Montoya laments pit collision

The Colombian started the race from 24th place but steadily made progress to move up to tenth on lap 91. From then on, he raced within the top ten and eventually moved up to fifth before the eighth caution period of the day, 27 laps from the end.

Crew chief Brian Pattie called Montoya to the pits for four new tyres, while those ahead of him stayed out. When the Colombian was leaving his pitstall, Clint Bowyer's car was passing by and crashed into the right-front corner of the No.42 Dodge.

The impact caused extensive damage to Montoya's car, requiring further stops to fix it. Montoya rejoined as the last car on the lead lap but on the restart he was involved in a multi-car incident ignited by Jeff Burton and Dave Blaney.

Montoya praised his team's efforts but lamented losing out on the possibility of a much-needed strong result.

"I think (crew chief) Brian (Pattie) did a great call at the beginning," Montoya said. "I was tight in the centre and forward bite. He elected to focus on the forward bite. And he helped it. It was a struggle for the first ten laps of a run and then just got better and better and better.

"We had a top-five car at the end. We decided to take tyres (during the eighth caution). I think most of the people came in and took tyres. It's annoying, because you could say we shouldn't have taken tyres because we were wrecked. But I think it would have cost us if we hadn't and it was the right call.

"I came out of one lane and I think Bowyer was fighting for the lucky dog and he came down and hit us. It's kind of stupid. He was following another car and just came down and clipped our front tyre."

Despite the disappointing finish, Montoya declared himself excited with the day's performance, as his team try to focus on improving their performance ahead of next season.

"It's exciting to see where everything is heading and the team is heading," said Montoya. "We're a lot closer. In my opinion, we're still not there, but today shows where we the team is heading."

Montoya was classified 40th in the end, which dropped him one place in the standing down to 24th.