He won the New Zealand Grand Prix in 2021 (single seaters) came second in WRC2 in the 2022 edition of Rally New Zealand, dominated V8 supercars, has even won drifting events in NZ and is proving his worth on the ovals in the states. Bloody incredible driver!
@@willbrown6287 and at the same time, if he can carve out a good few years in NXS and a few more good Cup race results, a new full time ride at either Spire or Trackhouse could be open... after all, NASCAR needs the next Marcos Ambrose... they need a V8 Supercars (more like Ford vs. A bunch of Holden badged Pontiacs back when I was a kid, LOL, since the Monaro and Commodore did come to America in the 2000s as the Pontiac GTO and G8 respectively. ) powerhouse, and they got one with Shane Van Gisbergen.
He also has some experience on dirt sprint cars and if you check Xfinity points..... P14 (could have sworn it was 8 not too long ago but idk what happened)
Ron Fellows, especially in that 87. I idolized him as a kid. Fast forward 25 years, and life worked out in a weird way unrelated to racing where I've gotten to know his family. They say to never meet your heroes, but he is one everyone should meet. Raw, unrelinquishing talent on the track and the kindest of souls off it.
Tbf he had more experience than anyone in the field at that style of track. And his main competition for the win kinda got screwed with them lowering the laps. Then he had fresher tires than the top 5 guys. He also had luck with that one pile up. Yes he deserved the win But there were a lot of factors that went into it. He was a favorite going in just from having the most experience alone.
@@ChicagoStreetCourseFan so I see your gonna ignore bell who led more. Your also gonna ignore how svg got lucky when the pile up happened barely slipping through. Maybe do some more research
@@ChicagoStreetCourseFan so your saying the guy with 20 laps fresher tires, and he guy that’s raced on this style of track his whole life And wtf you mean restarted 18th🤣? He was top 10 after the pile up Plus raced this style of car most of his career was faster at the end of the race than the top 10 with old tires? Crazy. Bell and reddick were going forward till they crashed themselves. And no shit at the end of the race he was faster It wasn’t pouring at the end of the race.
Former Sports Car driver Dorsey Schroeder is a road course ringer. He drove the No. 01 Cingular Wireless Dodge Intrepid RT for Chip Ganassi in 2001 at Sonoma.
The Penske fan in me would have to say Mark Donohue. To get the first win for Penske in NASCAR, especially in the "Flying Brick", it was absolutely momentous.
I think "Road Course Ringer" TM and what you would usually think of as being a "ringer" in sports have diverged. A ringer is someone you bring in explicitly to gain an advantage. For that, Allmendinger when he wasn't running anything but the road courses was a ringer. Waltrip, Smith, and Ragan are all superspeedway ringers. Teams who would use Labonte or Elliot for the championship provisional had them in as a ringer. Anyone who went Busch wacking or down to the truck series to eat the kids' lunches is absolutely a ringer when they hop in that seat. You can be a ringer for a specific track and run the whole schedule, but the point is that they are there to give you a better result than you would have with the usual lineup.
Scott Pruett is good as well... though both Fox/FX and NBC/TNT in 2001-06 still used his cheesey portrait from his time with the C5R Corvette team in IMSA. Meanwhile, Boris is a beast. A win in the trucks Kragen/Exide 151 at Sonoma in 1998, A dramatic win in the NXS NAPA Auto Parts 250 in Montreal in 2010 and 2nd to Tony Stewart in the 2006 Pepsi 400 at Daytona... Plus, he can get feisty and hand out receipts if you can't race him clean. (as he called out Greg Biffle at Watkins Glen, with the Heluva Good at The Glen in 2011, won by Marcos Ambrose)
@@benscovil I knew that. I'm not saying that he was one. Since, I have both of the Taurus Tide Rides of Pruett and Craven in my box. Plus, I was only pointing out a little fact about his driver photo when you look at his nameplate graphics on certain races or qualifiers with him in it. (2004 Brickyard 400 Qualifying with him in the 09 Phoenix Racing Dodge had his Team Corvette photo.)
Brian Simo holds the distinction of being the only teammate with a winning record against Kevin Harvick. One race for RCR and he finished ahead of him.
to me, a road course ringer is someone who races very part time, only on road courses, and is brought in to replace a regular driver who isn't great on road courses, or in an extra car to help improve the overall team's performance there. That's what a ringer is in any sport, an expert brought in temporarily to help a team. Scott Pruett is absolutely a road course ringer because he would regularly replace full time drivers, and SVG counts because he was the latter, though he's not a ringer this year, he's a full on nascar driver. My favorite ringer will always be Boris Said, he's the one who had the guts to say to Dale Earnhardt "yeah, make me a ham and cheese sandwich" and Dale actually did it XD
Essentially, a driver who isn’t a regular in one of the 4 National Series, or another stock car/sprint/American OW series, but a road racing series that only shows up for NASCAR road course races
As someone who watches all racing, I've always been a Said Head and I was happy as hell when I heard Van Gisbergen was running a Cup race, seeing him win it was pretty damn cool. It's even better how he's running so far in the Busch car.
