Good thing they brought extras
Quote of the month, courtesy of Juan Pablo Montoya via Scene Daily:
Juan Pablo Montoya had a message for his crew about his car after wrecking during a test session earlier this week in Turn 2 at Kentucky Speedway: "I'm glad you've got, like, 60 of them. Hopefully there won't be as many, but there will be [crashes]."
He must have the world's richest ARCA team.
Seriously, though, JPM is using the only sane strategy to survive today's ARCA race: Qualify up front and drive like heck. He'll start second this afternoon. (Frank Kimmel is starting fourth. I'm wondering if Mr. ARCA will give JPM a little room on the start or if he'll unleash all of his pent-up I-should-be-in-NASCAR-frustration on the back bumper of Montoya's Dodge.)
Scene Daily has more on the most interesting story in the garage for 2007. (Yes, more interesting than Mark Martin in a Chevy. That story is just plain strange.)
The ARCA race is at 5:30 p.m. EDT today. SPEED picks up the same-day tape at 8. And look in Saturday's paper for more. (Yes, competing media - Dustin is writing about JPM for Saturday. Wish you'd thought of it first, yes?)
P.S.: Bad omen -- Montoya will be driving the No. 4, a number most recently used in the Cup Series by occassional Spotter pinata Scott Wimmer. Maybe JPM have better luck with it.
7 p.m. update: Nate Ryan of USA Today beat Dustin to the punch. He wrote a very long (and good) Montoya story for Thursday's paper.
9:30 p.m. update: I subbed in the link above. The previous link went to a wire/staff story that wasn't the one I was looking for. I blame ... my own incompetence.
Comments (2)
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The "4" was pretty good for Sterling Marlin and Ernie Irvan.
I hope JPM does well. He was one of the few open wheel drivers I would follow.
Posted on October 6, 2006 3:46 PM
Mark Martin still hasn't figured out what one is supposed to do when you receive the Gold Watch from your employer of 19 years.
Of course there is the remote chance that Mark might be the only competitor in the history of motor sports to win a championship without ever winning a race. Now that would be something and in a way I'm kind of rooting for the old man, but please don't embarrass the sport and win that race.
So they have 60 backup cars for JuanM. I knew it, this guy is gonna be cannon fodder for the cup drivers.
Posted on October 6, 2006 3:50 PM