Road-course racing is still strange fixture in NASCAR
By Joe Menzer, NASCAR.COM
June 20, 2008
03:23 PM EDT



SONOMA, Calif. -- It rises from the hills of wine country like a strange beast, enticing Sprint Cup Series drivers to try a taste of something different.

Something exotic.

Something that few newcomers take to quickly, some eventually learn to love, and still others come to despise.

Something that, in a roundabout way, makes perfect sense to some and none whatsoever to others.

Welcome to road-course racing, stock-car style. When the Toyota/Save Mart 350 unfolds Sunday at Infineon Raceway, all the old debates about it will surface once again.

Why are two road-course races included on a 36-race schedule that otherwise is made up strictly of oval tracks? Is it two too many? Or are two of them enough? How about someday including one in the Chase for the Cup championship, if they are indeed -- as some argue -- an important component in providing the true, comprehensive test of a driver's championship skills?

Opinions differ on the answers to these questions, but it's clear nothing is about to change anytime soon. For now and the foreseeable future, look for the Cup Series to continue running one road-course race each year at Infineon and Watkins Glen International in New York.

In the meantime, the debates continue to rage at least twice a year.

Humble beginnings

Ken Clapp, who has served Infineon Raceway in a variety of capacities and is about as closely tied to the 12-turn circuit as anyone, will be enshrined on Friday into the facility's wall of fame. It's a timely honor, given that this season marks the 40th anniversary of a racetrack Clapp helped get off the ground, and the 20th anniversary of a Cup race Clapp helped bring to town.



History lessons

To understand why there are road-course races on the Cup schedule at all, one has to go back almost to the beginning. When the founder of the series, Bill France Sr., wanted to bring Cup racing to the West Coast, he looked around and discovered quickly that the best bet to do so was at a road-course track in Riverside, Calif.

So that was where he went, taking everyone else along with him. The equivalent of the Cup Series ran 48 times there between 1958 and 1988.

"That was the only racetrack big enough for NASCAR to run on in California. So it really just got to be the thing [out west]," said Richard Petty, who owns a record 200 Cup victories and seven points championships.

Petty said he just went along for the ride when France said to race at places like Riverside and, later, at other tracks that involved more than the usual four left-hand turns encountered by drivers on ovals of various lengths and designs.

"I approached it just like I approached dirt-track racing, because I came off the dirt tracks. It was just a racetrack," Petty said. "The first couple of road courses I run, I won. But nobody had a road-course car; nobody knew anything more about road racing than I did, and I didn't know nothin.' There were no road-racing ringers at that time.

"So it was just another racetrack to me. We ran one in Montgomery, N.Y., I believe it was. They called it a road course, but it was just a triangle laid out at an old airport. Then we ran out on Long Island, Bridgehampton [International Raceway], out in '63. We won that one; I thought it was fun. The driver really got to put a lot into it on a road course. It's not just going around and around. You've got to go change gears; you've got to stop and accelerate; you've got to stay on the racetrack."

Petty's seeming early expertise on the road courses faded as the practice of bringing in "ringers" to specifically run those races began in the 1960s. The best of all the ringers through time, Petty and others insist, was hands down Dan Gurney. Others who excelled in the ringer role included Parnelli Jones and A.J. Foyt who cut their driving teeth in open-wheel Indy cars.

Asked what happened when those guys started showing up, Petty laughed and replied: "We started racing for second. We knew we wasn't in that class, so we didn't worry about it."

Gurney won at Riverside five times in seven tries from 1963 through 1968, backing up Petty's assessment of the situation.

"I tried to follow him a couple of times, but I wound up in the dirt. I never did ask him what we was doin' wrong," Petty said. "But you've got to figure, that was Gurney's thing. 'Round and 'round was not Gurney's thing. When he would try to come to Daytona and run, he was just another driver. When we would go to Riverside, we were all just another driver compared to him.

"We would just marvel at how smooth he was with a 3,500-pound car. He made it look effortless. Man, I was in there just a diggin' and jumpin' around all over the place and pushin' buttons, stompin' on the floor ... all you could see was elbows. He would go by and it was like he was smoking a cigarette while he was drivin'."