I fully disagree with your positioning of Pruett. Yes, Pruett did the 1 season for PPI, but by 2002, his career fully shifted back to Grand Am/Trans Am. "once a nascar driver always a nascar driver" I think doesn't consider where a drivers specialties and focusses are at that time.
I'm with you, I think Pruett still counts despite his single season. It doesn't matter that he raced on the same tracks, he was never a true cup contender in his single season.
I tend to use "Ace" when referring Cup guys that are particularly good road racers and "Ringer" for drivers brought in to just run road courses as a way to separate them. I'd argue Pruett still counts as a true ringer. He really didn't perform well enough in 2000 for me to consider him an experienced NASCAR oval racer.
I agree about Scott Pruett. Not so much to do with his performances in 2000, but because that one full schedule was the exception, not the rule. He was acting in the capacity of a road course ringer for the majority of his NASCAR career. Boris Said is also a ringer by my criteria, but I don't buy Brock's argument that the more short-track-focused schedule of the truck series in the 90s somehow gives him a greater claim to being a true ringer than Pruett has. In fact, Boris ran two full seasons instead of just one and he also made more oval starts as a part-timer than Pruett, whose only oval start outside of 2000 was the 2004 Brickyard 400.
I always had a knack for Ron Fellows, Boris Said , Tomy Drissi, and Alon Day, Today you have some road course ringers in the xfinity field such as Preston Pardus which is cool to see
Although I barely known Drissi, I would always associate his name with that Xfinity car that he drove nine years ago sponsored by the Straight Outta Compton movie.
For me, the dividing line is whether they were usually a Cup regular or usually a road ringer only. For guys like Allmendinger, Dallenbach and Robby Gordon, they were usually Cup regulars, and a year where they only ran the road courses is an abberation. For someone like Scott Pruett or Patrick Carpentier, they have multiple years of showings up solely on road courses, and their single year as a Cup regular is the abberation.
Thank you brock, for awhile now i've been thinking about this mainly as I'm a bit of a Michael McDowell fan he's now at the point he's been in the series for over decade now and he's still referred to by the folks in the booth as a ringer and always feels wrong.
As an ex-Montoya fan during his entire tenure in NASCAR especially when I lived in Brook Park in the Sandhurst House as a teen at Berea High, I agree. He sure as hell doesn’t count considering I viewed him more as an actual NASCAR driver only because I actually liked him and same with Pruett. As much as I associate Craven with the #32, watching SP race part time on RCs NEVER looked right to me even as a kid in NASCAR’s heyday. You hit the nail on the head once again Brock!
Growing up with 2000s NASCAR I always loved the road ringers and looked forward to who would show up at the road races each year. Ron Fellows is an easy favorite, and I also always had a soft spot for Brian Simo even if he never really got much attention, because I thought his random top 10 at Sonoma in a RCR one off in 2005 was cool and he drove some cool No Fear schemes with FRM. It'd be fun if you did a big video on the history of road ringers one day spotlighting a bunch of the small forgotten stories and noteworthy runs they've had
@@Shiggiesmalls02 Do you need to get your ears checked? A handful of broadcasters have made mistakes, but the majority nail it. It's not like we don't have "Van" surnames in the US.
Great job, Brock! You keep setting the standard! Thank you. This video highlights just how special what we watched at Chicago last year was. A fella waltz's into the Cup Series from a whole different country, and whooped our boys. Yes, it was very unique circumstances, but still something that hasn't happened since the dust flew at Riverside. I'm looking forward to see what Shane can do this year in Cup, and how he improves in Xfinity. See you Sunday on the stream. 👍🏼
4:55 you mentioning that reminds me of Don Thomson Jr racing at the 2008 Napa Auto Parts 200. He was so good in CASCAR (and later The Canadian Tire series) and only made that one Busch start
You're right Brock the name Road Course Ringer is an Overused Term. Thats why we have or had Guys like Chase Elliott, Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart, Kyle Larson, Kyle Busch, Martin Truex Jr, Rusty Wallace, Mark Martin, and Ricky Rudd who are non Road Course Drivers who Dominated these Tracks
SVG happened and it was amazing…never thought I’d ever see someone win in their first start…TB was close when he won in his second, but never would I ever imagine I’d see it happen..and it did! Love what Justin is doing over there!
Svg moment was amazing yeah they never won much in between that but they was always a chance in back of your mind and that’s what made it excited so I hope ringers stay forever
Ron Fellows. He's done so much for Canadian racing, so so much, he's given careers to many and is one of the most wholesome people in any garage. Also he races dirt modifieds at Trois-Rivieres every year, hijinks ensue
Always loved watching Ron Fellows do his thing. I remember when he missed the truck race in the #87 at Watkins Glen in 2000 because the brake pedal broke on his qualifying lap, so he ended up getting in the #7, and drove it from the back and still finished 3rd. Absolute talent.
