TALLADEGA, Ala. — At times, David Ragan must have felt like he was all alone on the Talladega Superspeedway track. As just one of two Fords to finish in the top 14 of Sunday's Aaron's 499, the Roush Fenway second-year driver was getting very little help.

“I was probably being as conservative as anybody out there because I probably didn't have that many friends that would go with me,” said Ragan, who nevertheless managed a fourth-place finish. “It would have been nice to have some teammates up there, but it looks like some of our teammates and our Fords had a tough day, so I was kind of alone up there.”

Ragan also understands his relative lack of experience doesn't endear him to some of the more successful drivers on the restrictor plate tracks.

“With this still being only my second year, they probably weren't going to stick with me like they would Tony Stewrt, Jeff Gordon or Dale Earnhardt Jr.,” Ragan said. “So, that’s all right. When we have a good enough car, guys will stick with you some. I learned a lot today and maybe they noticed.”

If the other drivers didn't, Ragan's crew chief certainly did.

“He's doing a heck of a job,” Jimmy Fennig said of the Georgia native. “David Ragan — he's here, and he's for real. If somebody would realize it and help him out there once in a while, we might have won this race.”

Montoya's a quick learner

Juan Pablo Montoya's runner-up finish Sunday was his best finish of the season, something most people wouldn't have expected from the former open wheel star in just his fourth start on a restrictor plate track. The Colombian driver, however, wasn't surprised.

“I've loved restrictor plate racing since the first time I did it, the bumping and the drafting and all that,” said Montoya, who moved to 12th in points. “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.”

The driver also believes the race shows just how much improvement his Ganassi Racing team has made in one season.

“Last year we finished 22nd or 24th nearly every race, but we had a win and a couple of top-five's that made it look like we were running better,” he said. “Now, we're running a 15th average every week, but we haven't had the great result like we did today. Hopefully this is a sign that we're headed in the right direction.”

Gordon's bad decision proves costly

Jeff Gordon was running second to Kyle Busch with just under two laps to go Sunday, but one wrong move sent him quickly out of the top 20.

“I just couldn't make a good decision all day long,” said the 21st-place finisher. “They told me about a run coming, and I saw Juan Pablo coming and it looked like they had a pretty good run. I tried to go up there and use that line, but it was too early. I should have stayed low and waited it out another half of a lap.

“I just went too early. If I had stayed behind Kyle just a little bit longer. I could have passed him. I just thought that might be the one push to take, but when I did, I knew I was in big trouble.”

Bad day for Roush Fenway

Sunday's race was another less-than-stellar day for Ford and Roush Fenway Racing, in particular, at Talladega. Not only did the manufacturer's streak at the track extend to one win since 1999 (Dale Jarrett in 2005), Roush had two of its top teams suffer tire problems.

First it was Matt Kenseth, who had a tire blow on lap 20 before he hit the wall. Kenseth would return to the race after repairs, but he finished just 41st. Carl Edwards was even more unfortunate. The three-time winner this year first had a tire go down on lap 42, though he managed to pit before hitting anything.

Edwards wasn't as lucky on lap 117 when he cut a tire and hit the wall due to what he said was a known problem.

“Matt had the same problem, and we had the same problem in practice,” said Edwards, who finished 40th. “Obviously, we didn't fix it. It appears to be that we're using the wrong camber with the tire. It's too bad because we had a good car.”

Gibbs clears the air

Hoping to curtail any growing publicity surrounding Tony Stewart's contract situation, Joe Gibbs and son J.D., the team's president, met the media prior to Sunday's race. Joe Gibbs made it clear he wants to keep his two-time champion driver, whose contract expires following the 2009 season.

“We've had 10 great years together, and hopefully that will continue in the future,” he said. “But, we can't control what other people do. We've accomplished a lot in 10 years. I think we have 34 wins together. It's been a great ride, and hopefully it will continue.”

Stewart surprised the team when he announced publicly this week that he has received several offers, including one that involved ownership, for his services once his contract is up. Stewart did refute reports that he was exploring getting ot of his contract following this year. J.D. Gibbs reiterated Sunday that Stewart will drive for the team next year.

“We've had no conversation of leaving before the contract is up,” he said. “There's too much in there from (sponsor) Home Depot's standpoint, from our team's standpoint — there's too much that we've already built and invested in that.”