Petty may have admired Gurney, but he obviously learned something. In an eight-race stretch at Riverside from 1964 through 1970, Gurney won four times and Petty was the only other driver to win more than once, capturing two victories. The other two race wins during that stretch went, predictably enough, to Foyt and Jones.

Road-course ringer

Dan Gurney is one of three drivers, along with Mario Andretti and Juan Montoya, to win a race in NASCAR, Indy Car and Formula One.
Career Results: NASCAR

Track No. W T-5 T-10 Avg. Fin.
Atlanta 1 0 0 0 36.0
Daytona 6 0 3 4 10.8
Riverside 9 5 5 6 8.8

The basic problem

Therein lies the basic problem when it comes to advocates of adding more road courses to the Cup Series. Petty and other stock-car drivers before and since might think it's fun to run an occasional road course and might even get pretty good at it after a while, but they know it's not their thing.

And they don't believe it's what their fans really want to see, either.

"Road races are not a spectator sport, OK? Because they just go by and that's it," Petty said. "[Fans in attendance at the track] only see a little of the track. They've done a good job in California, putting people up on hills so they can see two or three corners anyway. They've done a good job there.

"But really, you've got to figure we're not road-racing people. The Le Mans Series deal or something like that, they've got a crowd that follow that. NASCAR is about going 'round and 'round in circles. So we're going out of our element. Road racing is not really what NASCAR is trying to sell; that's not our business."

Jim Hunter, vice president of corporate communications for NASCAR and a long-time observer of the sport, admitted that he believes what Petty asserts is true, at least to a degree. But he added that part of the appeal of road-course racing was -- and still is -- the fact that many of the drivers participating are out of their element and forced to get better at it over the years. Watching that happen with many of them, he said, has alone made the case for continuing to have at least the two road-course events currently on the schedule remain there.

"The Wood Brothers had a lock on the road courses for a long time, and it was because they would bring in the best ringers. ... They had Gurney, Parnelli, Foyt. Because back then IndyCars ran some road courses -- and NASCAR didn't, except for Riverside," Hunter said. "[David] Pearson was pretty good on road courses -- very smooth; Petty got to be where he was pretty good. Ricky Rudd, with his go-kart background, was always really good on road courses.

"And then at some point in time, the drivers that weren't very good at it started going to these schools like Bob Bondurant's [School of High Performance Driving]. ... And Bondurant was the kind of guy who was very personable, and the guys could relate to him. I think guys are still going to him today."

They are. Among those who have attended Bondurant's school to hone their road-course skills are the likes of Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart and Jimmie Johnson. Not only has Dale Earnhardt Jr. attended it, so did his late father -- as well as former Cup Series champion Darrell Waltrip, and a slew of current drivers like Greg Biffle, Casey Mears and Brian Vickers.

Hunter said he saw many drivers benefit from working hard to get better on the road courses they initially struggled on.

"The first person that comes to my mind is [former driver and current television analyst Jimmy] Spencer -- because Spencer was always such an aggressive driver," Hunter said. "You know how on a road course they bounce over the curbs a lot of the time? With Spencer, you could see the city of San Francisco underneath his car when he came through certain turns. He would just muscle the car around the course -- and eventually Spencer actually got pretty good."

Meanwhile, over the years, attempts to add road courses here or there were made by NASCAR. But few stuck for long.

"They built a road course in Augusta, Ga., and it didn't work," Petty said. "They spent a bunch of money down there and run one race. The racing people down there didn't like it. It was not what they expected to see when they came to see us race."
Wallace.510.jpg
Getty Images
One of NASCAR's top road warriors, Rusty Wallace won the May 5, 1996, race at Sonoma, the last of his four road-course victories.
Race winners at Sonoma

