Sam's Town 250 Memphis Motorsports Park Advance

Texaco/Havoline Team Facts:

• Memphis: Juan Pablo Montoya will be making his foray into NASCAR this weekend in the Busch Series race at Memphis Motorsports Park. This is the first NASCAR sanctioned event the Colombian native will compete in this season. Montoya tested a NASCAR NEXTEL Cup car with Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates (CGRFS) driver David Stremme two weeks ago at Memphis. This will be the third stock car event for Montoya since signing on with CGRFS in July. Montoya will take over the driving duties of the No. 42 Texaco/Havoline Dodge in the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series in 2007.


• Chassis: Crew chief Brad Parrott and the Texaco/Havoline team are taking chassis #454 to Memphis Motorsports Park this weekend for the Sam’s Town 250. This chassis is out of teammate Reed Sorenson’s Busch Series stable. Sorenson ran chassis #454 at both Nashville races this year and finished 19th and 23rd in those events. He also competed with this car in several races in 2005 including a win from the pole at Nashville in March. Altogether the car scored one pole, one win, four top-five starts and three top-five finishes in 2005.


• Stock Car Experience: Montoya competed in his first stock car event in the ARCA RE/MAX Series at Talladega Superspeedway on October 6, where he grabbed the outside pole on his way to finishing third. He ran in the ARCA Series finale at Iowa Speedway on Sunday where he started third and finished 24th. He led 12 laps before making contact with another competitor that sent him behind the wall for repairs.


• Notable credentials: The 31-year-old Montoya enters NASCAR with impressive open-wheel credentials: 137 starts between the CART, IndyCar and Formula One Series’ where he tallied 18 wins, 26 poles, 60 top-five and 79 top-10 finishes.

Juan Pablo Quotes:
On Memphis… “Memphis is a really tough race track. When I tested the Cup car there the first thing I learned was that it is a really small racetrack. It is difficult and tricky. I was surprised at how hard on the tires it was, it killed the tires. I’m excited, this is fun for me.

“When I race at Iowa there were several lines you could run, at Memphis there is really just one line. Everybody wants to run the car at the bottom, that's it. When we tested, I was running competitive times with (David) Stremme, so I think my race pace is fine. I do think there will be a lot of getting bumped and moved around. It's going to be I think a bit of a shock for me compared to what I’ve been used to in Formula One.

“I'm out here to learn and get ready to take over the Texaco/Havoline car in 2007. Hopefully, we can bring this car home in better shape than the car from Iowa.”

Brad Parrott Quotes:
On Montoya… “He is definitely a world championship driver, and what I mean by that is he knows the feel of a race car. He is providing great feedback to me and everyone that has worked with him on the cars. With the information he gives me, I’ve been able to make the changes and adjustments he needs to make the car work better. That’s all you can ask out of a driver.”

On Expectations for Memphis… “Our biggest goal this weekend is to get 250 laps of racing. He got 202 at Iowa on the short track, now we need to get 250. He needs to continue to get more comfortable racing in traffic and that comes with race time and laps. He had a good test in the Cup car at Memphis, and the Texaco/Havoline team put together a good car, so this should be a good weekend for the team and the organization.”

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