This weekend is the NASCAR season’s first of two road course tracks—this first one being the annual sojourn to Infineon Raceway in Sonoma. Of course, this means that we get a few new faces this weekend, the “road ringers,” those ambiturners who only show up twice a year to substitute for the guys who consider right turns to actually be just awkward 270° left turns.

So, since you may not be familiar with them, we present to you, a quick guide to the NASCAR road ringers.

Brandon Ash
Okay, this is kind of misleading because I’m not leading off with a road ringer, per se. Brandon Ash is something of a throwback: a guy who races in NASCAR, but only at the tracks nearby. But Brandon Ash always shows up at Sonoma and now sometimes at Phoenix, although he rarely qualifies for the show. He has attempted to qualify for Sonoma (and occasionally Phoenix, Las Vegas, even Watkins Glen) with his own team, Ash Racing, since 2002, but has only qualified at Sonoma three times and has never finished higher than 38th. Before this, he raced in the Winston West series. He will be attempting to qualify the 02 car again this year.

Sonoma Starts: 3 (7 attempts total)
% of Cup Starts on Road Courses: 50% (2 of 4 starts)

Tony Ave
Kind of a road ringer, Tony Ave actually only has two NASCAR Sprint Cup attempts to his name, and only one of those was a road course: the 2004 race at Watkins Glen, where he finished 31st driving for Stan Hover. However, Ave is on the entry list for this weekend, as a substitute for Tony Raines in the 37 car, so I’m including him for completeness. This year, his regular ride is in the SCCA Trans-Am Series.

Sonoma Starts: 0 (0 attempts total)
% of Cup Starts on Road Courses: 100% (1 of 1 start)

Patrick Carpentier
Patrick Carpentier, despite being a Sprint Cup regular just last season, I think can probably be considered a road ringer at this point. He’s subbing for Michael Waltrip in the 55 car this weekend and will also be running in his MWR Nationwide car at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve this summer. He has the experience from the Champ Car World Series and the IndyCar Series, but no one seems to want to give him a full-time ride in NASCAR, so he will probably eventually morph into a road ringer.

Sonoma Starts: 1
% of Cup Starts on Road Courses: 11% (3 of 28 starts)

Ron Fellows
Okay, now here is an actual road ringer. Ron Fellows is quite possibly the very definition of a ringer in NASCAR. Every year, someone hires him to run just the two road courses on the Sprint Cup schedule, usually for a new or inexperienced driver who needs to keep the owners points up. In 2008, Fellows subbed for Regan Smith in the DEI 01 car. In 2007, Fellows subbed for Tony Raines in the 96 Hall of Fame car. In 2005 and 2006, Fellows subbed in Cal Wells‘ 32 car for Bobby Hamilton, Jr. (2005) and Travis Kvapil (2006). He does the same thing in Nationwide too. Last year he went to Montreal for JR Motorsports. The year before that, he did all three road courses for KHI. And so on, and so on. This year, he’s racing James Finch’s 09 car, filling in for the three guys who race that (Keselowski, Bliss and Marlin).

Sonoma Starts: 7
% of Cup Starts on Road Courses: 95% (18 of 19 starts)

Tom Hubert
Tom Hubert is more like Brandon Ash listed above. He’s a road course specialist, and only goes to the west coast tracks. In recent years, he’s been racing for Kirk Shelmerdine, but hasn’t made a Cup start since 2006. He has raced at Sonoma in the Camping World West Series since then, however. Will be attempting to qualify for Kirk Shelmerdine again in the 27 car.

