Montoya will run Busch race at Texas next week
By Dave Rodman, NASCAR.COM
HAMPTON, Ga. -- Chip Ganassi Racing confirmed Sunday at Atlanta Motor Speedway that Juan Pablo Montoya would make his fourth stock car start in next Saturday's Busch Series O'Reilly Challenge at Texas Motor Speedway.
The 200-lap, 300-mile event on the fast, 1.5-mile speedway follows two ARCA RE/MAX Series events and Montoya's Busch Series debut as he prepares to run the full 2007 Nextel Cup Series in Ganassi's No. 42 Dodge.
Montoya qualified ninth and finished 11th, on the lead lap behind winner and 2006 Busch champion Kevin Harvick in Saturday's Sam's Town 250 at Memphis Motorsports Park.
A Ganassi racing spokesperson said the team owner told several people at Memphis on Saturday after Montoya's performance that he would enter the 31-year-old Colombian at Texas, and more than likely in the following weekend's Busch event at Phoenix.
Montoya ran 143 of the first 148 laps at Memphis in the top 10 and in the end, declared the day a successful learning experience.
"I could have passed 10 more cars [Saturday] if I would have been more aggressive," Montoya said Saturday after the race.
After making his first laps in a stock car, in an ARCA test at Talladega on Sept. 25, Montoya spent 12 of the next 24 days either testing or racing stock cars, including two days at Homestead-Miami Speedway, the site on Nov. 17-19 of NASCAR's Cup, Busch and Craftsman Truck season finales.
At the Homestead test, Montoya said he was more concerned with gaining experience than making his Cup debut at Homestead.
"As much experience that we can get in the next couple of weeks, in testing and whatever we do in racing, if it goes well we may try Cup," Montoya said. "But I think the main thing [to remember] is, this is all testing, to me, or practicing, or whatever you want to call it, for next year."
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By Dave Rodman, NASCAR.COM
HAMPTON, Ga. -- Chip Ganassi Racing confirmed Sunday at Atlanta Motor Speedway that Juan Pablo Montoya would make his fourth stock car start in next Saturday's Busch Series O'Reilly Challenge at Texas Motor Speedway.
The 200-lap, 300-mile event on the fast, 1.5-mile speedway follows two ARCA RE/MAX Series events and Montoya's Busch Series debut as he prepares to run the full 2007 Nextel Cup Series in Ganassi's No. 42 Dodge.
Montoya qualified ninth and finished 11th, on the lead lap behind winner and 2006 Busch champion Kevin Harvick in Saturday's Sam's Town 250 at Memphis Motorsports Park.
A Ganassi racing spokesperson said the team owner told several people at Memphis on Saturday after Montoya's performance that he would enter the 31-year-old Colombian at Texas, and more than likely in the following weekend's Busch event at Phoenix.
Montoya ran 143 of the first 148 laps at Memphis in the top 10 and in the end, declared the day a successful learning experience.
"I could have passed 10 more cars [Saturday] if I would have been more aggressive," Montoya said Saturday after the race.
After making his first laps in a stock car, in an ARCA test at Talladega on Sept. 25, Montoya spent 12 of the next 24 days either testing or racing stock cars, including two days at Homestead-Miami Speedway, the site on Nov. 17-19 of NASCAR's Cup, Busch and Craftsman Truck season finales.
At the Homestead test, Montoya said he was more concerned with gaining experience than making his Cup debut at Homestead.
"As much experience that we can get in the next couple of weeks, in testing and whatever we do in racing, if it goes well we may try Cup," Montoya said. "But I think the main thing [to remember] is, this is all testing, to me, or practicing, or whatever you want to call it, for next year."
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