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.

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.

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.

"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,” Juan said. “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."