Driver Races Wins Top-5s Top-10s Poles Avg. Start Avg. Finish
Jeff Gordon 15 5 9 11 5 7.3 9.7
Ernie Irvan 10 2 4 6 1 16.3 15.4
Ricky Rudd 18 2 10 11 4 9.1 11.7
Tony Stewart 9 2 3 5 1 6.8 10.0
Rusty Wallace 17 2 9 11 2 6.9 13.2
Davey Allison 5 1 1 2 0 12.4 15.4
Geoffrey Bodine 11 1 3 5 0 15.3 19.5
Dale Earnhardt 12 1 4 9 1 11.9 8.6
Robby Gordon 10 1 2 3 0 11.0 20.7
Mark Martin 18 1 7 13 1 9.3 10.1
Juan Montoya 1 1 1 1 0 32.0 1.0

Why it's fun

Talk to current drivers and ones from the old days like Petty and their answer to why they enjoy driving the occasional road course is usually pretty much the same. They say, in one form or another, that it's fun.

"It's just a lot of fun. You throw the car at the corner, you slide it, you spin it, you try to take shortcuts -- and people all around you are trying to do the same," Petty said.

Carl Edwards, who currently drives the No. 99 Ford for Roush Fenway Racing, said he had to learn to like it. But now he said he looks forward to road courses both on the Cup circuit and in the Nationwide Series that he runs full-time.

"At first I really struggled on 'em," Edwards said. "But now they're what I look forward to -- not the most -- but as much as any other racetrack. They're fun. The reason being that the more I do this, there is less and less opportunity at a lot of these tracks for the driver to make a difference. And then you go to a road course, and it's almost pure driver. You can really earn your paycheck there, and you can make a difference. That's fun.

Added Denny Hamlin, who drives the No. 11 Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing: "I love road courses. I'm definitely glad it's part of our sport. The only thing I don't like about it is the fuel-mileage aspect of it. We don't like fuel-mileage races. We've never been great at that, and it seems like road-course races often come down to that."

And while it may not make for riveting entertainment for the fans in attendance who have to struggle to see what's happening much of the time, it can be quite compelling on television. Such was the case when Juan Montoya, the former IndyCar and Formula One driver, won the first Cup event of his career last year at Infineon.

Of course, as Hamlin noted, Montoya's win was a fuel-mileage deal -- so not everyone liked it. But that can happen on oval tracks as well. For evidence, one needs to look no further than last Sunday's win by Earnhardt Jr. at Michigan International Speedway.
Hunter.193.jpg
“
... When you start negotiating with the people who have races in the Chase today, and you want to move one, they'd be like, 'OK, I don't care if you move so-and-so's race -- but don't move mine.'
”


What's next?

So what's next for road-course racing in the Cup Series? More of the same, it seems.

Hamlin said that would be fine with him. At the same time, he said he understands why some critics wonder about having any road courses at all included on the Cup schedule.

"It is a little bit odd looking at it from the outside, because our sport has been based on oval racing," Hamlin said. "They went from dirt ovals to asphalt ovals, so road-course races seem a little weird and out of the norm. But I think it gives a little added aspect to our sport to let guys with a little different set of skills have another shot at it."

That is the key behind keeping the road courses included, according to Hunter.

"I think people like them. I think it makes the overall circuit complete when we have a couple of road courses," Hunter said. "We have a real short track like Bristol, and other short tracks like New Hampshire and Richmond, and then we have the intermediate tracks and the superspeedways. Having two road courses -- and the two road courses are entirely different -- really makes it complete.

"Jeff Gordon and Tony [Stewart] have become really good road-course racers. So have some others. ... Most of the guys in the old days did not like to go to a road course -- because they just felt like that wasn't their thing. They were accustomed to oval racing; plus there was a little of that, 'Well, that's sporty-car racing.' But that has been long gone for many years now."

Plus, let's face it, times have changed. Most of the drivers today look forward to a visit to usually sunny Sonoma for other reasons that have little to do with the racing that takes place on the track.

"When you look at having the Nationwide race in Mexico City, and going to Montreal now [for another road-course Nationwide event], it's come full circle," Hunter said. "I think [the drivers] really look forward to it. They look forward to going to Infineon for a number of reasons. They are so well treated. The track staff at Infineon is just super. They accommodate everybody. And there is so much to do there, plus we've been going there long enough [since 1989], that a lot of guys don't take their buses and they stay in little out-of-the-way places. They can take their families with them.

