Road course ringer (also road course specialist,[1] road course expert,[2] or more recently road runner) is a term used to describe a non-NASCAR driver who is hired by a NASCAR team to race at a road courses. Current road courses include Infineon Raceway, Watkins Glen International, or the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve; historic circuits include Riverside International Raceway, Heartland Park Topeka, Brainerd International Raceway, etc). NASCAR describes the term, "drivers who specialize in turning both left and right," and says that "perhaps the greatest road-course ringer in NASCAR history might be Dan Gurney" after he won three straight NASCAR races at Riverside International Raceway.[3] He lapped the field at the 1964 event,[3] and was the last ringer to win a NASCAR race.[1]
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Term origin
"Ringer" is a slang term commonly used in sports to describe a particularly good competitor who is brought in to win in a specific match as opposed to competing in the entire schedule. It can also be used to describe a professional athlete who competes in amateur sports; a softball team might have a "ringer" who used to play minor or major league ball. The term does not relate directly to racing and does not refer to the shape of the race course.
Drivers
A road course ringer is often brought in when either the normal driver is inexperienced at road courses,[1] or if the driver is having a poor season and the team needs an excellent qualifying run to qualify for the race.[1] Sprint Cup Series teams who are near the bottom of the top 35 in owner points hire a ringer or adept former competitor like Terry Labonte to ensure that they remain in top 35 to keep a guaranteed starting spot in future races. It is not unusual that a lower level team's best finish would be at a road course because of the use of a road course expert.[1] Some full-time drivers are adept at racing on road courses, but they are not considered road course ringers.[1] Road course ringers have competed in championships which race primarily road courses, frequently in IndyCar or sports car racing series such as the American Le Mans Series or the Rolex Sports Car Series.
I think a handful of guys, or 10 guys, 12 guys that really like going to the Glen (Watkins Glen International) and like going to Sonoma (Calif.) (Infineon Raceway) and look forward to those races. Then there's probably half the field that can take it or leave it. Then there's a quarter of the field that would be fine if we didn't go.[4]
Notable road course ringers
For a more complete list of current ringers, click here.
- Mark Donohue
- Ron Fellows[1]
- Dan Gurney[3]
- Tommy Kendall
- Max Papis[2]
- Scott Pruett[1] (although he ran the 2000 season full-time, and took wins and poles in open-wheel oval track racing)
- Boris Said[1] (although he does compete on a part-time NASCAR schedule)
- Brian Simo[2]
Full-time drivers
- Robby Gordon (runs series full-time now, has won at both Infineon and Watkins Glen since becoming full-time, winning at both tracks in 2003)
- Terry Labonte (after retirement in 2006, he has now run the road courses for struggling teams ever since)
- Juan Pablo Montoya[2] (who qualified for the 2009 Chase for the Sprint Cup)
- Marcos Ambrose
Success
Dan Gurney won 5 NASCAR races as a ringer, while also succeeding in Formula One. The last win by a road course ringer in a NASCAR Sprint Cup race was by Mark Donohue in 1973 in a Penske Racing AMC Matador in the Motor Trend 500 at Riverside.[5]
Current ringers Fellows, Said, and Pruett had combined for 13 Top 10 finishes in their 35 career road course starts (as of 2007).[1] Said has the only two poles by a road course ringer: one in the 2003 Dodge/Save Mart 350 at Sears Point Raceway and the other, ironically, a superspeedway pole for the 2006 Pepsi 400 at Daytona International Speedway.
Often, the disadvantage of having the NASCAR race car in itself, with its heavier car, narrower tire, smaller (compared to premium road-racing cars) brakes, (especially with inexperienced drivers) pit stops, and most often longer races (all NASCAR road course races are at least 200 miles/322 kilometers or longer) have hurt the "ringers".
Decline in the Cup Series
In the late 2000s, the "ringer" has steadily disappeared from the Sprint Cup Series. Factors contributing to this trend are:[6]
- The Chase for the Sprint Cup has made it counterproductive for teams to sacrifice the driver points of their full-time drivers in exchange for a possible win by a road course specialist.
- Because of this, full-time drivers have been forced to become more proficient on road courses, which in turn means that the average NASCAR driver today is a much better road course driver than in the recent past.
- A number of drivers with extensive road course experience are now full-time NASCAR drivers, such as Robby Gordon (IMSA and Champ Cars), Montoya (Formula One and Champ Cars), and Ambrose (V8 Supercars).
The decline of "ringers" was dramatically illustrated at the 2009 Watkins Glen race. Only one road course specialist was substituting for a driver in a fully-sponsored, full-season NASCAR team—Patrick Carpentier for Michael Waltrip Racing. He is considered likely to lose his road course seat in the 2010 season when Martin Truex, Jr. takes over the team's full-time ride. Fellows drove in the race with the part-time Phoenix Racing, Said is now a part-owner of his team, and three other specialists were with lower-tier teams without full sponsorship. "Ringers" are nowadays more likely to be found in the Nationwide Series, which uses NASCAR's traditional driver points system without a "Chase", or in second-tier Cup teams.[6]
See also
Additional reading
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Borden, Brett (August 10, 2007). "Road race twists bring out new faces". ESPN. http://sports.espn.go.com/rpm/news/story?series=2&page=nascar101/roadringers. Retrieved 2009-03-15.
- ^ a b c d Network, Mike (June 22, 2008). "Infineon: How Well did the Road Course Ringers Race?". Bleacher Report. http://bleacherreport.com/articles/31715-infineon-how-well-did-the-road-course-ringers-race. Retrieved 2009-03-15.
- ^ a b c Aumann, Mark (April 17, 2008). "Gurney was the sport's first 'road-course ringer'". NASCAR. http://www.nascar.com/2008/news/opinion/04/17/retro.racing.dgurney/index.html. Retrieved 2009-03-15.
- ^ Jensen, Tom (August 8, 2008). "Road Course A Challenge at Watkins Glen This Weekend". Speed Channel. http://www.myfoxraleigh.com/myfox/pages/Sports/Detail?contentId=7166740&version=1&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=TSTY&pageId=6.8.1. Retrieved 2009-03-15.
- ^ Bowles, Tom and Heffelfinger, Toni. What's the Call? Road Course Ringers, Frontstretch, June 29, 2005
- ^ a b Caraviello, David (2009-08-08). "NASCAR's road ringers reaching end of their era". NASCAR.com. http://www.nascar.com/2009/news/opinion/08/08/inside.line.dcaraviello.ringers.becoming.extinct/index.html. Retrieved 2009-08-09.
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