Scott Pruett (Hi to my family at home!). If road racing in America still had the profile it did in the 70s, He would be regarded as highly as Mark Donohue and Dan Gurney. He was a beast and a champion in Trans-Am (back when the series was strong) and Grand-Am, he won the 1995 Michigan 500 over Al Unser Jr., he won the 1991 IROC at Daytona, he was class champion at Le Mans in his lone start with Corvette, and he's a 5 time Rolex 24 winner. A highly decorated champion, and the least appreciated American racing legend.
Brandon Ash comes to mind. His own car, no idea how he did it or even where he came from. Just shows up randomly at Sonoma and occasionally would be very fast
He was a Winston West regular, so for a few years he attempted the Winston Cup races at Sonoma and Phoenix. He can't be considered a road ringer because it was never his specialty.
I'm always a huge Said head. Alex Tagliani had some huge runs at Road America. Woulda won in 2014 if he didn't speed in the pits late in the race. I haven't seen a ringer do much there since 2017 when James Davidson wrecked out during the first stage. Preston Pardus is the only one else that can do something at Road America but is limited in his equipment
Of course its important to point out that most ringers get rides with struggling teams who are looking at the road races as opportunities to pad owners points on other struggling teams or earn back provisional starting positions. A top 20 was considered a success for the ringer by the team. This likely prevented a lot of them from competing for wins.
My Definition of a Ringer is someone who started and progress in Road Racing before racing on Ovals in a stock car. Humdinger and McDowell are ringers to me, Regardless if they're Full Time Stock Car drivers or not.
Marcos Ambrose is my favorite ringer of course. Im kidding Im kidding! I love Ambrose but Im only saying that because I know you just spent the last 7 minutes explaining why he is not at all a ringer ;) Seriously though, my favorite ringer is probably Irv Hoerr and Ron Fellows but SVG's win was a great all time moment. SVG will soon no longer be a ringer. Also loved Olivier Beretta, who also qualifies since yes he made a truck race way back when
"A 'true' road course racer cannot have extensive experience in NASCAR". Boris Said has 18 career races on cup ovals, and he's a ringer, but Montoya who had the same amount of cup ovals starts when he won at Sonoma is not? Seems to me like we're just gatekeeping the term and it's actually just completely subjective
Tbh, I think AJ has become a road course ringer now. I disagree that you cannot go from Cup regular to ringer. It's merely to do with if teams are only (maybe bar a handful of races at most) running you on road courses in an individual season, and you get the gig based on perceived RC talents
some people making nascar youtube videos still call marcos ambrose a road course ringer when talking about the time he was racing full time in cup..... maybe he was when he first went over, but not the whole time
Brock would u consider Sarel Van De Merwe a ringer? He replaced DW in 1990 when he was out with the broken leg from Daytona. Only ran one race. A road course
The term “road-ringer” is a thing of the past now. Teams are finally smart enough to know that you can’t just throw the road races away, good road racer is probably just a more polished driver in general and under the right circumstances, be very good at oval also.
Cheese is the real deal. He will drive anything. He’s fast in a shopping trolley. He can ride a quad bike like it’s no one’s business and he’s not bad on an MX either.
Im not one of those casuals that thinks oval racing is easy but i would argue its more car than driver while road courses is definitely more driver and takes more skill, i would definitely like to see more road courses on the schedule, NASCAR cup drivers are supposed to be the best stock car drivers in the US so shouldnt they be challenged by multiple different types of tracks instead of going to all these ovals twice a year, the only tracks we should go to more than once a year are track with different layouts like daytona, indy, Charlotte, sonoma and watkins glen, i would like to see the cup series do what indycar used to do and do half ovals and half road courses, the cup champion should be the driver who is the most consistent across all types of race tracks, the current schedule and points format needs to be shaken up, currently Phenoix is the only track that really matters, it can stay as the championship finale but lets move to a season long regular points format but just award less points than the 2003 winston cup ppints system that gave 185 points to the winner, way too many points for one win, should be no more than 40 points for a win with just one point seperating each position that way every position counts with single bonus points for stage wins and pole position, but just award the winner of each race with a "big check", the champion should be the driver who is the most consistent across the entire season, not just the final 10 races, and even if you are the most consistent driver in the final 10 races, it still doesnt matter unless you win the final race
Im curious where you feel like a guy like loris hezemans lies. Hes run mostly rcs in cup/xf/trucks, only done 1-2 ovals, but hes a nascar euro champ racing stock cars on road courses. Is he still a ringer like boris?
I grew up a fan of trans am series from 1998-2006, so for me Boris Said, Brian Simo, Tommy Kendall, Johnny Miller, Paul Gentilozzi, and Tommy Drissi were my guys.
