Juan Pablo Montoya could be in a NASCAR event as soon as next weekend's Busch Series race at Kansas Speedway.
Montoya, who was released from his Formula One contract earlier this week, will test an ARCA car for Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates on Monday at Talladega.
He also will test an ARCA car in Iowa on Thursday.
Ganassi plans to get Montoya into an ARCA or Busch Series race as soon as possible, and hopefully at least one Cup race before the end of the season.
He wants to get through the two tests this week before making a decision on Kansas. NASCAR officials said Montoya would have no problem getting certified for that race with his history in F-1.
"We want to get him in as many races as we can the rest of the year, and if that's ARCA, Busch or Cup it really doesn't matter,'' he said. "We're going to take it one step at a time, and if the learning curve is there, if everything goes good, I don't see why not [enter a Cup race].''
Ganassi said Montoya is excited about what's ahead.
"Daytona is the first race of 2007, but you have to do a lot of testing in this system to learn other tracks, other procedures and that's what we want to expose him to,'' he said.