Montoya stock car debut set

Juan Pablo Montoya will compete in his first stock-car event when he attempts to qualify for the Oct. 6 Food World 250 ARCA race at Talladega Superspeedway, Chip Ganassi Racing officials announced today.

Montoya tested at the track Monday. The former Formula One star is scheduled to drive the team's No. 42 Nextel Cup car full time next season. The ARCA race will give him a taste of how to compete on a high-banked oval in the draft.

Montoya likely will compete in selected Busch and Nextel Cup events through the end of the season, but his schedule beyond the ARCA race has not been announced.

"This is, I think, a very different oval from anything else we would run normally," Montoya said in a break from testing Monday at Talladega. "Here you are just flat out the whole time and at the end of the race, it is pretty straightforward.

"For me, it is pretty exciting, still, here because I need to learn to run high to run low. You need to run one lap high to build up the speed. All those things are new for me."