Brock? You said a ‘ ringer ‘ could lose the ‘ ringer ‘ status….. SVG is running the full xfinity schedule., if I’m correct. When would he lose the ‘ ringer ‘ status?
Okay, but with that logic, SVG isn’t a road ringer anymore because he is full time. So he doesn’t count now. With that logic Jimmie Johnson wasn’t an oval ringer in Indycar just because he was full time even though he’d finish dead last everywhere else but ovals. I don’t think that logic makes sense. Say you start like an IROC series that has every discipline of driver and goes to every discipline of track. Then they race full time in the series and they automatically lose credibility of being good at their certain discipline just because they have experience in that car at every different track.
Hes not the best ringer, but i always thought jacques villeneuve was the most exciting. Yea he drove like an a** most of the time, but it was rarely boring when he was on track 😂 if he was in the field, you had a 90% chance that something wild would happen involving him lol
Shane Van Gisbergen is not only just an amazing road racer, he is good at every car he gets in. Truly a world racing talent
He won the New Zealand Grand Prix in 2021 (single seaters) came second in WRC2 in the 2022 edition of Rally New Zealand, dominated V8 supercars, has even won drifting events in NZ and is proving his worth on the ovals in the states. Bloody incredible driver!
@@willbrown6287 and at the same time, if he can carve out a good few years in NXS and a few more good Cup race results, a new full time ride at either Spire or Trackhouse could be open... after all, NASCAR needs the next Marcos Ambrose... they need a V8 Supercars (more like Ford vs. A bunch of Holden badged Pontiacs back when I was a kid, LOL, since the Monaro and Commodore did come to America in the 2000s as the Pontiac GTO and G8 respectively. ) powerhouse, and they got one with Shane Van Gisbergen.
Ahhh ok cause since his win, he hasn’t looked great…..we’ll keep waiting. For the ovals that is.
@stevecarey4740 hasn't looked great? 3rd at Daytona, 6th at Vegas, dude he's just getting here. Damn
He also has some experience on dirt sprint cars
and if you check Xfinity points..... P14 (could have sworn it was 8 not too long ago but idk what happened)
Calling Montoya a road ringer is insanely insulting to every IndyCar fan alive. I assume.
I'd even Argue Mark Donahue isn't a ringer, he won the 1972 Indy 500 and ran IndyCar.
@@andrewwinslow9315Donohue was just great at everything, too damn good
Indycar is the most dangerous form of racing
@@vwjetta4138 he was. If he lived after Austria, him and Mario would have had a debate over the GOAT of all Racing
@@andrewwinslow9315 for sure, he likely would’ve definitely won Le Mans with Porsche too
Dan Gurney comes to mind! He had five victories Riverside were he drove for both Holman Moody and the Wood Brothers.
Ron Fellows, especially in that 87.
I idolized him as a kid. Fast forward 25 years, and life worked out in a weird way unrelated to racing where I've gotten to know his family. They say to never meet your heroes, but he is one everyone should meet. Raw, unrelinquishing talent on the track and the kindest of souls off it.
I met Ron at Petit Le Mans, and I can second this. Ron was so eager to just be there and he's such a nice guy.
He's the best. I met him at a Leafs game awhile back and he couldn't have been nicer
Same, as a Canadian I loved Ron! He did a lot for Canadian kart racing as well.
SVG's my favourite. The fact that he won on his Cup debut at Chicago alone is enough for me to call SVG my favourite Road Course Ringer.
Tbf he had more experience than anyone in the field at that style of track. And his main competition for the win kinda got screwed with them lowering the laps. Then he had fresher tires than the top 5 guys. He also had luck with that one pile up. Yes he deserved the win
But there were a lot of factors that went into it. He was a favorite going in just from having the most experience alone.
@@ChicagoStreetCourseFan so I see your gonna ignore bell who led more.
Your also gonna ignore how svg got lucky when the pile up happened barely slipping through. Maybe do some more research
@@ChicagoStreetCourseFan so your saying the guy with 20 laps fresher tires, and he guy that’s raced on this style of track his whole life
And wtf you mean restarted 18th🤣? He was top 10 after the pile up
Plus raced this style of car most of his career was faster at the end of the race than the top 10 with old tires? Crazy. Bell and reddick were going forward till they crashed themselves. And no shit at the end of the race he was faster
It wasn’t pouring at the end of the race.
Andy Lally is above all! There is no racing beyond Andy Lally!
I mean, Andy Lally did run one full-time season in the Sprint Cup in the 71.
The 2011 Cup Series Rookie of the Year.
Former Sports Car driver Dorsey Schroeder is a road course ringer. He drove the No. 01 Cingular Wireless Dodge Intrepid RT for Chip Ganassi in 2001 at Sonoma.