"There is the wine country [of nearby Napa Valley]. Who ever would have thought the NASCAR guys would be going on wine tours? But today, just about everybody has wine with dinner. I don't know whether that's prevalent throughout society, but in the old days I do know that NASCAR drivers would have beer with dinner. Today most of them have wine, red or white.

"Not only that, but [owner Richard] Childress has his own wine. Jeff Gordon has a wine. ... Times have definitely changed."

Vickers, who drives the No. 83 Toyota for Red Bull Racing, makes no secret of his love for Sonoma -- and the finer things a trip here has to offer.

"Obviously what I like most about Sonoma is probably the wine," said Vickers, laughing. "It's beautiful, beautiful country."

On a more serious note, he said he believes that racing at Infineon and Watkins Glen are necessary to the help the sport grow -- especially outside of the United States.

"Personally, I like the diversity of the tracks we run on in the series," Vickers said. "I like the fact that we go to Martinsville, Talladega, a road course. I think from the standpoint of international flair, to bring in international fans, I think you've got to go to a road course. I do think that our cars put on a better show on ovals, but I think having a couple road courses in there is a good mix. In fact, it's a great mix."

Edwards and Hamlin somewhat begrudgingly said they would be willing to have additional road courses added to the schedule in the future.

"I like as many as they're willing to put on the schedule," Hamlin said. "But I think you need to keep as many ovals as possible. There are a lot of tracks out there that probably deserve a Cup date that don't have one right now, so it's hard to say you want to go to another road-course race when you've already got so many ovals that want a race and can't have one. But two [road-course events] is definitely good, and maybe three."

Edwards added: "A couple more would be good. I think it's really neat, you know? I get to run a lot of 'em because I run the Nationwide cars, so I guess I get to run two more [road-course] tracks and three more races. I like it."

But he stops short of agreeing that one in the Chase would be smart and offer a truer test of the championship driver's overall skills.

"You could argue that, but I don't know," Edward said. "There is such an opportunity for mechanical failure and problems at a road course, too. It just seems like you either have a good day or a terrible day at a road course. It's hard to have anything in between.

"I definitely don't want them to get rid of them. I don't know about putting them in the Chase. And if they said they were going to add more, I think that would be fun."

Hunter said including one road course among the 10 that comprise the Chase is not likely to ever happen.

"On paper that would work really well and look really good," Hunter said. "But when you start negotiating with the people who have races in the Chase today, and you want to move one, they'd be like, 'OK, I don't care if you move so-and-so's race -- but don't move mine.' "

But as far as seeing them go off the schedule, Hunter said he doesn't see that ever happening, either. Asked the future of road-course racing in NASCAR, Hunter smiled and said simply: "It's solid. I don't see it changing."
Road-course victories

Rank Driver Wins Rank Driver Wins Rank Driver Wins
1 Jeff Gordon 9 16 Ray Elder 2 Dale Earnhardt 1
2 Bobby Allison 6 Robby Gordon 2 Bill Elliott 1
Richard Petty 6 Parnelli Jones 2 A.J. Foyt 1
Ricky Rudd 6 Terry Labonte 2 Paul Goldsmith 1
Tony Stewart 6 Marvin Panch 2 Eddie Gray 1
Rusty Wallace 6 Fireball Roberts 2 Kevin Harvick 1
7 Dan Gurney 5 Marshall Teague 2 Al Keller 1
Tim Richmond 5 Billy Wade 2 Harold Kite 1
Darrell Waltrip 5 24 Davey Allison 1 Juan Montoya 1
10 Mark Martin 4 Buck Baker 1 Cotton Owens 1
David Pearson 4 Bill Blair 1 Steve Park 1
12 Geoffrey Bodine 3 Red Byron 1 Benny Parsons 1
Tim Flock 3 Lloyd Dane 1 Kyle Petty 1
Ernie Irvan 3 Darel Dieringer 1 Lee Petty 1
Cale Yarborough 3 Mark Donohue 1 Jack Smith 1
Chuck Stevenson 1

The End

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Auto racing, bull fighting and mountain climbing are the only real sports... the rest are just games........ Earnest Hemmingway