AVONDALE, Ariz. -- Juan Montoya had one of the worst cars Sunday he's ever had at Phoenix International Raceway, yet he scored his best career finish on the unique desert mile oval, eighth.

It was Montoya's sixth top-10 in nine Chase races and bodes well for his chances of returning to the top five in the championship as the gaming finish, coupled with Tony Stewart being involved in a mid-race melee and ending up 25th, leaves Montoya only four points behind Stewart, in sixth.

Juan Montoya

Chase Results

Site	Finish	Points
Loudon	3	4
Dover	4	3
Kansas	4	3
Fontana	3	3
Charlotte	35	6
Martinsville	3	5
Talladega	19	4
Texas	37	6
Phoenix	8	6

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Judging by the finish alone, which was eight spots better than his previous best of 16th, in six Phoenix starts, Montoya was asked if his No. 42 Chevrolet was the best ride he'd ever had for Phoenix.

"Oh, no -- this was probably one of my worst ones," Montoya said with a laugh after he parked his car on pit road, then walked directly to the motorcoach lot. "The car, you know, the last couple of weeks we've missed the setup quite a bit."

That resulted in Montoya logging finishes of 19th at Talladega and 37th at Texas, and a two-spot drop in the standings, to sixth. That left Montoya with a seemingly difficult-to-overcome 58 points behind Stewart.

"But it's OK," Montoya said. "We work hard; we bring great race cars and to finish seventh with a horrible car -- that is pretty promising. We just couldn't get the handling where it needed be to make a charge to the front."

A lot of teams struggled at Phoenix, though his Earnhardt Ganassi Racing teammate Martin Truex Jr. won the pole and hung around the top five most of the day, finally finishing fifth in his No. 1 Chevrolet.

"It was just really tight in the center [of the corner]," Montoya said. "And every time I tried to throw it off [the corner] I couldn't touch the gas."

Stewart's crew seemed to struggle with his No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevy, as he was in the top 10 early, only to fall closer to the top 20 before he got swept up in a melee coming off Turn 4 on Lap 172 when Dale Earnhardt Jr. spun in traffic. The damage nullified any chance Stewart had to move up and put a dour look on crew chief Darian Grubb's face as he left the garage.

"It just takes the wind out of your sails and there's nothing you can do about it," Grubb said. "It's just luck. I heard that the 88 [Earnhardt] broke an oil line, which caused that whole crash and we were in the wrong place at the wrong time."

What's been even more enticing for Montoya's Earnhardt Ganassi Racing organization is the fact that in five of the nine races in his first Chase he's finished either third or fourth. He started the Chase with the never-achieved feat of four consecutive top-five finishes.

“

It's just luck. ... We were in the wrong place at the wrong time.

”

DARIAN GRUBB

• Video: Watch the wreck

"It'd be nice," Montoya said. "But we have three DNFs out of the nine [Chase] races, and we're still sixth in points. So overall that's pretty good."

Montoya was a ball of fire, literally, three years ago when he made his Cup debut at Homestead and tangled with Ryan Newman heading into Turn 1. The fiery wreck didn't injure him, but left him 34th.

In the two races since then, Montoya's finished 15th and 17th; and he led in the race last year. Stewart's finished 15th, 30th and ninth in those same races, so it seems like a toss-up.

Grubb and Montoya have equally hopeful thoughts about their possibilities.

"We've got to improve our cars because we've kind of missed the boat the last couple weeks on the setups," Montoya said. "It'll be interesting. I'm going to spend a couple days with Brian [Pattie, crew chief] and all the crew, so it should be good."

"It's a little of both, comfort with his history and nervous about how close it is because we've never been there with Tony Stewart, personally and we don't know what he likes in a race car [at Homestead]," Grubb said. "He's been really good there in the past and we know he has the feel [for the track]. It's just a matter of us actually finding out what it takes to get the car feeling that way for him."

"We weren't running good enough -- we should have been in the top five at that point, the way I see it, so we hurt ourselves to get ourselves back into that position," Grubb said of Stewart's misfortune. "We've got to do our best to get back up there [in the points]."