We used to jokingly call him "korsey" because they misspelled his name like that in one of the old nascar yearbook/ press guides lol
The Penske fan in me would have to say Mark Donohue. To get the first win for Penske in NASCAR, especially in the "Flying Brick", it was absolutely momentous.
First win for American Motors in NASCAR as well.
His ride had a big advantage: Disk Brakes.
Same here, he was fundamental in getting Team Penske to where it is today
I think "Road Course Ringer" TM and what you would usually think of as being a "ringer" in sports have diverged.
A ringer is someone you bring in explicitly to gain an advantage. For that, Allmendinger when he wasn't running anything but the road courses was a ringer. Waltrip, Smith, and Ragan are all superspeedway ringers. Teams who would use Labonte or Elliot for the championship provisional had them in as a ringer. Anyone who went Busch wacking or down to the truck series to eat the kids' lunches is absolutely a ringer when they hop in that seat.
You can be a ringer for a specific track and run the whole schedule, but the point is that they are there to give you a better result than you would have with the usual lineup.
Boris Said was always my fave to come in. Scott Pruett got robbed by Montoya in Mexico. Rooting for SVG now
Boris Said will forever be my favorite. Brian Simo would be my second favorite as he drove for Junie Donlavey 2000-2001
Scott Pruett is good as well... though both Fox/FX and NBC/TNT in 2001-06 still used his cheesey portrait from his time with the C5R Corvette team in IMSA. Meanwhile, Boris is a beast. A win in the trucks Kragen/Exide 151 at Sonoma in 1998, A dramatic win in the NXS NAPA Auto Parts 250 in Montreal in 2010 and 2nd to Tony Stewart in the 2006 Pepsi 400 at Daytona... Plus, he can get feisty and hand out receipts if you can't race him clean. (as he called out Greg Biffle at Watkins Glen, with the Heluva Good at The Glen in 2011, won by Marcos Ambrose)
@@shaneharrisnj3484 Pruett was not a ringer as he drove an entire Cup series season in 2000.
@@benscovil I knew that. I'm not saying that he was one. Since, I have both of the Taurus Tide Rides of Pruett and Craven in my box. Plus, I was only pointing out a little fact about his driver photo when you look at his nameplate graphics on certain races or qualifiers with him in it. (2004 Brickyard 400 Qualifying with him in the 09 Phoenix Racing Dodge had his Team Corvette photo.)
Brian Simo holds the distinction of being the only teammate with a winning record against Kevin Harvick. One race for RCR and he finished ahead of him.
@@benscovilHe was a Trans Am champion - that's a road course ringer in NASCAR.
to me, a road course ringer is someone who races very part time, only on road courses, and is brought in to replace a regular driver who isn't great on road courses, or in an extra car to help improve the overall team's performance there. That's what a ringer is in any sport, an expert brought in temporarily to help a team. Scott Pruett is absolutely a road course ringer because he would regularly replace full time drivers, and SVG counts because he was the latter, though he's not a ringer this year, he's a full on nascar driver.
My favorite ringer will always be Boris Said, he's the one who had the guts to say to Dale Earnhardt "yeah, make me a ham and cheese sandwich" and Dale actually did it XD
Real recognized real
Essentially, a driver who isn’t a regular in one of the 4 National Series, or another stock car/sprint/American OW series, but a road racing series that only shows up for NASCAR road course races
As someone who watches all racing, I've always been a Said Head and I was happy as hell when I heard Van Gisbergen was running a Cup race, seeing him win it was pretty damn cool. It's even better how he's running so far in the Busch car.
I fully disagree with your positioning of Pruett. Yes, Pruett did the 1 season for PPI, but by 2002, his career fully shifted back to Grand Am/Trans Am. "once a nascar driver always a nascar driver" I think doesn't consider where a drivers specialties and focusses are at that time.
I'm with you, I think Pruett still counts despite his single season. It doesn't matter that he raced on the same tracks, he was never a true cup contender in his single season.
I tend to use "Ace" when referring Cup guys that are particularly good road racers and "Ringer" for drivers brought in to just run road courses as a way to separate them.
I'd argue Pruett still counts as a true ringer. He really didn't perform well enough in 2000 for me to consider him an experienced NASCAR oval racer.
Pruett was so great to watch in IMSA and Trans Am, especially those XR4Ti's!
I agree about Scott Pruett. Not so much to do with his performances in 2000, but because that one full schedule was the exception, not the rule. He was acting in the capacity of a road course ringer for the majority of his NASCAR career. Boris Said is also a ringer by my criteria, but I don't buy Brock's argument that the more short-track-focused schedule of the truck series in the 90s somehow gives him a greater claim to being a true ringer than Pruett has. In fact, Boris ran two full seasons instead of just one and he also made more oval starts as a part-timer than Pruett, whose only oval start outside of 2000 was the 2004 Brickyard 400.
