by Darrell Waltrip

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Anyway, Juan Pablo Montoya going to Mexico and winning the Busch race on a road course for Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates wasn't all that unexpected. But what was unexpected were Juan's runs on Saturday and Sunday at Atlanta. He kept his nose clean and finished eighth in the Busch race, saying it almost felt better than winning Mexico. That's because road courses are his area of expertise. Conquering an oval is the big challenge for him. He may never conquer another oval, but he sure did conquer Atlanta.

What an incredible fifth-place run in Sunday's Cup race! I watched him all day long. He was sailing around on the outside like an old veteran from the past. He looked like Harry Gant or Richard Petty, zinging along and scraping the wall. It was really impressive and fun to watch. At one point in the race, I really thought he had a car that could have won. In the last go-around, everybody steps it up a notch, and he might have to get familiar with it. But he still finished fifth, and now, he's sitting 15th in the points. That's just an incredible start.

He had a great run at Daytona and he qualifies well every week. He's really been fascinating to watch, achieving more than I ever thought he could in such a short period of time. I don't care if you're my brother, where you came from or anything else. When you perform, you perform, and you get credit for it. This cat is a performer, and he's producing results. There's no question he can win on any road course. He's very comfortable on big oval tracks where he's got a lot of room to maneuver and get around people. Atlanta is certainly one of those tracks. Bristol and Martinsville will challenge him, but they're going to challenge everybody with the Car of Tomorrow. Texas might be his next opportunity to have a really great run and maybe even a chance to win.

Juan can't make Reed Sorenson and David Stremme better performers, but he can make them better team players. Juan brought an element of confidence and attitude that those guys all needed, and one guy can turn around a deal. If you get one guy with a positive, upbeat attitude — I don't care if you're a crew chief, crew member or a driver — you can make a huge impact on a team. That's what Juan's been able to do.

Mark Martin has done the same thing at Ginn Racing. Mark didn't make Joe Nemechek or Sterling Marlin better drivers. He didn't help them build better cars, but Mark's winning attitude — I've been there, done that and know what I'm talking about — puts confidence in the other guys and the team. It puts confidence in his crew chief, Ryan Pemberton, who is now able to focus on giving Mark what he needs. It's filtering down to all of the cars and making the whole team run better.

Bobby Ginn's sitting in pretty good shape. He's leading the car owner points right now. Joe and Sterling have had to make these first five races on time. So far, they have, and they're 19th and 29th in points. Juan and Mark are good examples of how guys with positive outlooks can have an impact on their teammates.

I've been very impressed with what Chip and Felix have done. Any organization that's not producing ought to take a page out of Richard Childress Racing's notebook and see what he did to turn around his operation. With a Daytona 500 win and all three cars resting comfortably in the top 10 in point standings after a strong finish last year, Childress obviously is the template for putting a mediocre team on to of the heap. Apparently, Chip and Felix took some notes and cleaned house, hiring a lot of new personnel.

Richard the Seventh (Cup title)?

Sid from Albemarle, N.C.: No one deserves more good fortune than Richard Childress for what he has contributed to NASCAR over the years and is still doing. It would be nice to see RCR win a championship for the fans and people that made NASCAR what it has been for 50 years.

Darrell Waltrip: In 2006, RCR was the most improved organization of the year, and they're backing it up with solid performances every week, whether it's Jeff Burton, Kevin Harvick or Clint Bowyer. Richard couldn't have asked for a better start to 2007. Harvick hasn't performed too well the last couple of weeks, but he's had some great runs already this season. He could have easily won California without a flat tire at the end. Burton is steady Eddie. He's there at the end of the race every week. He won his second consecutive Busch race on Saturday at Atlanta. You may say, "Well, he lucked into it." You don't luck into any race. You run the whole race, and at the end of the day, the guy that did the best job ends up being in the winner's circle.

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Stewart good for sport

Jeff from Connecticut: Do you think NASCAR should do something about Tony Stewart? If nothing goes his way, he just complains. It happened at Las Vegas, and Jimmie Johnson had the better car at Atlanta. JJ didn't even touch Stewart and get him in the wall, yet Stewart said that JJ should have given him more room. I don't see other drivers complain as much as he does.

Darrell Waltrip: Jimmie Johnson didn't crowd Tony Stewart into the wall and wreck the No. 20 so he could win the race. Jimmie was racing hard at the end of the day with three or four laps to go. He came off of the corner and drove right in front of Tony, but they're fighting for a win. I don't think Tony would have done anything differently if he had been sliding up the hill, had a chance to win and maybe squeezing the guy behind him a little bit. That's just part of racing.

Tony handled it well when the race was over. He had Jimmie on his radio show, and they were laughing about it. That's one thing I love about Tony. If he had been upset or mad, you would have known it. He's handled himself very well a number of times this year. He's blown up a couple of times too, but that's just Tony. And I'm kind of glad he's that way. We need it. It makes really good television.