Juan Pablo Montoya: Off to a Fast Start and On the Fast Track

Originally Posted on Foxsports.com on October 5, 2006

Tomorrow night Juan Pablo Montoya will make his stock car debut in the Food World 250 ARCA race at Talladega, Alabama. 

Over the past couple weeks, Montoya has been practicing in various stock cars.  First, he drove an ARCA car at Talladega to test the new pavement (and his new ride).  Talladega is a fast 2.66 mile track, with its emphasis on raw horsepower, speed and avoiding a big wreck.  The track's importance to Montoya is two-fold:  he needs experience at a restrictor plate track to pass Nascar's requirements to race in the Daytona 500 next year, & he needs to gain experience racing a stock car.

Montoya then traveled to Iowa to drive the ARCA car at the new Iowa Speedway.   The Iowa Speedway is billed as a 7/8 mile track with an emphasis on the driving skills.  It is unclear whether Montoya will race at the ARCA race at Iowa Speedway scheduled for next weekend, but his lap times at the track indicate he would be a force to be reckoned with if he does.

On both tracks, it did not take Montoya long to adjust.  In a short time he was turning laps like a veteran driver.  In fact, Montoya qualified his ARCA car on the outside front row for the Talladega race tomorrow.

In addition to his ARCA tests, Montoya tested a Nextel Cup car at Kentucky in a closed session.  Presumably that went well.  Montoya has the benefit of veteran crew chief Brad Parrott to help him acclimate to the stock car. 

It shouldn't come as any surprise that Montoya is making progress in stock cars.  His whole career has been one success after another.  In his 137 starts in the CART, Indy Car and Formula One series, Montoya has 18 wins, 26 poles, 60 top five finishes and 79 top 10 finishes, including the 2000 Indianapolis 500 and a Monaco Grand Prix.  In his 5 complete F1 seasons, Montoya finished 6th or better. 

Montoya has now set his sights on Nascar, with hopes that he can continue his winning tradition.

His first big step will be tomorrow night.  The Food World 250 will be  broadcast on SPEED channel at 7 p.m.