Juan Pablo Montoya Advance Notes
Race: Food City 500 on Sunday, March 16 (NSCS)
Track: Bristol Motor Speedway (.533 miles)
Location: Bristol, Tenn.
Juan Pablo Montoya and No. 42 Texaco/Havoline Dodge Team (NSCS)
NOTES
Thank You NASCAR Family: Montoya and his wife Connie hosted NASCAR Chairman and CEO Brian France, Driver and Founder of the Victory Junction Gang Camp Kyle Petty, Team Owners Chip Ganassi and Felix Sabates, Executive Director of the NASCAR Foundation Sandy Marshall and a number of other NASCAR executives in their home country of Colombia on Monday and Tuesday. The group toured the historic city of Cartagena Monday evening before visiting one of the sites built by the Montoya’s foundation Formula Smiles.
Formula Smiles is a non-profit organization that utilizes sports to improve the quality of life of Colombian children. The Foundation provides the necessary equipment and teachers to enable under-privileged kids to engage in athletics in an academic and recreational manner. At the site on Tuesday, the children performed a native-Colombian dance for the guests of honor, and paraded through the grounds in their Formula Smiles uniforms. France then presented Formula Smiles with a $25,000 donation from the NASCAR Foundation.
Back in Black: Montoya’s No. 42 Dodge Charger will again sport the red and black colors of Texaco/Havoline this weekend for the Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Battling at Bristol: Montoya will make his third NASCAR Sprint Cup start at Bristol on Sunday. He earned the outside pole last fall in just his second attempt at the .533-mile track, and went on to finish 17th and on the lead lap. Montoya completed all but three laps in his first two races at the bullring.
About last week: Montoya drove his No. 42 Dodge to a 16th-place finish at Atlanta Motor Speedway on Sunday and moved up another spot in the NASCAR Sprint Cup standings. Montoya struggled to find grip out of the corners all day, but Crew Chief Donnie Wingo and the team adjusted on the Dodge and Montoya rallied to finish in the top 20.
2008 Standings: Montoya and the team gained another spot in the standings after their 16th-place finish last weekend. They currently sit 23rd, tied with teammate Reed Sorenson who is listed in 22nd. Montoya and the team are just 79 points out of 12th, the cutoff for the Chase to the Sprint Cup.
“Star in the Sky”: Montoya’s spotter Tab Boyd is once again providing fans with his view on the race from atop the spotter’s stand with an in-depth post-race blog. Boyd recaps the race weekend from his point of view on www.texacohavoline42.com.
He’s “SIRIUS” Again: For the second year in a row, listen to SIRIUS Satellite Radio every Monday on channel 128 for the “Juan Pablo Montoya Report.” Montoya will provide exclusive updates on the No. 42 Team; gives post-race downloads and share his thoughts on the events of the season. He will chat with hosts David Poole and Mike Bagley on “The Morning Drive” every Tuesday at 8:30 a.m. ET.
CHASSIS INFO
No. 42 Texaco/Havoline Dodge (NSCS): Chassis #634. This chassis is one of the oldest CoT chassis in the CGRFS stable. Originally built in 2006, the car has never been raced but has been rebuilt with the new body specs and updates.