Not even a mention of Marcos Ambrose? I think he should get a nod as he was the most likely to dominate any road course.
pretty much the point of the video is that full time racers are not ringers, so Ambrose doesn't count
He’s a regular that was good at road courses, Ringers have to be irregulars by definition
Falls under the category of road course specialist
Currently, Daniil Kvyat because I was a fan of his while in F1 back in the day. All-time favorite is probably Boris Said
My favorite has to be AJ Almond Ringer
I'll see myself out
ALMOND
DADDY
Brian Simo. Got to meet him at The Glen in '00(he didn't make the race thanks to time trials being rained out). Also, a shout out to Tom Hubert!
I remember being at that race. We sat in turn 11 back in the good ole days.
I always think of the road ringers of the 2000s when the term comes up - Scott Pruett, Ron Fellows, Boris Said, P.J. Jones, Brian Simo.
I always had a knack for Ron Fellows, Boris Said , Tomy Drissi, and Alon Day,
Today you have some road course ringers in the xfinity field such as Preston Pardus which is cool to see
Although I barely known Drissi, I would always associate his name with that Xfinity car that he drove nine years ago sponsored by the Straight Outta Compton movie.
Or driving like a butthead and wrecking Amy Ruman and say it was her fault.
For me, the dividing line is whether they were usually a Cup regular or usually a road ringer only. For guys like Allmendinger, Dallenbach and Robby Gordon, they were usually Cup regulars, and a year where they only ran the road courses is an abberation. For someone like Scott Pruett or Patrick Carpentier, they have multiple years of showings up solely on road courses, and their single year as a Cup regular is the abberation.
Great video as always, Brock! Never thought about how pervasive the term is now and what it actually meant for a driver to be a “Ringer.”
Thank you brock, for awhile now i've been thinking about this mainly as I'm a bit of a Michael McDowell fan he's now at the point he's been in the series for over decade now and he's still referred to by the folks in the booth as a ringer and always feels wrong.
My favorite road course ringer of all time is Boris Said! Always wanted him to win a Cup race, came so close at the Pepsi 400 in 2006.
As an ex-Montoya fan during his entire tenure in NASCAR especially when I lived in Brook Park in the Sandhurst House as a teen at Berea High, I agree. He sure as hell doesn’t count considering I viewed him more as an actual NASCAR driver only because I actually liked him and same with Pruett. As much as I associate Craven with the #32, watching SP race part time on RCs NEVER looked right to me even as a kid in NASCAR’s heyday. You hit the nail on the head once again Brock!
Growing up with 2000s NASCAR I always loved the road ringers and looked forward to who would show up at the road races each year. Ron Fellows is an easy favorite, and I also always had a soft spot for Brian Simo even if he never really got much attention, because I thought his random top 10 at Sonoma in a RCR one off in 2005 was cool and he drove some cool No Fear schemes with FRM. It'd be fun if you did a big video on the history of road ringers one day spotlighting a bunch of the small forgotten stories and noteworthy runs they've had
Kyle Tilley
As a Brit it was quite cool to see a random British driver in a nascar race. Curious as to how did he get there.
Kyle is really nice. Met him at Road America in 2021 for the Cup Race and he signed my Hat 🤘😉
Was running for ERA Motorsport in IMSA, I'm assuming that through ERA he got in contact with BJ to run a few races.
I like how you’re the first north American to say Shane’s name in full correctly!
He pronounced it the same way I've heard everyone pronounce it...
You mean it’s not Von Hamburger??? God my dumb American brain!
@@Glitchunlocked you watch the races on mute?
@@Shiggiesmalls02 Do you need to get your ears checked? A handful of broadcasters have made mistakes, but the majority nail it. It's not like we don't have "Van" surnames in the US.
Great job, Brock! You keep setting the standard! Thank you.
This video highlights just how special what we watched at Chicago last year was. A fella waltz's into the Cup Series from a whole different country, and whooped our boys. Yes, it was very unique circumstances, but still something that hasn't happened since the dust flew at Riverside. I'm looking forward to see what Shane can do this year in Cup, and how he improves in Xfinity.
See you Sunday on the stream. 👍🏼
4:55 you mentioning that reminds me of Don Thomson Jr racing at the 2008 Napa Auto Parts 200. He was so good in CASCAR (and later The Canadian Tire series) and only made that one Busch start
You're right Brock the name Road Course Ringer is an Overused Term. Thats why we have or had Guys like Chase Elliott, Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart, Kyle Larson, Kyle Busch, Martin Truex Jr, Rusty Wallace, Mark Martin, and Ricky Rudd who are non Road Course Drivers who Dominated these Tracks
PJ Jones. He got fourth in Watkins Glen in AJ Foyt’s car. Also Ron Fellows and Boris Said.
SVG happened and it was amazing…never thought I’d ever see someone win in their first start…TB was close when he won in his second, but never would I ever imagine I’d see it happen..and it did! Love what Justin is doing over there!
