Is the Road Course Ringer Making a Comeback?

In the 2000s and early-to-mid-2010s, all three of NASCAR’s premier series raced on a minimal amount of road courses. For the longest time, the NASCAR Cup Series had two road course races, and the NASCAR Xfinity Series had two or three, depending on the season. Meanwhile, the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series had one road course race per season beginning in 2013, after not racing on a road course since 2001.

NASCAR used the COVID-19 pandemic as an opportunity to complete revamp the schedule, not only for 2020, but seasons to follow, and road courses were a big focus. New road courses across all three series were introduced, such as Road America’s Cup date, Portland International Raceway, Circuit of the Americas, the Chicago Street Course, the Daytona International Speedway road course, and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course.

But one thing that seemed to have gone away with the addition of more road courses is the idea of the road course ringer, a driver whose main discipline is outside of NASCAR, but because of that experience will enter a NASCAR race with a team to try to steal a win.

Drivers like Boris Said, Ron Fellows, Billy Johnson, Alex Tagliani and Scott Pruett all drove primarily on road courses in their career throughout NASCAR’s premier series. But the last time a prominent ringer had made a start in the Cup Series was when Johnson drove the No. 43 at Sonoma Raceway in 2017, replacing Aric Almirola, who was nursing a broken back at the time.

But even that was in the midst of a decline; ringers had pretty much died out. The introduction of charters and the playoff system put a big damper on them too, as drivers now needed to learn how to drive on road courses instead of hiring a ringer. Every so often one might pop up on an entry list, but some were beginning to wonder if the ringer would ever return on a consistent basis.

Then the schedule changed in 2020 to include more road courses. With this came a potential revival of the road course ringer.

In 2022, several drivers from other disciplines of motorsports were announced to drive for various teams in the Cup Series. FIA World Endurance Championship driver Mike Rockenfeller drove Spire Motorsports’ No. 77 at Watkins Glen International and the Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL. Formula 1 driver Daniil Kvyat made two starts with Team Hezeberg at Indianapolis and Charlotte.

Perhaps the most notable entry that could pave the way for ringers to make a…