A spirited give and take becomes a lesson learned

Perspectives and timing can be everything in racing, as well as they can emphasize various points in everyday life -- and so it was on Sunday at Martinsville.

Early in the Tums Fast Relief 500, Juan Montoya went scraping past Jeff Gordon to take the fourth spot. The move, and the action leading up to it, apparently prompted some heated comments on the in-car radios.

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Juan Montoya talks about his top-five run at Martinsville and the contact with Jeff Gordon.

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The most printable was Gordon's, after losing the spot to Montoya, informing his crew, "I don't know what's wrong with him, but I'm pissed."

But what would you expect? Racing is an aggressive sport, in which emotions throughout a race constantly need to be bottled up and unleashed, virtually at will.

But perspectives mean everything. When different individuals obviously in most cases see things differently -- particularly when they're wearing different color uniforms -- disagreements are inevitable.

Gordon couldn't see it then -- might not be able to see it yet -- but to Montoya it was as plain as the colors of the Colombian flag.

"It's just every time we've been around racing against him, he runs the hell out of me," Montoya said after the race. "He moved me out of the way before, and he was starting to do the same here [Sunday]. I was running the outside of him, and every time he was just getting wider and wider.

"And it got to a point, it's like, 'Hey, I'm here, and you're not going to push me around,' you know what I mean? If you give me room, I'll give you room. He wasn't giving me any, so I played the same game.

"It's not as hard [to be patient] as you think. You race. And if somebody races hard, you're going to race hard."

Immediately after Montoya banged his way past Gordon, he pulled away by a few car lengths. But then, running virtually the same lap times, no immediate confrontations ensued.

But the beauty of it is when communication overcomes bad feelings, and such was the case Sunday when Gordon more than Montoya -- but really both men -- had a lot riding on a good finish. Chase leader Jimmie Johnson's excellence at Martinsville was proven by his ultimate second-place finish to winner Denny Hamlin.

"Here is a place you don't want to wreck anybody because payback is really bad here, but people have got to respect you [so] we did what we had to," Montoya said, before explaining he'd gone much further than that. "I got on the radio and said to the spotter, 'Look, tell him if he comes I'm going to give him space, but I hope he does the same.'"

After the race, Gordon was disappointed in his finish. Maybe he was a little frustrated to be fifth; but in his typical balanced way he presented a well-measured demeanor, especially when speaking of Montoya, who charged to third.

But again, perspectives ruled and ironically, if you swapped the faces of the speakers, or changed the names in the transcripts, either one could have been mistaken for the other.

"He's an aggressive driver," Gordon said. "We've seen it from him before. I thought I did something to make him mad because I didn't understand why he was just driving into me for no reason. But hey, that's Martinsville. That's kind of the way he drives."

And it's kind of the way perspectives work.

"It's OK," Montoya said. "I never really had a big problem with him, but he's always so hard to race against. But he probably says the same thing against me, because he never gave me any room -- why am I going to give him any? It's a vicious circle."

But one, through open communication, both men apparently tried to break.

"We're good -- I talked to him afterwards," Montoya said. "Right at the end we ran together and he gave me room and I gave him room -- I mean, you can do it. It's just you've got to be -- sometimes you've got to set a precedent so people back off a little."

"I just tried not to make him mad anymore and race him as clean as I could," Gordon said. "And unfortunately my car wasn't as good on the restarts and he got by me and we had a great battle for third and we raced clean at the end.

"That's all that really matters. I hope it's not something that transfers over because I don't know, really, what I did if I did do something."

Just maybe, one more conversation is in order -- though it might not occur until it's time to come back to Martinsville next spring. Considering Gordon and Montoya will be championship contenders next year, this hatchet might be one best well-buried.

Montoya has excelled at Martinsville since he came to the Cup Series, even as he sharpens his game everywhere the series races. And there's no question, given all the rough-and-tumble antics in his past, he has no qualms about swapping anything.

"When people are clean with you, you're going to be clean with them -- when they race the hell out of you, you're going to do the same," Montoya said. "That's what it is. But you're going to end up beating it, banging it and hitting it and getting hit. It's part of the deal. It's fun."

Even with a championship on the line.

Kyle Busch Victory Watch

Here's a question for everyone who thinks Kyle Busch is just too danged aggressive? If that's true -- and his talent behind the wheel is unquestioned -- then how does he seem to get outrun so much at the end of races when the win is on the line?

It happened again at Memphis, which as predicted was his best opportunity to try to eclipse his 2008 record total of 21 wins (8 Cup, 10 Nationwide, 3 Truck). And now, barring a miraculous return to the Cup Series by new crew chief Dave Rogers at Texas, Busch's hopes of doing it lie mostly in the Nationwide and Truck series.

Busch remains at 16 wins: 4 Cup, 7 Nationwide, 5 Truck. At this point last year he was at 20: 8 Cup, 9 Nationwide, 3 Truck; so given that I'm thinking he'll "run out" in all three series, with 12 races remaining to win six -- the order remains very tall. But if he can have better luck and chassis tuning, it's still very possible.

The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer.

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