Said, Fellows, Lally Lead List of ‘Specialists’

Back in the 1960s, road racing “specialists” annually took advantage of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series regulars in their annual visit to the old Riverside (Calif.) International Raceway. Dan Gurney won five races at the circuit – including four in a row – while Parnelli Jones and A.J. Foyt also came home winners.

While Mark Donohue continued that trend in January 1973, that marked the final time that a specialist won in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. Bobby Allison won the next race at Riverside, followed by Cale Yarborough, Richard Petty and David Pearson.

Today, a new generation of NASCAR Sprint Cup drivers dominate NASCAR’s road course action. This weekend, at least seven non-regulars will look to turn back the clock and bring home a victory at Watkins Glen.

Ron Fellows, Boris Said, Max Papis, Patrick Carpentier, P.J. Jones, Brian Simo and Andy Lally seek to become the first non-regular to win a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race since Donohue.

Fellows has come the closest with three top-four finishes at The Glen, including seconds in 1999 and 2004. The Canadian also has won three NASCAR Nationwide Series races and a pair of NASCAR Camping World Truck Series races at The Glen.

Lally hopes to make his NASCAR Sprint Cup Series debut this weekend. He will attempt to qualify the No. 71 TRG Chevrolet, while David Gilliland – the usual driver of that car – will drive the No. 70 TRG Motorsports Chevrolet for team owner Kevin Buckler. Lally tested at both Virginia International Raceway and New Jersey Motorsports Park in preparation for this weekend. In addition, he will have three practice sessions at The Glen on Thursday in the Porsche GT3 he drives for Buckler in the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series.

The race will be the first NASCAR event at The Glen to utilize double-file restarts. Kurt Busch (No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge), who had already placed Turn 1 among his top-five “action-packed turns” in NASCAR Sprint Cup racing, feels that turn may be worthy of a No. 1 ranking after this weekend. … “It’s all relative to the new double-file restarts,” Busch said. “We all saw – and experienced – what the double-file restarts did to the racing at Sonoma. It was wild out there. It bit me, but it worked in our favor late in the race.”