TALLADEGA, Ala. -- Bad news one day; good news the next. It was a weekend of mixed emotions for Chip Ganassi Racing.

Dario Franchitti's mentally trying rookie season in Sprint Cup became physically painful Saturday when he fractured his left ankle in the Nationwide Series race.

He wasn't able to compete in the Aaron's 499 Sunday and isn't sure when doctors will clear him to return.

But the disappointment on the faces of the Ganassi guys Sunday morning transformed to smiles a few hours later when Juan Pablo Montoya earned his best finish of the season.

Montoya's second-place effort at Talladega was the first time he has posted a top-10 in a restrictor-plate event.

"We're getting closer," Montoya said. "This really motivates everybody back at the shop as a sign that we're headed in the right direction."

Ganassi didn't feel anything was headed in the right direction a few weeks ago when Franchitti was one of three drivers who failed to qualify for the Cup race at Texas Motor Speedway.

Ganassi was furious with his team for not giving Franchitti a car quick enough to make the race. He also wasn't pleased with the performance from all three of his Cup cars and promised changes were coming in the organization.

That happened last week when Ganassi flip-flopped crew chiefs -- moving Jimmy Elledge to Montoya's No. 42 Dodge and switching Donnie Wingo to Reed Sorenson's No. 41 Charger.

Sorenson blew an engine on the fourth lap of Sunday's race, but Elledge made quite an impression with Montoya's near victory. Montoya jumped five spots in the standings and moved into a Chase spot at 12th.

"It's good to see Jimmy have a day like this the first time with us," Montoya said. "We have to keep taking advantage of days when we're running well."

Montoya wasn't the only positive for the Ganassi bunch. David Stremme, who filled in for Franchitti in the No. 40 Dodge, ran near the front most of the race, including three laps as the leader.

Stremme couldn't avoid a multicar crash late in the race and finished 29th, but it was the best that car has raced all season.

"The end was disappointing," Stremme said. "But we had fun out there and ran well."

Ganassi's guys also had a big day on the IndyCar side Sunday. Dan Wheldon won at Kansas Speedway, and teammate Scott Dixon finished third.

Saturday was a horrible day for Ganassi Racing, but 24 hours sure can change a team's perspective.

-- Terry Blount

Nationwide Series: Talladega tightens points battle

TALLADEGA, Ala. -- At least the Nationwide Series' version of the Big One in the Aaron's 312 was an equal-opportunity points wrecker.

And that kept the points race from getting influenced greatly by the second of three restrictor-plate races in the series this season. Now, teams have time to rebuild their damaged cars before the July race at Daytona -- the next time the drivers will find fate largely out of their own hands.

The end result is that the points race is even closer as Kyle Busch was able to gain ground on both leader Clint Bowyer and runner-up and defending champion Carl Edwards. Bowyer leads Edwards by just 27 points and Busch by 39 heading into Friday night's race at Richmond International Raceway (7:30 p.m. ET, ESPN2).

Although it's still quite likely this is a two-driver race unless Busch ends up running for the championship after all, the top eight drivers are separated by 200 points, leaving those beyond the top three with hope if some bad luck hits Bowyer and Edwards. Or if bad weather derails their plans of running both races on the three weekends in June when the Sprint Cup and Nationwide races are held at different venues.

David Reutimann is 129 points back, with Mike Bliss 145 points behind Bowyer. David Ragan (153), Brad Keselowski (175) and Jason Leffler (200) are the other drivers who can still imagine a realistic scenario in which they'll move into contention. Mike Wallace is 254 points back in ninth, so it would take a lot of luck for him to get back into the thick of things, based on the number of drivers ahead of him.

Of course, for every driver who headed home disappointed with a mangled car, there was a driver such as Bobby Hamilton Jr., who avoided the carnage to finish third on the afternoon. He's not a contender for the driver's title because he skipped Mexico City and will miss Montreal because of sponsorship issues, but the strong run was quite a boost for his Team Rensi effort.

"It just steamrolls," Hamilton said of the momentum the finish can provide. "And then you go to Richmond and if you can do decent there, then all of a sudden you're just passing cars left and right, you're doing everything -- that's how momentum gets started.

"… If you could've told me that I was going to come in here and run in the top 10, I'd have laughed at you, [saying], 'I'll be the first one in the big wreck,' because that's the way my luck goes. I guarantee you my guys have a different pep in their step when they go to Richmond, and then all of a sudden that bleeds off to your race car. And then the driver is pumped up from the week before. And then you look at the points and everything, it just builds your race team. It makes everybody more confident, and when they're confident, they're hard to beat."

So no matter how bad many of the points leaders were feeling, at least somebody headed home happy from Talladega.

-- Mark Ashenfelter

Craftsman Truck Series: With Kyle Busch away, KHI comes out to play

KANSAS CITY, Kan. -- Five races into the Craftsman Truck Series season, Kevin Harvick Inc. is back as the team to beat.

Ron Hornaday and Jack Sprague finished 1-2 at Kansas Speedway, the first time the three-time champions battled to the end as teammates. For Sprague, who came in with one top-10 on the season, it was an affirmation that his new team is finally jelling.

For Hornaday, Kansas was a first step toward possibly winning title No. 4 and becoming the first back-to-back truck champion.

With Kyle Busch vacating his points-leading Billy Ballew Motorsports Toyota for the first time because of Nationwide and Cup commitments at Talladega, a series regular was guaranteed to leave Kansas atop the standings. Four drivers from four manufacturers within 34 points of each other were the most likely candidates, led by 2006 champion Todd Bodine, winner of the season opener at Daytona.

The Germain Toyota driver failed to finish at Kansas, as a sure top-5 run ended in a crash 10 laps from the end when he couldn't get around lapped Bobby East. Bodine finished 23rd. Dennis Setzer, fourth in points after winning four weeks ago at Martinsville, finished 25th in the Bobby Hamilton Racing-Virginia Dodge after crashing.

Circle Bar Racing's Rick Crawford fared better, rising from fifth to second on the strength of a ninth-place run at Kansas, his Ford's fifth top-15 finish in as many starts. But the big winner was Hornaday, leading 136 of 167 laps in the No. 33 Chevrolet for his record-extending 34th win and a return to the series lead.

Credit the driver, of course, but it also appears KHI has scored with new engines built by Mark Smith's Pro Motor. League-mandated changes with carburetor spacers and other tweaks were instituted to push parity, but the two KHI Chevrolets have qualified first in three of four events (Hornaday was awarded the pole at rainy California off 2007 driver points) and the No. 33 has led laps in every race and the most laps in two races. Last year, Hornaday led one lap in the first five races.

"Friends of mine were calling me, saying, 'What are you doing? You just won the championship,'" No. 33 crew chief Rick Ren said of going away from Richard Childress Racing engines. "I said, 'Just trust me.'"

Ren was telling Hornaday to trust him over the final third of the race as they tried to survive on fuel. He figured about a dozen caution laps down the stretch would get it done, and those came in an evening featuring more yellows and yellow laps (12 for 45) than in seven previous Kansas races.

If those are the kind of breaks championship teams get, seeing KHI get those in April could be an ominous sign for the rest of the field.

-- John Schwarb