Sonoma Starts: 6
% of Cup Starts on Road Courses: 91% (10 of 11 starts)

Boris Said
And this is kind of deceptive too, because, again, Boris Said isn’t a road ringer. He usually races with his own team and often does more than just the road courses. But Boris is definitely one of the more successful “road course specialists,” with six road course Top 10s (not to mention a 4th place finish at the 2006 Daytona 500) and he does have quite a following. He’s run in virtually every closed-wheel circuit that races at road courses and driven at virtually every road course we have in this country (and some not in this country. In addition to racing at Sonoma and Watkins Glen in Cup Series, he’s run at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve and Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez in Nationwide, at Portland and Heartland Park Topeka in Trucks (when they raced there), the Streets of Long Beach in ALMS. He’s won the 24 Hours of Daytona (twice), the 12 Hours of Sebring, the 24 Hours Nürburgring. He’s raced in Australia in the V8 Supercars. I won’t say “He’s the most interesting man in NASCAR,” but he’s probably close, all things considered. He’ll be trying to qualify the 08 car.

Sonoma Starts: 9
% of Cup Starts on Road Courses: 52% (17 of 33 starts)

Brian Simo
Brian Simo is another road course specialist who pops up from time to time. Brian, along with his twin brother Mark, founded the No Fear clothing line (and energy drink and everything else related to that). Brian pops in from time to time to race road courses, usually sponsored by No Fear, of course. In the past he’s raced for Bob Jenkins at Front Row Motorsports, Richard Childress Racing and even Junie Donlavey. This year, he’ll be running for Tommy Baldwin Racing.

Sonoma Starts: 4 (5 attempts total)
% of Cup Starts on Road Courses: 100% (6 of 6 starts)

Other Road Ringers

These guys are some of the other notorious road ringers in NASCAR, but aren’t making an appearance at Sonoma this weekend.

P.J. Jones
P.J. Jones, son of legendary racer Parnelli Jones (an adjectival phrase he’s never been able to shake for his entire career), is also an occasional road ringer in NASCAR. Last year, he subbed in the 96 car at Watkins Glen. The year before that he subbed for David Reutimann at MWR. Before then, he was a road ringer for Larry McClure, A.J. Foyt and Felix Sabates.

Sonoma Starts: 5
% of Cup Starts on Road Courses: 50% (13 of 26 starts)

Butch Leitzinger
Butch Leitzinger usually races in ALMS, but has made occasional road ringer starts in NASCAR. Most recently, he finished 28th at Sonoma in 2007, racing for Bill Davis. He also finished 24th at the Busch Series race at Watkins Glen in 2006.

Sonoma Starts: 1
% of Cup Starts on Road Courses: 100% (4 of 4 starts)

Scott Pruett
Scott Pruett has always been Chip Ganassi’s personal road ringer for NASCAR. However, this year, with his more limited role at EGR and two drivers who don’t need substitutes on road courses in Martin Truex, Jr. and Juan Pablo Montoya, Pruett isn’t racing this weekend. Not to mention that Pruett has a scheduling conflict, racing for Ganassi in the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series at Mid-Ohio this weekend.

Sonoma Starts: 7
% of Cup Starts on Road Courses: 30% (12 of 40 starts)

Tags: A.J. Foyt, American Le Mans Series, Ash Racing, Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, Bill Davis, Bob Jenkins, Bobby Hamilton Jr., Boris Said, Brad Keselowski, Brandon Ash, Brian Simo, Butch Leitzinger, Cal Wells, Camping World West Series, Chip Ganassi, Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, David Reutimann, Daytona International Speedway, Earnhardt Ganassi Racing, Felix Sabates, Front Row Motorsports, Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series, Hall of Fame Racing, Heartland Park Topeka, IndyCar Series, Infineon Raceway, James Finch, JR Motorsports, Juan Pablo Montoya, Junie Donlavey, Kevin Harvick Incorporated, Kirk Shelmerdine, Larry McClure, Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Mark Simo, Martin Truex Jr., Michael Waltrip, Michael Waltrip Racing, Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, Mike Bliss, Nationwide Series, P.J. Jones, Parnelli Jones, Patrick Carpentier, Phoenix International Raceway, Portland International Raceway, Regan Smith, Richard Childress Racing, Ron Fellows, SCCA Trans-Am Series, Scott Pruett, Stan Hover, Sterling Marlin, Tom Hubert, Tommy Baldwin Racing, Tony Ave, Tony Raines, Travis Kvapil, Watkins Glen International

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