Notes: Montoya not going anywhere despite top-fives

FONTANA, Calif. -- Disappointed? Not Juan Montoya.

Despite finishes of third, fourth, fourth and third in the first four races in the Chase for the Sprint Cup, Montoya is third in the standings, 58 points behind three-time defending champion Jimmie Johnson.

Montoya seems neither perturbed nor disappointed by his inability to gain ground in the standings, despite his succession of top-fives.

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After another top-five finish, Juan Montoya is pleased with his team's efforts, but frustrated that he cannot gain ground.

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"Remember, when we started the Chase, I was 40 points behind already," said Montoya, who has not won a race this season, compared with four regular-season victories for Mark Martin. "So against the 5 car [Martin], I should have been like four points [behind]."

Montoya actually trails Martin by six more points -- 46 -- after four Chase races. Martin finished fourth Sunday and was replaced atop the standings by Johnson. Martin, who won the first Chase race, trails Johnson by 12 points. Montoya is the only driver with top-fives in all four Chase races.

"We're getting close to our first win," Montoya said. "We know it's going to happen. But I think that's why we fell behind in the Chase.

"If you ask me -- ask anybody, ask yourself -- did you think we were going to be this competitive when the Chase started? No. We just wanted to make the Chase. And we played our strategy to make the Chase."

Of the top four finishers in the Pepsi 500 at Auto Club Speedway, Montoya was the only driver not employed by Hendrick Motorsports. Johnson won the race, followed by Jeff Gordon. Martin's fourth place was his third top-five of the Chase.

"We're doing our best," Montoya said. "We're enjoying ourselves, and we're racing hard. We've got great race cars, you know. There were four or five Hendrick cars and us racing [Sunday] in the front. So to be able to do that is huge."

Busch sorry for late accident

With 11 laps left in the race, Kurt Busch bounced off the Turn 4 wall and triggered a wreck that damaged the cars of fellow Chase drivers Kasey Kahne and Greg Biffle.

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Kasey Kahne and Greg Biffle crash into the inside wall at Auto Club Speedway.

• Busch sends Kahne into Biffle
• Second wreck takes out Kahne

Busch salvaged an eighth-place finish after the incident, but Kahne (34th) and Biffle (20th) weren't as fortunate.

"I ruined a few Chase guys' days -- Kasey Kahne and Biffle," Busch said. "I apologize to them. I got off of Turn 4, and the car just jumped sideways on me, and then it just flung straight off the wall and back in the groove where everybody was.

"Everybody has the gloves off with 25 laps to go. That's where our team has been struggling a bit, giving away positions at the end of the race. Our Miller Lite Dodge came home eighth, did the best we could. We're just not hanging with the guys that are finishing 1-2 every week."

Logano mystified by finicky car

Joey Logano, winner of Saturday's Nationwide Series race at Fontana, thought he had something for the Cup Series event on Sunday -- until he made his first pit stop.

"We started off really good," said Logano, who finished 14th, tops among Toyota drivers. "I thought we had something to work with and we were going to have a really good race car -- a top-10 -- for the first part of the race. We made one pit stop, and it went to crap.

"I don't know what happened. We went junk and couldn't fix it. Eventually, we swung for the fence [on adjustments to the car] and it was too far, so we went to the other side of the fence, and we started backing it back up from there. I don't know why we went [from] good to complete junk like a light switch."