By Paul Kelly
allstate400atthebrickyard.com
Monday, September 25, 2006
2000 Indianapolis 500 winner Juan Pablo Montoya started his drive toward the 2007 Allstate 400 at the Brickyard with his first official stock car test session Sept. 25 at Talladega Superspeedway.
Montoya will attempt to qualify for the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard on Sunday, July 29, 2007, at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and compete in the rest of the 2007 NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series season for Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates. Montoya became available to test an ARCA stock car at Talladega after achieving a release from his Formula One contract with McLaren-Mercedes.
"We've been working on it for about two months, and we found out we were going to do it about two days ago," team owner Chip Ganassi said Sept. 24. "It came down to if something was going to happen (this year), it needed to happen. Daytona is the first race of 2007, but you have to do a lot of testing in this system to learn other tracks, other procedures and that's what we want to expose him to.
"Whatever presents itself at the time, we're going to go after it."
If Montoya qualifies for the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard, he will become the first driver to compete in all three of the Speedway's current major events.
Montoya dominated the 2000 Indianapolis 500 for Target Chip Ganassi Racing, leading 167 of 200 laps en route to victory in his only start in "The Greatest Spectacle in Racing." He also raced in the United States Grand Prix from 2001-04, and in 2006.
"Next year is going to be a lot of fun," Ganassi said. "I'm sure there will be speed bumps along the way, but it'll be fun."
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Tickets: Tickets for the 14th Allstate 400 at the Brickyard will go on sale Friday, Dec. 1.
The Indianapolis Motor Speedway Ticket Office is accepting ticket orders for the race. To place an order for tickets, camping or parking, contact the IMS Ticket Office at (800) 822-INDY outside the Indianapolis area, (317) 492-6700 locally or log on to www.indianapolismotorspeedway.com.
The Ticket Office is located in the IMS Administration Building, at the intersection of 16th Street and Georgetown Road in Indianapolis. Business hours are from 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday through Friday.
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