, causing both cars to spin and slide up the track while collecting Montoya, Joe Nemechek and Reed Sorenson (watch video).

Montoya's pit-stop gamble turned into shooting craps as the accident led to a 40th-place finish and his eighth DNF on the season.

"We decided to take tires [on Lap 298]. I think most of the people [behind us] came in and took tires," Montoya said. "You could say we shouldn't have taken tires because we were wrecked, but I think it would have cost us if we hadn't and was the right call."

As for who was at fault on pit road -- Montoya knows exactly where the blame lies.

"I came out one lane and I think Bowyer was fighting for the [free pass] and he came down and hit us," Montoya said. "It's kind of stupid. I came out one lane and he was following another car and just came down and clipped our front tire."

Despite the disappointing finish, Montoya was impressed with the way his crew was able to make him a contender late in the race and had nothing but praise for crew chief Brian Pattie and the rest of the No. 42 team.

"I think Brian made great calls at the beginning," Montoya said. "I was tight in the center and forward bite. He elected to focus on forward bite and he helped it. It was a struggle for the first 10 laps of a run and then it just got better and better and better."

With a 14th-place finish last week at Martinsville and a potential top-five run Sunday at Atlanta, Montoya sees his team heading in the right direction -- even if the stat sheets show a different story.

"It's exciting to see where everything is heading and [where] the team is heading," Montoya said. "We're a lot closer. In my opinion, we're still not there, but [Sunday] shows where the team is heading."