Juan Pablo Montoya and Texaco/Havoline Team Make Promising NEXTEL Debut in Homestead

HOMESTEAD, Fla. (November 19, 2006) Juan Pablo Montoya will be the first to say he knew this past weekend of NASCAR racing at Homestead-Miami Speedway (HMS) was going to be anything but easy for him, but one thing he may be too modest to say is just how impressive his first attempt at running in the NEXTEL Cup Series turned out.  His run definitely didn't end as he or anyone at Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates (CGRFS) had hoped.  However, Montoya learned a lot and made quite an impression on his CGRFS team members as they all go into the off-season with high hopes and look anxiously to the start of the upcoming year of NASCAR competition.

Montoya,led by crew chief Steve Bowyer, drove the No. 30 Texaco/Havoline Dodge up as high as 13th before getting tapped from behind and sent into the outside wall, bursting into flames on lap 252 of the 268-lap competition.  Luckily, he escaped the terrifying scene unscathed, and by the end of the night, the No. 30 was placed in 34th.

Before even taking the green flag on Sunday, Montoya had one action-packed weekend.  First, qualifying on speed to get into Sunday's show - he wasn't a guaranteed starter for the NEXTEL Cup race but he and the No. 30 CGRFS crew members managed to take the No. 30 Dodge and line it up in the 29th-starting position for Sunday by lapping the 1.5-mile oval at 175.5 miles per hour in 30.75 seconds during the NEXTEL Cup timed trials on Friday afternoon.

Then, in addition to his NEXTEL Cup run, Montoya pulled a double-duty weekend in his young career as a NASCAR racer by also competing in Saturday's NASCAR Busch Series finale at HMS.  He lined up in the 31st-spot to take the green Saturday night and then worked his way toward the front to grab a 14th-place finish in only his fourth Busch Series start.

Sunday, Montoya and team battled a stubborn-handling race car throughout their run as many of their fellow competitors seemed to be wrestling with the same type of tight-handling problem getting into the corners of the track and loose-handling coming out of the turns.  The No. 30 Dodge was very tight getting into the corners and so loose off that it made it impossible for Montoya to put the throttle down.

Bowyer called Montoya to pit multiple times throughout the afternoon and early evening to try to rectify the problem by adjusting air pressure in the tires and the chassis on the race car.  Just as they were getting the car to come around a poor-timing yellow flag put Montoya, and a good portion of the rest of the field, one lap down on lap 116 just after they had made green-flag pit stops.

From there, Montoya, Bowyer and the team utilized some handy on-track maneuvering and pit-stop strategy to put them in position to get the free pass from NASCAR to return to the lead lap on lap 189, as the seventh yellow flag of the race was displayed.

The No.30 Texaco/Havoline Dodge lined up in 22nd place at the end of the longest line to make the restart on lap 194. Montoya reported to his guys over the radio, "The car still needs to turn a little better through the center but now I can drive really well out of the corner."

From there, the 31-year-old Colombian utilized the draft on the straightaway and a two-tire pit stop to move up as high as 13th by lap 214. Then, just after he and the Texaco/Havoline team made their ninth visit of the night to pit road for two tires and were returning to green-flag racing on lap 252 in 21st place, Montoya got an unexpected tap from the No. 12 car that sent his car slamming against the outside wall and bursting into flames.

Montoya quickly climbed from the fiery scene and was taken to the HMS infield care center, where he was evaluated and quickly released. Montoya talked with the media afterward and commented,"I really don't know what happened. I think the 12 got me in the back, but I'm not sure which car got me. I don't care. It's a shame, but the Texaco/Havoline Dodge today worked really well," he said. "Everybody at Chip Ganassi with Felix Sabates did an awesome job for me. It's going to be hard. I knew when I signed with Chip that it wasn't going to be easy. I'm racing against great drivers, and it was awesome racing against them today. I think it's been getting better race by race."

It was hard to find Montoya without a smile across his face this weekend at the track, even after he was wrecked out of competition. He repeatedly commented to his No.30 Texaco/Havoline team throughout his run on Sunday just how much fun he was having, at one time saying over the radio, "This is what racing is all about. It is hard, but it is so cool."

Montoya's teammates David Stremme, Reed Sorenson and Casey Mears finished 11th, 16th and 32nd respectively.

Montoya, now with six official NASCAR starts under his belt, is heading into the off season to continuously prepare for the upcoming 2007 season. He will be the full-time driver of the No. 42 Texaco/Havoline Dodge next year with his first run taking place during the historical, season-opening Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Fla. on Sunday, February 18, 2007.