FORT WORTH, Texas -- Mark Martin, Greg Biffle, Juan Montoya and Matt Kenseth executed a net gain of 21 positions in the Sprint Cup standings after Sunday's Samsung 500 at Texas Motor Speedway; and in the case of Biffle and Montoya, they were both coming forward at race's end on the race track, as well.

Biffle ended the day a fast-closing third; Kenseth had his first top-five finish since he won the season's first two races, in fifth; Martin was sixth and Montoya right behind him in seventh.

On Sunday, Biffle had the biggest reason to be disappointed, as his No. 16 Roush Fenway Racing Ford had led three times for 93 laps, second only to race winner Jeff Gordon's total of 105 circuits out front. But a pit-road miscue with less than 100 laps remaining knocked Biffle down the running order, and it took him the rest of the race to come back to third.

"Unfortunately, we had some lug nuts fall off or something on a pit stop, and lost a lot of track position," Biffle said. "It's really, really hard here to fight your way back on track position. It's difficult when you start 12th or 13th, because you really start 26th, because you've got all the cars on the inside, a lap down, as well. It just takes time to get back up through all that traffic.

"We worked our way all the way back to fourth, third -- 15 more laps, would've passed [runner-up Jimmie Johnson] and then a little while longer we could've gotten [Gordon]. But, I just ran out of time, lost track position and weren't able to capitalize on it. Had the fastest car [Sunday], it looked like, and not always does the fastest car win."

Other than keeping his head up, the most important aspect for Biffle and his team was that he gained eight positions in the standings, to move him to 15th in points and the same spot in the owners' standings; just 60 points out of a Chase position.

Biffle said that made his day the equivalent of a moral victory.

"The car just handled extremely well [Sunday]," Biffle said. "I wasn't probably as good in traffic as I needed to be -- that's probably one thing that I needed a little bit of work on. I could get by lapped cars pretty quick; it looked like other guys had trouble. But, when it was side by side and kind of jumbled up a little bit, I had just a little bit of trouble."

In the end, Biffle said his fast car made him feel better about the pit-stop error.

"It's not bad luck," Biffle said of the critical mistake, which he shared with teammate Carl Edwards, who was leading when he was knocked back to 11th, ultimately finishing 10th (read more). "You know, when you leave a wheel loose or you stop on the air hose or you do something else, that's not bad luck -- that's school of hard knocks, that's making a mistake. That's the way it is -- we're all human and we all make mistakes.

"You make your own luck a lot of times. You get a flat tire, that's bad luck. When you have problems -- when you slide over the line or it falls off the jack or you have something else -- that's not necessarily bad luck. Something wasn't done normally, it boils down to something wasn't done right or a guy made a mistake or I made a mistake. I say you make your own luck, and things happen."

• Press Pass: Biffle talks about his third-place finish

Kenseth was thrilled to reverse a four-race skid in which he had only one finish, a 12th, better than 23rd.

"The result was good [because] I didn't think were very good at all [Saturday] in practice," Kenseth said. "Drew [Blickensderfer, crew chief] and Chip [Bolin, engineer] and these guys did a good job of not giving up and trying to salvage something out of nothing.

Matt Kenseth led three times for 55 laps, third-most.

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We've just been pathetic since California. So to come here and get a top-five and get a little momentum going, that's what we needed to do.

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MATT KENSETH

"This is a great day. We've just been pathetic since California. I think our average finish was 27th, so to come here and get a top-five and get a little momentum going, that's what we needed to do."

Kenseth moved up three spots in the standings, to ninth.

Martin's progress forward in the standings is even more dramatic after horrendous circumstances in the season's first three races knocked him almost out of the critical top 35 in the owners' standings.

Martin, who was in 34th in the drivers' standings after three races and remained there after four; moved up three spots with a sixth-place finish at Bristol; four more spots after finishing seventh at Martinsville; and with his third consecutive top-10 , jumped nine spots to sit 17th heading into the Easter break.

Martin didn't talk about points, but he had plenty to say about crew chief Alan Gustafson and the performance of his Hendrick Motorsports crew.

"The [car] was really good [Sunday] -- I was worried after [Saturday's] practice that we may have a 20th-place car," Martin said. "But the guys, like every other Sunday, gave me a great race car. They worked really hard and Alan made all the right changes to get us in the top 10 [on Sunday].

"That last run, we were the loosest we'd been all day. I'm not sure if it was the tires or what. I really wanted that top five, but just couldn't get there. I'm looking forward to spending my off weekend with my fans in Batesville [Arkansas] and then heading to Phoenix with these guys."

If his team decides to take a chassis that shares characteristics with Earnhardt Ganassi Racing teammate Martin Truex Jr.'s, Montoya may be equally enthused after he scored his third consecutive top-12 finish, which moved him up a spot in the standings and only 16 points out of the Chase.

It's a remarkable turnaround for Montoya, who won as a rookie in 2007 but struggled to find his way in 2008 before finishing 25th in the standings. Finishing ninth at Bristol, 12th at Martinsville and seventh at Texas marks a career-best three-race string for him.

His veteran crew chief, Brian Pattie, is impressed, as well, and looking forward to even better things as EGR tries to get its car fleet on the same page, so to speak.

"It just shows how much hard work these guys did back at the shop all winter trying to get all these cars identical," Pattie said. "We're seven races in and we're close to being 12th in points, so that's a good start. We have to take advantage of the tracks we run well at, so that when we go to the places where statistically we haven't been so good the last two years, we'll still have a shot at the Chase.

"I think the two things that have made a difference for us are the [Earnhardt Childress Racing Technologies] motors are great, unbelievable and reliable and the dedication of our people in the [fabrication] shop.

"This crew at the track is the best group of guys I've ever had, but the guys at the shop [are incredible]. Literally, when I say we've had new race cars, this is the first time we've had a double-up race car this year and to go to Phoenix next week we'll have another brand-new car."