Circuit Gilles Villeneuve winner Ron Fellows has enjoyed the bulk of his NASCAR success at the Glen. (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images for NASCAR)
Fresh off his victory in the rain in the NASCAR Nationwide Series last weekend in Montreal, Ron Fellows leads the list of road-course specialists entered in this weekend’s Centurion Boats at the Glen NASCAR Sprint Cup race.
Fellows, a Canadian native, has won four Nationwide and two NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series races in his career, all on road courses. In fact, his five win NASCAR victories prior to Montreal all came at Watkins Glen International.
So far, Fellows has just one blank spot on his NASCAR resume — a Sprint Cup victory. He’s come close before, finishing second at the Glen in both 1999 and 2004, and fourth last year. But he’s also had some struggles at the road course, with six finishes of 32nd or worse in 10 starts at the Glen.
This weekend, Fellows will drive the No. 01 Dale Earnhardt Inc. Chevrolet Impala SS normally driven by Regan Smith, who instead will be in a fifth DEI entry, the No. 81 Chevy.
Although Fellows won last weekend’s Montreal race in a JR Motorsports Chevrolet, he will not drive that car in Saturday’s Nationwide race at the Glen. Instead, team owner Dale Earnhardt Jr will fill that seat.
Among the other road-course specialists in the 46 cars entered in the Sprint Cup tilt will be Marcos Ambrose, who led most of the Montreal race, only to be caught in a pit-road speeding penalty before ultimately finishing third. Ambrose will drive the No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford Fusion at the Glen.
Former Trans-Am Champion Boris Said will bring his own No. 60 Ford to the Glen. His best finish in seven prior races here was a third place in 2005.
Max Papis, a veteran of the IndyCar and sports-car circuits, will pilot the No. 70 Chevy of Haas-CNC Racing, while West Coast road racer Brian Simo will drive Bob Jenkins’s No. 34 Chevrolet.
One final note: While Goodyear will again provide rain tires for Saturday’s NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Watkins Glen, there are no plans to use rain tires in Sunday’s Sprint Cup race, which will be contested only in dry weather.
Tom Jensen is the Senior NASCAR Editor for SPEEDtv.com, the former Executive Editor of NASCAR Scene and a contributing Editor for TruckSeries.com. He is the author of “Cheating: The Bad Things Good NASCAR Nextel Cup Racers Do In Pursuit of SPEED,” and has appeared on television and radio shows to discuss NASCAR racing. Jensen is the President of the National Motorsports Press Association. Jensen is the 1997 National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year and has won numerous national and state awards for news reporting, columns and feature writing. The Answer Man is back at SPEEDtv.com. Tom Jensen answers your questions during every race week and looks forward to hearing from you - please e-mail it to