It kind of grinds my gears when broadcasters mislead folks who might not know the difference. I know it’s not on purpose but got damn thanks Brock
Svg moment was amazing yeah they never won much in between that but they was always a chance in back of your mind and that’s what made it excited so I hope ringers stay forever
Ron Fellows.
He's done so much for Canadian racing, so so much, he's given careers to many and is one of the most wholesome people in any garage.
Also he races dirt modifieds at Trois-Rivieres every year, hijinks ensue
Dallanbach got hosed by a phony caution at Watkins Glen.
Always loved watching Ron Fellows do his thing. I remember when he missed the truck race in the #87 at Watkins Glen in 2000 because the brake pedal broke on his qualifying lap, so he ended up getting in the #7, and drove it from the back and still finished 3rd. Absolute talent.
Scott Pruett (Hi to my family at home!). If road racing in America still had the profile it did in the 70s, He would be regarded as highly as Mark Donohue and Dan Gurney. He was a beast and a champion in Trans-Am (back when the series was strong) and Grand-Am, he won the 1995 Michigan 500 over Al Unser Jr., he won the 1991 IROC at Daytona, he was class champion at Le Mans in his lone start with Corvette, and he's a 5 time Rolex 24 winner. A highly decorated champion, and the least appreciated American racing legend.
Brandon Ash comes to mind. His own car, no idea how he did it or even where he came from. Just shows up randomly at Sonoma and occasionally would be very fast
He was a Winston West regular, so for a few years he attempted the Winston Cup races at Sonoma and Phoenix. He can't be considered a road ringer because it was never his specialty.
I'm always a huge Said head. Alex Tagliani had some huge runs at Road America. Woulda won in 2014 if he didn't speed in the pits late in the race. I haven't seen a ringer do much there since 2017 when James Davidson wrecked out during the first stage. Preston Pardus is the only one else that can do something at Road America but is limited in his equipment
Connor Zilisch, watch out for this kid. While he still has his ringer status.
The Kid Is Stupid Fast
My favorite was Klaus Graf.
Of course its important to point out that most ringers get rides with struggling teams who are looking at the road races as opportunities to pad owners points on other struggling teams or earn back provisional starting positions. A top 20 was considered a success for the ringer by the team. This likely prevented a lot of them from competing for wins.
I remember rooting for Max papis and Jaques Villanueve in the nationwide race 2010 Montreal they both were in contention at the end
My favorite ringer of all time has to be Boris Said. Great in sportscars, Trans-Am and in his NASCAR starts
Was hoping for a mike skeen reference
My Definition of a Ringer is someone who started and progress in Road Racing before racing on Ovals in a stock car. Humdinger and McDowell are ringers to me, Regardless if they're Full Time Stock Car drivers or not.
Marcos Ambrose is my favorite ringer of course. Im kidding Im kidding! I love Ambrose but Im only saying that because I know you just spent the last 7 minutes explaining why he is not at all a ringer ;)
Seriously though, my favorite ringer is probably Irv Hoerr and Ron Fellows but SVG's win was a great all time moment. SVG will soon no longer be a ringer. Also loved Olivier Beretta, who also qualifies since yes he made a truck race way back when
Boris at the Glen
Shane VG is our street course ringer
"A 'true' road course racer cannot have extensive experience in NASCAR". Boris Said has 18 career races on cup ovals, and he's a ringer, but Montoya who had the same amount of cup ovals starts when he won at Sonoma is not? Seems to me like we're just gatekeeping the term and it's actually just completely subjective
Tbh, I think AJ has become a road course ringer now. I disagree that you cannot go from Cup regular to ringer. It's merely to do with if teams are only (maybe bar a handful of races at most) running you on road courses in an individual season, and you get the gig based on perceived RC talents
Does SVG still count as he’s running a full NXS season
some people making nascar youtube videos still call marcos ambrose a road course ringer when talking about the time he was racing full time in cup..... maybe he was when he first went over, but not the whole time
For Pruett I'd argue that he was a ringer who had briefly attempted to run full time.
Andy Lally I'd put in that same category.
The last Road Course Ringer was Marcos Ambrose.
The king of all Road Course Ringers still remains to this day to be Daniel Sexton Gurney.
Brock would u consider Sarel Van De Merwe a ringer? He replaced DW in 1990 when he was out with the broken leg from Daytona. Only ran one race. A road course
Yes absolutely! One of my favorite driver nanes to say, too.
Same. Lol 😂
The term “road-ringer” is a thing of the past now. Teams are finally smart enough to know that you can’t just throw the road races away, good road racer is probably just a more polished driver in general and under the right circumstances, be very good at oval also.
my favorite will always be Ambrose, even though by your definition, he doesn’t truly count
Borris really helped alot of nascar guys get better at road courses. So he has to be #1.
Terry labonte used to be a solid road course racer who was a full timer
I agree with almost everything you've said except for 1 thing..
