Montoya on Talladega TOMORROW: “You aren’t going to slow down; there isn’t much you can do”


“This place is one of those places that you are like, ‘OK, what is going to happen?’ I mean, it is so much out of your hands”

—South Florida-resident Juan Pablo Montoya, on racing Sunday at Talladega

With severe weather hounding Alabama today to wash out qualifying, South Florida resident Juan Pablo Montoya will start from the 24th position at Talladega Superspeedway on Sunday. It is Race 9 of 36 en route to a Champion being crowned on Montoya’s “home track” of Homestead-Miami Speedway Nov. 21.

Of course, it was last spring at Talladega that a dramatic last-lap crash sent Carl Edwards’ Ford flying into the safety fence as Brad Keselowski crossed the finish line. Sunday’s race will be the first at ’Dega since NASCAR did away with the wing—a device many blamed for Edwards’ aerial feats last year—in favor of a spoiler.

As to a strategy for tomorrow, Montoya said: “So much [of it is] about being in the right place at the right time. Make sure they don’t wreck in front of you—[hope that they] wreck in the other lane or you are ahead of the wreck or you are far enough behind it….You are going so fast that if they wreck and they are in your path, you are going to hit them. You aren’t going to slow down; there isn’t much you can do.”

“…It gets really hairy. It is four-wide, five-wide;  it is like you are squeezing just to go through things.”

South Florida’s NASCAR hometown’er continues his pursuit of the Sprint Cup Series Championship—to be crowned Nov. 21 on his “home track” of Homestead-Miami Speedway—tomorrow at Talladega Superspeedway. The race will be broadcast on FOX and is scheduled to begin at 1 PM.

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