Montoya to set record at Indy

The Colombian first raced at Indianapolis in 2000 when he won on his Indy 500 debut for Chip Ganassi Racing and then competed six times in the US Grand Prix, with last year's event his last Formula One race, in fact.

"It's pretty hard to compare," Montoya said about his approach to his first Indy 500 relative to his first Brickyard 400. "The last time I was here was seven years ago and we were running wide-open all the way around. It's a little different with the Cup cars.

"There's a lot of things that I remember from when I did the 500 that I want to try to see what works and what doesn't. For me, I think it's exciting to be here be able to compete in all three races."

Montoya's milestone, which is likely to remain unmatched for some time with Formula One leaving Indy, is something he says he will enjoy more in retirement than now when he is still focused on getting on with his goal of succeeding in NASCAR.

"At the end of the day we just got to focus and see what we need to do. You know, just come here, work on the car and get the job done," Montoya added.

"You can't go into the place and think this is awesome and say 'I'm the only guy to run in all three races.' I think at 50 (years old), it will be a very cool thing to remember. Today, it's just about getting the job done."

Montoya has previously raced already at tracks where he has been successful in Champ Car, but this has not translated into good results in the Nextel Cup, something his boss Chip Ganassi points out has had him thinking about what Sunday may bring to them.

"When we go to places that he's been before, like we were really excited before going to Michigan I know, and that was one of our poorest races," Ganassi said.

"We kind of thought going in 'Gees, you know, he's been there before and actually won a race there' and it just didn't pan out that we had a good weekend there.

"So going into this weekend I'm a little bit like 'Hum, you know' I hope we don't have the same thing like Michigan. Just as a statement, places we've been before, that he's done well at before, no connection."

Montoya says he anticipates his Nextel Cup car to be tougher to drive around Indy than an IRL car and even a Formula One.

"Probably out of the three it'll be the hardest," Montoya added. "The Formula One circuit was pretty straight forward. With the IRL cars it was a really fast oval, pretty flat, but that's what I used to drive every week."

"Coming here, I don't know. I've been asking people were do they brake, what do you do and that's the kind of thing I try to ask a lot before going out so I get a bit of an idea. You just come out and see what you can do."

Despite being unlucky in his latest visits to Indy in a Formula One car, Montoya hopes his first Nextel Cup race at the venue brings him a good result, which he and his team need as they rank 20th in the standings just six weeks off from the start of the Chase.

"Here it's being my first year in Cup, It's been pretty hard but we've had some good results. At tracks like this we tend to normally do pretty well so I'm hoping for a good result," Montoya added.

"With the F1 programme when I came here we had probably two, three chances of winning the race and always broke down. This is one of those races in Formula One that getting to the end was marred for me in this place, so we'll see."

Montoya drove a stock car for the first time ever at Indianapolis in 2003, when he swapped machines with Jeff Gordon around the Formula Once circuit configuration during a promotional event.