Juan Pablo Montoya Advance
Texas Motor Speedway
Race:
O’Reilly 300 on Saturday, April 14, 2007
Track:
Texas Motor Speedway (1.5-mile quad oval)
Location:
Ft. Worth, Texas
Juan Pablo Montoya and the No. 42 Texaco/Havoline Team Facts:
First Return for Juan: For the first time in his stock car racing career, Juan Pablo Montoya will not be making a track debut in NASCAR competition at Texas Motor Speedway (TMS) this weekend. The Colombia native made his debut at the Ft. Worth area speedway last November, which marked his second official start in NASCAR competition. Montoya and Crew Chief Brad Parrot raced to a 28th-place finish, after scoring a second-consecutive top-10 start in his young NASCAR career. The week before that, Montoya had just made his NASCAR debut at the Memphis (Tenn.) Motorsports Park in which he started ninth and finished 11th.
Montoya Learning to Like the Quads: The last time Montoya competed on a 1.5-mile quad-oval track in NASCAR competition—at Atlanta Motor Speedway in March—he came away with an eight-place finish in Busch Series competition and a fifth-place in NEXTEL Cup. The 31-year-old racer also lined up inside the top 10 to start the Busch Series Atlanta race and 16th to begin his NEXTEL Cup run.
Still Top-10 Team: Kevin Hamlin, Montoya’s driving partner of the No. 42 Texaco/Havoline Busch Dodge, raced to an 18th-place finish at Nashville last Saturday and helped the No. 42 team maintain top-10 status in the NASCAR Busch Series (NBS) owner championship standings. The team is just 110 points outside the top five.
Where’s Juan?: Montoya took this past weekend off, but will return behind the wheel of the No. 42 Texaco/Havoline Dodge for this Saturday’s O’Reilly 300. Montoya was sixth in the NBS driver standings going into last weekend’s race at Nashville. He didn’t compete in the Pepsi 300, and thus now stands 14th. He is only 41 points away from the 10th spot.
Rookie Round-Up: Montoya is holding his own in both the NASCAR Busch Series and NEXTEL Cup Raybestos Rookie of the Year races. In Busch, he is in second place, just four points behind rookie class leader Marcos Ambrose. Montoya has grabbed rookie of the race honors two times this year in Busch Series competition—in Mexico City and then at Atlanta Motor Speedway. On the Cup side, he is 16th in the NEXTEL Cup Series championship standings, which makes him the highest ranked rookie at this time. He stands second in the rookie class right now, just one point behind leader David Ragan. Montoya has claimed rookie of the race honors two times so far this 2007 NEXTEL Cup season—at Las Vegas and Atlanta.
Chassis: Brad Parrot and the No. 42 Texaco/Havoline team are bringing new chassis—#557—to race at Texas Motor Speedway this weekend.
