Filed under: Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart, Chase for the Sprint Cup

There was a time when conventional wisdom said a team's odds to win increased exponentially by putting a road-course expert -- a 'ringer' -- in the car when the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series made its two annual stops on ambidextrous road circuits.

Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart -- for starters -- have proven that wisdom wrong.

When it comes to NASCAR's marquee Cup series, a team's chances to win don't improve markedly with a traditional road course racer-for-hire. In fact, they don't improve at all.

No ringer has ever won at either this weekend's stop Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, Calif. or at the historic Watkins Glen, N.Y. course

In fact, favorite road course sons Boris Said, Ron Fellows and Scott Pruett have only led 72 laps in a combined 47 starts at the tracks since 2000.

NASCAR regular Kyle Busch led 78 laps in one race, winning the 2008 race at Infineon -- the first half of his road course sweep that season.

 

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