Juan Pablo Montoya has settled in well to his new regime of NASCAR testing after posting competitive times in his first two ARCA tests, one of which came at the daunting 2.66-mile Talladega Superspeedway.
The Colombian born
F1 refugee spent much of last week getting used to his new enclosed surroundings in an ARCA car run by Chip Ganassi Racing, participating in two well-attended tests at the brand new Iowa Speedway and the awesome Talladega Superspeedway.
In both tests a decent number of ARCA cars (older Winston/Nextel Cup machinery) showed up with Montoya stacking up well against the experienced series regulars on both occasions.
The first stop was the granddaddy of them all, the 2.66-mile Talladega Superspeedway where Montoya also got his first taste of one of NASCAR's infamous restrictor plates.
Montoya will make his NASCAR debut at Talladega in next weekend's ARCA race and the former CART and Indy 500 Champion soon discovered that the longest oval on the NASCAR schedule could easily be taken flat out.
After setting sixth quickest time out of 31 on his first day in a stock car Montoya moved on to a circuit that by no means be taken flat out, the brand new Rusty Wallace designed Iowa Speedway.
At seven eighths of a mile Iowa can officially be called a ‘short-track,' the kind of place that will be somewhat alien to a driver more at home at places like Monza rather than Martinsville. However Montoya was quick in learning this new craft and enjoyed a highly productive, accident-free day.
With the ARCA series finale taking place at Iowa one week after Montoya's slated debut, the Chip Ganassi Racing team are keen to enter the ex-
McLaren F1 driver in that event too at the start of what promises to be a busy autumn for both driver and team.
Montoya's second day as a NASCAR driver was arguably more successful than his first as he finished the day third fastest overall from a field of nearly 20 drivers.
