Statistically Speaking: Road ringers

This weekend at the Infineon Raceway road course, more than a half-dozen road racing specialists will be on track. In some cases, they will contend with specially prepared teams, but for the most part they are campaigning machines whose owners sit outside the top 35 in points in an effort to elevate those teams up that grid.

In NASCAR racing, a guaranteed starting spot is awarded to the top 35 teams in owner points. After the battle for the points lead and for spots in the Chase, this is one of the most hotly contested spots in the field, as only 187 markers separate the 31st-place No. 22 owned by Bill Davis from the 38th-place No. 40 car owned by Chip Ganassi.

Four out of five teams that have cars between 36th and 40th in the points will employ a road ringer this weekend. Ron Fellows takes over Travis Kvapil's No. 32 ride (36th in the owner standings), Scott Pruett will drive the No. 40 of David Stremme (38th), P.J. Jones will drive the No. 4 of Scott Wimmer (39th), and Chris Cook takes over the No. 49 of Kevin Lepage (40th).

Of that group, only Michael Waltrip (37th) will twist his own steering wheel.

Last year, Terry Labonte got in the cockpit of Joe Gibbs' No. 11 when their regular driver, Jason Leffler, let that Chevrolet slip outside the top 35 in owner points. The team brought Labonte in to ensure the car made the field – as Labonte is guaranteed a past champion's provisional starting spot – and because he is a strong road racer. By finishing 12th in the Dodge/Save Mart 350 (as in kilometers – don't let them fool you into thinking this is a 350-mile event), Labonte helped the No. 11 climb up the standings and changed the course of their year.

Owners hope this is a pattern that will repeat itself with the ringers listed above, but do the statistics back them up? The answer, quite frankly, is yes.

Road ringers have been a part of the series as long as there have been road races. In the 1958 Crown America 500 at Riverside International Raceway – and in those days 500 stood for miles – off-road ace and Southern California superstar Parnelli Jones won the pole in a Ford owned by Vel Melitich. He led the first 147 of 190 laps before crashing out of the event.

Five years later in the 1963 Riverside 500, Dan Gurney led a sweep of road ringers when he and his Holman-Moody Ford were chased across the line by open wheel superstar and occasional stocker A.J. Foyt (second) in a Ray Nichels Pontiac and by Troy Ruttman (third) in a Bill Stroppe Mercury. With the demise of Holman-Moody, Gurney moved over to the Wood Bros. stable to make his one-off races, and he won four more times at Riverside.

Mark Donohue was the last non-Cup regular to win a race in the senior series, and his victory came at Riverside in the Winston Western 500 in 1973. Donahue lapped the field that day, and Bobby Unser, driving a Holman-Moody Ford, joined him in the top five.

The victories may have stopped coming, but the road racing aces have continued to produce great results for their car owners. Since Donohue won the last race for the non-regulars in 1973, specialists have earned 31 top-15s, 21 top-10s and more than a handful of top-fives. In fact, some of the best results have come in recent years, as road race aces have scored 13 top-10s since the start of the 2000 season.

Robby Gordon used his road racing skills to help land and solidify a ride in the senior series. In his first 55 attempts in Cup, he earned four top-10s – all of which came on the twisty tracks. It was this prowess that landed him an audition in Richard Childress' No 31 car at the end of 2001, and he might well have won at Watkins Glen that season if not for an electrical fire in an experimental telemetry box.

Scott Pruett and Ron Fellows came the closest to winning in the senior series in recent years when they posted runner-up finishes at the Glen in 2003 and 2004, respectively.

Last June at Infineon, Fellows finished eighth while Brian Simo – who hadn't been behind the wheel of a Cup car since 2001 when he crashed Junie Donlavey's Ford at the Glen – joined him with a 10th-place finish. Later in '05 at the Glen, Boris Said finished third behind Tony Stewart and former road ringer Gordon, and Pruett crossed fourth

Of course, there are no guarantees in auto racing, and while Pruett and Said romped and played at the head of the pack last August, Fellows led a contingent of six road racing specialists who finished 25th or worse at the Glen, and last June at Infineon three of the specialists finished outside the top 30 while one other failed to qualify.