Juan Pablo Montoya
California Speedway Advance Notes
Race: Auto Club 500 on Sunday, February 24 (NSCS)
Track: California Speedway (2 miles)
Location: Fontana, Calif.
Juan Pablo Montoya and No. 42 Wrigley’s Juicy Fruit Dodge Team (NSCS)
Signature Yellow: Juan Pablo Montoya’s No. 42 Dodge Charger will be carrying the signature yellow of Wrigley’s Juicy Fruit brand this weekend at California Speedway. This will be the first of 19 races either Juicy Fruit or Big Red® will be the primary sponsor on Montoya’s car during the 2008 NASCAR Sprint Cup season.
Daytona: Montoya and the team finished the 50th running of the Daytona 500 in the 32nd position on Sunday. With 12 laps remaining in the 200-lap race, it appeared Montoya and the team were poised for a top-five finish. Unfortunately, Montoya was clipped in the left rear after an incident between the No. 22 and No. 29 cars and forced to pit with just eight laps remaining in the race.
California Speedway: Montoya and the Juicy Fruit crew hope to improve upon their two finishes at the 2-mile track from last season. Montoya has just two career Sprint Cup starts at California Speedway and he finished 28th in February of 2007 and 33rd in September. Montoya and his crew, led by Crew Chief Donnie Wingo, tested at California three weeks ago in preparation for the second race of the season.
All Access: Montoya and the Juicy Fruit team will be one of the featured teams on DIRECTV’s NASCAR Hotpass for the Sprint Cup race at California. The Hotpass subscription allows fans to follow Montoya and the team throughout the entire race with in-depth reporting, real time statistics and enhanced live race audio. The Juicy Fruit team will be featured on HD channel 795 and SD channel 790 for the race on Sunday.
West-Coast Natives: One member of the Juicy Fruit team calls California his home state. Mechanic J.D. Frey grew up in Ferndale, Calif. (260 miles north of San Francisco) and has been involved in racing for the last 10 years. Shock specialist Roy Gangdal is a bit further north than Frey, Gangdal hails from Vancouver, British Columbia. This is also Frey’s and Gangdal’s second season with CGRFS.
QUOTES
Topic: Give us your thoughts on running the first CoT race on an intermediate-sized race track
Juan Pablo Montoya: “I’m not really sure what to expect this weekend. We had a tough test at the track in January and never could seem to get the car right. Donnie (Wingo) decided to bring a car that we had success with last year instead of one of the cars we tested out there. Hopefully that will help. California Speedway was a tough track for us last year too.
“I am excited about my first race with Juicy Fruit for the year. Last year I drove the Big Red Dodge, but never had the opportunity to drive the yellow car. They are doing a lot of fun things around the program, and that’s all a driver can ask out of sponsor.”
CHASSIS INFO
No. 42 Juicy Fruit Dodge (NSCS): Wingo and the No. 42 Juicy Fruit team are bringing chassis #731 to California Speedway. Montoya drove this chassis last season, but has not tested or ran with it this year. He drove it five times in 2007 at the two Bristol races, Dover, Richmond and Loudon. It has an average start of 12.2 and an average finish of 20.8.
