Montoya finishes third at Talladega

The former Formula One driver finished third in an eventful race, which was red flagged after a multiple-car incident with 16 laps to go.

Montoya led the first 10 laps of the race and ran steadily in the front group, experiencing both the low and the high lines of the 2.66-mile tri-oval.

He looked comfortably in control of his own race until he was caught in an incident on lap 36, when he was hit on the side by car No. 11 of Brian Sillas, who had been bumped by car No. 22 of Chad Miller.

Montoya's car got sideways a couple of times, but he was able to keep it going straight. "I was fine with balance when they said 'watch out, watch out'," Montoya said.

"They came straight at me and I was pretty lucky. I got sideways one way and the other, but for some reason the car didn't spin."

The Colombian had to pit under caution several times to have his car fixed, but he was able to remain on the lead lap, despite falling back to 31st.

The race was restarted on lap 45, and Montoya charged through the field to make his way up to 11th by lap 54.

"It's pretty nice. In F1 you go to the back and you stay in the back," Montoya added. "You can be two seconds a lap quicker than any other car, and you're still not going to pass. I think I passed probably 40 cars today easily. It was outrageous!"

On lap 64, the yellow flags came out again, and Montoya was able to move up to sixth as he elected to stay on the track while many of his rivals pitted for fuel.

The race was then restarted and Montoya moved up to second behind Steve Wallace, who was bumped from behind by the Colombian many times, so that the two could go up front.

"It's just exciting," he said about pushing Wallace. "It's really nice to see that with a little push, you just touch (the other car) and you can go past one-and-a-half or two cars. It's great!"

Series leader and multiple ARCA champion Frank Kimmel went past both Wallace and Montoya on the outside on lap 78.

One lap later, a multi-car crash brought the fifth caution of the race, which in the end caused the race to be red flagged on lap 81.

At that point, due to daylight, ARCA Officials called the race, with Kimmel taking the win and the series title for the eighth time.

Steve Wallace took second, ahead of the No. 4 Texaco-Havoline Dodge of Montoya, who was a happy third.

"I haven't had this much fun in a race for a long time," he said. "I 'm not saying F1 is bad or anything, I think is great racing as well, the cars are unbelievable and everything; but as far as enjoying racing personally, I haven't had this much fun in a long time."

Montoya is scheduled to test his team's Car of Tomorrow on Monday at Talladega and is also expected to test his Nextel Cup car at Memphis on Tuesday and Wednesday.

He also plans to enter ARCA's final race at Iowa Speedway, on October 15th.