Michael Waltrip is not a Super Speedway "Specialist" . He won 1 Superspeedway!!😂
He won four times in three years at two different tracks... not sure how you get "1 Superspeedway" out of that
@@bcschneider53 Ohh, that's right 4 wins,, I forgot.
Cheese is the real deal. He will drive anything. He’s fast in a shopping trolley. He can ride a quad bike like it’s no one’s business and he’s not bad on an MX either.
Finally a video addressing this!
Im not one of those casuals that thinks oval racing is easy but i would argue its more car than driver while road courses is definitely more driver and takes more skill, i would definitely like to see more road courses on the schedule, NASCAR cup drivers are supposed to be the best stock car drivers in the US so shouldnt they be challenged by multiple different types of tracks instead of going to all these ovals twice a year, the only tracks we should go to more than once a year are track with different layouts like daytona, indy, Charlotte, sonoma and watkins glen, i would like to see the cup series do what indycar used to do and do half ovals and half road courses, the cup champion should be the driver who is the most consistent across all types of race tracks, the current schedule and points format needs to be shaken up, currently Phenoix is the only track that really matters, it can stay as the championship finale but lets move to a season long regular points format but just award less points than the 2003 winston cup ppints system that gave 185 points to the winner, way too many points for one win, should be no more than 40 points for a win with just one point seperating each position that way every position counts with single bonus points for stage wins and pole position, but just award the winner of each race with a "big check", the champion should be the driver who is the most consistent across the entire season, not just the final 10 races, and even if you are the most consistent driver in the final 10 races, it still doesnt matter unless you win the final race
Im curious where you feel like a guy like loris hezemans lies. Hes run mostly rcs in cup/xf/trucks, only done 1-2 ovals, but hes a nascar euro champ racing stock cars on road courses. Is he still a ringer like boris?
Yes, I think he would qualify as a "road ringer," much like Alon Day did.
but would the ringers in the past had more success in the new car? i think so.
Good question, and I'd have to agree. Especially when you see the kinds of cars old school ringers once ran.
I'm just wondering where Marcos Ambrose fits into all of this.
Cup Regular
Ringers are irregular drivers who get brought in due to their skill
Oh yeah tough guy? Well I say every NASCAR driver is a road course ringer
Boris Said
Jordan Taylor
i like using the term ironically when refering to someone running well that is normally terrible at road courses, like denny hamlin or joey logano
SVG!
Fellows!
Is a "Road Ringer" just a Laughcar driver that does know how to turn right?
I grew up a fan of trans am series from 1998-2006, so for me Boris Said, Brian Simo, Tommy Kendall, Johnny Miller, Paul Gentilozzi, and Tommy Drissi were my guys.
Brock? You said a ‘ ringer ‘ could lose the ‘ ringer ‘ status….. SVG is running the full xfinity schedule., if I’m correct. When would he lose the ‘ ringer ‘ status?
I would say after a year or so after being full-time in Cup. So, not yet.
Okay, but with that logic, SVG isn’t a road ringer anymore because he is full time. So he doesn’t count now. With that logic Jimmie Johnson wasn’t an oval ringer in Indycar just because he was full time even though he’d finish dead last everywhere else but ovals. I don’t think that logic makes sense. Say you start like an IROC series that has every discipline of driver and goes to every discipline of track. Then they race full time in the series and they automatically lose credibility of being good at their certain discipline just because they have experience in that car at every different track.
Good question, but my definition's more about being full-time in Cup. Same reason Boris Said wasn't eliminated for being full-time in Trucks.
Dick Dastlly was my Favourite on road courses
He'd do anything for a Win including running over pit crew members even he's own.
Its Boris it will always be Boris
Tom Hubert
Boris Said!!!
Also, Willy T. Ribbs?
Said
1:04 I'm sorry, AJ Allmen-WHAT?!
dinger. Although, they say the mind hears what it wants to hear.
@psychlops924 I'm not ruling out my hearing damage from wearing headphones for a living, but MAN, I'm not hearing "dinger". 😂
HOLD UP. 💀
@@shaytrueblueaussieYou hear it too?! 😂
It's Allmendinger with a "D." Come on now.
Hes not the best ringer, but i always thought jacques villeneuve was the most exciting. Yea he drove like an a** most of the time, but it was rarely boring when he was on track 😂 if he was in the field, you had a 90% chance that something wild would happen involving him lol
Daniel Sexton Gurney
SVG Will Sweep The Weekend He'll Be Stupid Fast
Nah
Lally,
Sorry, but Dinger is a Ringer
Ryan preece will win 🏆
Write it down✏️
Mentions tommy kendall but doesnt show the legend.... shame... i posted this and literally the next scene was kendall lol..... imma dumbass
How unimportant is the whole point of this video 😂😂
What would sports be without semantic arguments?
Boris Said