Montoya could set NASCAR record

The Ganassi driver is expected to have a double shot at victory racing the No 42 car on a special Big Red livery both in the Busch Series on Saturday and the Nextel Cup on Sunday, making his first visit to the Glen in more than 13 years.

"I was there in '94 in the big circuit driving Barber SAAB," Montoya said. "That's the only experience I have. In the shorter circuit I haven't been around that place.

"I don't know, it's exciting. I'm looking forward to it. I think driving the Busch race is going to be a big help to get much more track time before the Cup race, and hopefully we can get really good results.

"It's going to be I think my last Busch race this year, so hopefully we can make something happen and have a really good weekend. It would be very important."

Montoya said it wasn't his decision to stop racing in the Busch Series after next weekend. His team announced last week they were focusing on their Nextel Cup program with the Colombian, who has competed in 16 of 22 events of NASCAR's second division.

"It wasn't really my decision," Montoya added. "It was Chip's decision, that he didn't think it was going to help me as much as it did before. I think he thought it maybe was better to take part of that program and invest more into the Car of Tomorrow to make us more competitive.

"He made the decision, this is what I want to do, and I said it's your team, I'll drive whatever you tell me to drive. And here we are."

Ganassi fielded the No 42 entry normally driven by Montoya at the Busch Series race in Montreal last weekend, where some expected he would have taken the opportunity to get another victory.

However it was Canadian Michael Valiante who raced the car. Montoya said they are being consistent with their decision to focus on their Nextel Cup program, as he would have missed Saturday practice at Pocono had he run at Montreal also.

"I think the position we were in the championship it was very important to get all the running we could in Pocono to get a good result, and I think it helped us. When we went into Saturday's practice we were quite a way off in our race setup, so we definitely needed the practice," Montoya said.

He currently sits 18th in the driver standings with an outside chance of making the Chase for the championship, which he reckons is going to take some good luck for him and some bad results from his rivals to put him inside the top twelve in the points' race.

"Being realistic the only way to get up there is having a bit of luck, and you've got to be in at least the top five every race," Montoya added.  "I think it's a little bit out of my hands whether we get in or not.

"I think realistically it's very difficult to make it, especially last week having guys that we're fighting with finishing 1st or 2nd."