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Welcome to Frontstretch’s newest column, What’s the Call. Every Tuesday, we’ll take a controversial topic in the NASCAR world and have two of your favorite writers duke it out, one-on-one, with their opinion on the issue. Then, you, the fans, have a chance to comment below and let us know your thoughts, as well as who YOU think has the better argument! Let the fun begin!
This Week’s Question: Road course ringers failed to win a Cup race again on Sunday, with Ron Fellows taking the highest finish of the part-timers in 8th. NASCAR has now gone 30 years since the last time a road course part-timer has come in and won a race in the Cup series. Has the days of the “road course ringer” passed us by, or is it still possible for a road course specialist to make a one-time appearance and win on the road courses?
Road Course Ringers CAN Win
by Toni Heffelfinger
Just because a road course ringer hasn’t made it to the Winner’s Circle in recent years in NASCAR’s Nextel Cup Series doesn’t mean it can’t be done. Sure, they have the handicap of not being in the car every week, and sometimes the added difficulties of working with a team that is just as part-time as they are, but they have the assets to overcome those obstacles.
Road course racing at its best is a complicated technique that almost looks like an art form. Some of these drivers are among the best in the world at mastering the skills it takes to run smooth and consistent laps, turning any vehicle both right and left. They also have the knack for setting up and executing passes that gives them the ability to move through the field with what almost looks like no effort at all. The skills these drivers bring have been honed to such a high level that it takes away the advantage of the regulars who drive every race for the same team, but only race on a road course twice a year. Having the skills to navigate the trac and advise the team on the proper set up for the car puts the ringers on at least even ground with most of the field, and arguably ahead of many of the regular runners. That leaves only a handful of regulars like Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart, or Robby Gordon, all talented road course racers in their own right and with regular teams running every race, as the main competition for the ringers. While beating these guys is a tall order, it can be done.
Unfamiliarity with the Cup car is not an issue some of these drivers face. Ron Fellows and Boris Said have been doing this long enough to be very familiar with the cars even though they aren’t running them every week. Proof of that is how often regular teams turn to these drivers for setup advice and coaching on the road courses. Scott Pruett ran a full season in Cup, and Said is running about 1/3 of the schedule this season. Said has a part-time team, but it is HIS team, and not a team he will see for this one race only. He will be running every race he runs this season in that car, with that crew chief, and that pit crew. Fellows will only race with his group twice this year, but Cal Wells’ No. 32 Tide team will be at the track for every race. Scott Pruett had a temporary team assembled only for the road course, but it was fielded out of the Chip Ganassi Racing/Felix Sabates stable, and there’s no reason to believe either the car or the personnel that came with it were inferior in any way to those of his teammates.
Any one of the drivers listed above had a genuine chance to not only be competitive, but to win at Infineon. Fellows’ exemplary run from 43rd at the start to 8th at the finish proves that. Anything is possible on any given Sunday.
Ringers Don’t Have a Chance
-by Ren Jonsin
Ron Fellows, Brian Simo and until this year, Boris Said; three guys whose names are pretty much guaranteed to have a “2” next to them in the stats column for races run each season. Why? Because they apparently have the ability to turn right better than any of us. These are the guys that are paid to come in and take over for a faltering team twice a year when the Nextel Cup boys hit the esses. They try to get a few more owner points for their teams, and maybe take home a win for their trouble. The “road warriors” are the biggest story those two weeks out of the year, because someone from the outside has a good chance of taking home the win that week.
But do they really? Don’t count on it. It will be a cold day in Homestead before one of these guys wins a road course. No road course specialist has won since Roger Penske threw an AMC Matador under Mark Donahue in the first race of the 1973 season, the Winston Western 500, at Riverside. Since then, drivers like Said, Fellows and Scott Pruett are winless. The three of them have run in 29 combined road races and only have one pole (Said, Infineon, 2003), and ten top tens while racking up nine DNFs. Meanwhile, Nextel Cup Regulars Jeff Gordon, Ricky Rudd and Rusty Wallace have combined for 20 wins between them. And that’s the reason these part-time road warriors won’t win a road course victory. The road-racing ability and the equipment of too many of the regulars is world class. Their crews are the best available when it comes to getting their driver out in front, while many of the owners, such as Jack Roush and Roger Penske, also field teams in series that are devoted to road racing entirely, giving them an even larger knowledge base to draw on.
Face it. The teams that don’t have a driver that can compete on a road course don’t have the rest of the team there anyway. Joe Gibbs, Roger Penske, Jack Roush and Rick Hendrick don’t need ringers. They have the best drivers, crews and equipment. The road warriors aren’t needed in the teams that could take them to a win in any Nextel Cup race, road course or not.
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