Robby Gordon Sweeps the Roads

Its Ringer Time Again........

8/6/03.....The second road course race of the season brings even more "ringers" or "interlopers" into the Cup Series than usual. According to published reports, there were eight drivers set to enter the competition at The Glen. One good thing about it though, none of the regular Cup drivers who are considered to be worth their salt were to be replaced.

We all know by now that the premier ringers are road course specialists Ron Fellows and Boris Said. Fellows is set to replace Jeff Green in the No. 1 Pennzoil Chevy for DEI, while Said got the nod to pilot the No. 01 Pontiac vacated by Jerry Nadeau when he was injured a couple of months ago.

Morgan/McClure Motorsports will be attempting to enter two cars at The Glen, with road racers Johnny Miller in the No. 04 Kodak Pontiac, and P. J. Jones in their regular Cup entry, the No. 4 Kodak Pontiac. McClure has been without a regular driver in the No. 4 since firing Mike Skinner earlier this season. Neither of the Morgan/McClure entries have any provisional starts coming to them, so they may end up going home if they can't qualify on time.

Grand American driver Scott Maxwell will be attempting to put the No. 43 Petty Enterprises Dodge in the race, without a provisional start, while Petty moves Christian Fittipaldi to the No. 44 Dodge for the race.

Chip Ganassi Racing will enter five time Trans-Am winner and current point's leader Scott Pruett in the No. 39 Dodge, while Andy Petree will enter road racer Paul Menard in the No. 33 Chevy to make his Cup debut.

An interesting bit of trivia: It's been thirty years since a ringer has won a road course event in Cup racing. In 1973, ringer Mark Donahue won at the now defunct 2.62 mile Riverside, California road course for Roger Penske in the Winston Western 500 driving an American Motors Matador. David Pearson, who won the pole for that race driving a Mercury, won 11 races that year. Benny Parsons only won one race that year, but ended up with the championship.

8/9/03...... The ringers didn't so well at qualifying. The only ringer to make the top ten was Jerry Nadeau's replacement in the No. 01 Pontiac, Boris Said. John Andretti, who replaced Jack Sprague in the No. 0 Net Zero Pontiac was the next road course specialist to qualify at 15th. Although Andretti is considered to be a Cup driver out of work, his roots are still considered to be in open wheel road racing.

Go To Page: 1 2 3 4 5