Under The Miami Sun: “I really like racing at Homestead and I love the sunny weather. You can run right next to the yellow line. It has progressive banking, which allows you to run a lane up from the yellow line. The top groove has not come in yet, but it will the more we race on the track. You can pass people and I like that. You don’t have to follow the guy in front of you and wait for him to mess up before you can complete the pass. The track is down by the beaches so there is lots of sand in the air. It looses a ton of grip every time we go back because of it being down by the coast. All of Bobby Hamilton Racing tested there about five weeks ago. I really learned a lot and look forward to applying it this weekend. The biggest thing I got out of testing was being able to use computers to help my driving style. I was able to compare my steering traces, throttle traces and different driving preferences to Bobby’s (Hamilton) style. I was able to come in and look at the data. I would then go out and adjust my driving style to his and see if it made a difference. In the end I was able to find a happy medium. I want to end this year on a high note for my guys and I think Homestead is the place for it to happen.”

Championship Prediction: “My pick is for Ted Musgrave to win the 2005 NCTS Championship. It is his to lose going into the final race. It is going to be so neat for Dodge to have won two driver championships in two years. Ted has been in the final top three every since he has come back to the NCTS. It is good for him to finally be on top. He deserves it more than anyone out there. Every week I try to find Ted on the track and learn from him. He is a great competitor and I am glad to have him as a Dodge teammate. You cannot forget about Dennis Setzer because he could very easily sneak in there if Ted has trouble. Dennis and his crew will be pulling out all the stops to make it happen. It will be an interesting race for both.”  

NOTES
• The Ford 200 will be Montgomery’s 51st NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series start. 
• Montgomery is piloting Angel this weekend at Homestead.
• The Tennessee native will be making his third career start on the 1.5-mile oval Friday. He finished 21st in last year’s event. He also competed in a NASCAR Busch series race there in 2003.  
• Montgomery’s best finish of the season came at Lowe’s Motor Speedway in May coming home in the 13th position.

Final Thoughts on 2005 (Kip McCord):“It is hard to believe we are packing up headed to Homestead. It seems like yesterday we were on our way to Daytona. I look back on this season and it was a huge learning year for the No. 18 Dodge Racing Team. In racing you are going to have bad luck and we had a huge dose of it this year. It started the first race of the year and has not stopped. There were several races this year we could have walked away with a top 10 finish, but things never went our way. All year I stayed on the guys to stay positive and I am really proud of how they handled it. As long as we walked away from each race track and we could say we learned something then it was worth the trip. Over the off-season we are going to work hard to apply everything we learned this year to our new stuff for 2006. I am confident we will have the monkey off our back and we can make another run at it.”