When the checkered flag waved on Sunday's Centurion Boats at the Glen at Watkins Glen International, it concluded the road-racing portion of the 2007 NASCAR Nextel Cup Series schedule. While there are only two such races on the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series schedule, teams place a great deal of emphasis on the two road races - to the point that they will hire outside help for the occasion.
A number of teams, particularly teams outside the top 35 in the point standings and teams that compete on a part-time basis bring in their own "hired guns," more affectionately referred to as "road racing experts." The list of drivers considered to be road-racing experts includes names such as Ron Fellows, Boris Said, P.J. Jones and Marcus Ambrose. That is not to slight drivers that are full-time competitors on the Nextel Cup Series circuit because drivers such as Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart are considered to be at the top of the class when it comes to road-course racing.
The majority of drivers that compete in the Nextel Cup Series however, have honed their racing skills on oval tracks across the country from short tracks to dirt tracks. While road-course racing does require a more replete driver, it also takes the majority of Nextel Cup Series drivers out of their element. Dale Jarrett, driver of the #44 UPS Toyota, claims to be one such driver.
"Road racing is something that is so different than what many of us do or have done to get to this point in our careers," Jarrett explains. "I never had any type of road-race experience. My first venture at a road course was at Road Atlanta when the Busch Series went there back in the early '80s. I made the trip out to Bondurant when the school was actually at Sears Point, and that's where I got my road-racing experience to begin with but it is something that really is a tough transition."
The landscape of the competition in the Nextel Cup Series has become so intense that just qualifying for races has become a major obstacle to teams outside the top 35 in the point standings. As a result, a number of those teams will bring in the equivalent of a "backup quarterback" in the form of a road-racing expert in the hopes of creating a better chance of making the race. Michael Waltrip Racing (MWR) is one such organization with drivers Terry Labonte piloting the #55 Napa Toyota and the aforementioned P.J. Jones driving the #00 Burger King Toyota.
MWR is not alone in this practice as a number of other teams also employed road-racing experts in the hopes of improving their chances to make the race, and in some cases, their chances of winning. Evernham Motorsports hired racing ace Patrick Carpentier of Canada to improve their chances of qualifying for the race in Watkins Glen while Hall of Fame Racing placed road ace Ron Fellows in their car in the hopes of getting their car to victory lane.
"With the way the competition is in the Nextel Cup Series, this year in particular, it is hard for a team not to bring in a road-racing expert especially if it improves their chances of not only making the race but also to possibly walk away with a better performance," Jarrett said. "The teams outside the top 35 in point standings are working hard to just get in the race and then once they're in, scoring as many points as possible to hopefully get into that top 35."
The subject of road-racing experts is closed for the 2007 NASCAR season, but it promises to be a topic of discussion for years to come as long as road races are part of the NASCAR schedule.
