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.'" (Continued)