All eyes on ARCA Friday night at 'Dega

By Mike Harper

What do Juan Pablo Montoya, Chip Ganassi, Rusty Wallace, Richard Childress, Ken Schrader and Mike Wallace have in common? All are involved in the Food World 250, ARCA RE/MAX Series event at Talladega Superspeedway on Friday evening.

Call me crazy, but I believe the eyes of the racing world will be on this ARCA event. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if this SPEED televised event doesn’t pull the highest ratings ever for an ARCA event. Not just because viewers will see a number of talented developmental drivers participating Friday night, but to watch former F1 driver and Indianapolis 500 winner Juan Pablo Montoya take his first step in preparing for his leap into the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series by racing in this event.

Montoya will take over for Casey Mears next season in the Nextel Cup Series. Chip Ganassi, owner of Mears’ No. 42 Dodge has decided to prepare Montoya by entering him into the last two ARCA events of the season, Talladega and Iowa.

After testing at Talladega in late September, Montoya was discussing his first time racing a stock car at Talladega and told the media, "The car really moves around a lot more from what I am used to, but after a while you just get the hang of it. It is a lot of fun, and a lot of technique. I think experience will help a lot in the car knowing when to run high and when to run low. I am getting there, but it is going to take a little bit of time."

Here’s my take on Montoya. I believe he is an extra talented race car driver. One of the best! I wouldn’t be surprised if he won Friday night, because lets face it, he will be in some of the best equipment, if not the best, on the track. That said, I do look for him to make a mistake. He may not cause the big one, but he is shifting through the gears in a stock car, under racing conditions for the first time. He will also need to hit pit road under racing conditions, in a stock car for the first time and if he falls behind he’ll need to work his way back to the front, under racing conditions in a stock car for the first time.

Montoya will have many first times in a stock car, but throw Talladega racing in the mix and we just stirred in a ton of pressure! The good news is he’s starting on the front row next to the Pole winner Bobby Gerhart.

In a column by ThatsRacin.com’s own Jim Utter, Montoya said, "I will probably get caught up a couple times making the wrong moves, but that's part of the learning curve."

I believe the learning curve will be the reason he won’t win this race. But if he does win, it will be an amazing story talked about in the coming days.

Other drivers to keep a watchful eye on are Steve Wallace, Richard Childress driver Timothy Peters, Ken Schrader Racing’s Kelly Bires, NASCAR veteran Mike Wallace driving for James Finch and Dodge Motorsports’ developmental driver Chase Miller.

The ARCA rookie class has been strong this season behind Blake Bjorklund and he’s followed by Ryan Foster, Ryan Howard, Brett Rowe and Justin Allgaier. Any of these drivers could shine on Friday night.

But let’s not forget the ARCA veterans. Current points leader and seven-time ARCA champion Frank Kimmel is always a threat to win at the superspeedways. Bobby Gerhart and Billy Venturini will make the event interesting as well. Throw in many of the ARCA young-guns and I guarantee the Food World 250 will be a great race to watch.

In this week’s Flip-Flops found on my web site and aired each Thursday night on RaceTalkRadio.com, I picked Bobby Gerhart and Mike Wallace to Flip to Victory Lane. While I feel extremely good about those picks, I also picked Todd Bowsher to Flip. Excuse the plug, but Bowsher’s No. 21 Ford will carry my web site’s decals on the top part of the C-Pillar on the car! If you get a chance, look for the Spin Out Zone (SOZ) decals on the No. 21 and cheer extra hard for the Bowsher team!

Needless to say, I’m extremely excited about Friday night. The race will be televised at 8pm EST on SPEED.