page_title: Juan Pablo Montoya
section_title: 2006 season
hierarchical_section_title: Juan Pablo Montoya / NASCAR / 2006 season
caption_attribution_description: English: Juan Pablo Montoya practicing for the 2007 Ford 400 at the Homestead-Miami Speedway. Cr. Chris Green
context_page_description: Juan Pablo Montoya Roldán, is a Colombian racing driver. He currently competes in the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship driving for Acura Team Penske, having won the championship in 2019.
  He won the International F3000 championship in 1998, the CART FedEx Championship Series in 1999 in his debut year in the series, and the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship in 2019. His race wins include the Indianapolis 500, Monaco Grand Prix, 24 Hours of Daytona, British Grand Prix, Italian Grand Prix, Grand Prix of Long Beach, and the Race of Champions. Montoya is, alongside Fernando Alonso, one of only two active drivers who have won two legs of the Triple Crown of Motorsport in its original definition. Montoya also equals Mario Andretti and Dan Gurney by winning races in Indy cars, Formula One cars and NASCAR Cup cars.
  In October 2009, Montoya was ranked 30th on Times Online's list of the Top 50 Formula One drivers of all time.
context_section_description: On July 9, 2006, Montoya announced his plans to compete in the NASCAR Nextel Cup series beginning with the 2007 season, racing for Chip Ganassi and Felix Sabates's NASCAR operation, Chip Ganassi Racing, in the No. 42 Texaco/Havoline-sponsored car. "I'm looking forward to racing in the Nextel Cup Series for Chip Ganassi in the Big Red Car.  I think I will learn a lot from my teammates and other drivers around me. It will be tough though to get used to the difference in the cars." Montoya made his stock car debut in an Automobile Racing Club of America (ARCA) event at the Talladega Superspeedway on October 6, 2006. He qualified second, led the first nine laps, and finished third when the race was called after 79 of 92 laps. Three weeks later he followed this with an 11th-place finish after a mid-race spin at the Sam's Town 250 at Memphis Motorsports Park, his first appearance in NASCAR's second division Busch Series. He competed in the final three races of the Busch Series season, but did not better this performance. He would later run 17 Busch Series races on a part-time schedule the following year. On November 19, 2006, Montoya competed for the first time in NASCAR's premier division, the NEXTEL Cup Series. He qualified 29th in the No. 30 Texaco car at the Ford 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway. He was running just outside the top 10 when contact with Ryan Newman ended his race on lap 251. His car ended up in the grass engulfed in flames due to his fuel cell erupting during the crash and he was credited with a 34th-place finish. Finished 71st in series points.
caption: Juan Pablo Montoya practicing for the 2007 Ford 400 at the Homestead-Miami Speedway.
exif: {"Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon PowerShot SD600", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "180", "Image YResolution": "180", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image DateTime": "2007:11:17 04:38:54", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image ExifOffset": "196", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "180", "Thumbnail YResolution": "180", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "5108", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "5622", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/500", "EXIF FNumber": "49/10", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2007:11:17 04:38:54", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2007:11:17 04:38:54", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "3", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "287/32", "EXIF ApertureValue": "147/32", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "147/32", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, auto mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "87/5", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2816", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2112", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "Interoperability RelatedImageWidth": "2816", "Interoperability RelatedImageLength": "2112", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "2824", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "112640/9", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "2112000/169", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard"}