Juan Pablo Montoya, the Colombian racer who ditched Formula 1 for US stock car racing, finished second at the Aaron's 499 to match his best oval showing in his two seasons in the series.

Montoya would be among the 12 drivers qualified for the season-ending "Chase for the Championship" based upon the points list after Talladega, but there are still 17 races remaining and his margin is only a point over Kasey Kahne.

But the South American star has shown his mettle behind the wheel of a Dodge in the most popular form of US auto racing, the closed-cockpit National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (Nascar) series.

Montoya's effort came in only his fourth race using a restrictor-plate, as Nascar vehicles do when racing on superspeedway ovals such as famed Talladega's 3.66-mile oval.

"I've loved restrictor-plate racing since the first time I did it, the bumping and the drafting and all that," Montoya said.

"It takes a lot of strategy. You have to pick the right lane and make sure that line moves. It's pretty hard, but I like it."

Montoya, 20th in the points chase last year as a Nascar rookie, was also second in last year's Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis over the same oval where he won Indy-car's Indianapolis 500 in 2000 and where he raced as an F1 driver.

His road course experience also showed in a Nascar win last year at Sonoma.

Montoya finally cracked the top 10 after finishing in the second 10 of his previous eight races, jumping five spots to reach the coveted top-12 level that allows him to compete for the season crown in the final races of the campaign.

"Last year, we finished 22nd or 24th nearly every race, but we had a win and a couple of top-fives that made it look like we were running better," Montoya said. "Now, we're running a 15th average every week.

"Hopefully this is a sign that we're headed in the right direction."

AFP