You may have heard of a road course ringer: a non-NASCAR driver who is brought in to the series solely for his road-course skills. However, not all drivers who only have a road-course win have been part-timers. Some have been Monster Energy Cup, Xfinity, and Gander Outdoors Truck Series regulars.
NASCAR has an extensive road course history, dating back 70 years ago to Daytona Beach. The Cup Series first began racing at this weekend’s track, Watkins Glen International, in 1957. Sunday’s Go Bowling at the Glen will be the series’ 37th event there. The Xfinity Series has held 25 races there since 1991, and the Truck Series ran five events from 1996-2000.
As a whole, all three series have been to 20 road courses. The Cup Series currently only races on three courses: Sonoma, Watkins Glen, and the Charlotte ROVAL. The Xfinity series also goes to Watkins Glen and the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course, as well as Road America and Mid-Ohio. The trucks only hold their such type of event at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park.
Below are all the drivers that obtained their lone national series victories at road courses. Only three drivers still race in NASCAR, two of those being full-time.
1950-1973
Harold Kite
- Cup Series:
1950 Daytona Beach and Road Course
Chuck Stevenson
- Cup Series:
1956 Willow Springs Speedway
Dan Gurney
- Cup Series:
1963-66, 1968 Riverside International Raceway
Ray Elder
- Cup Series:
1971-72 Riverside
Mark Donohue
- Cup Series:
1973 Riverside
1997-present
Ron Fellows
- Xfinity:
1998, 2000-01 Watkins Glen International;
2008 Circuit Gilles Villeneuve - Trucks:
1997, 1999 Watkins Glen
Boris Said
- Xfinity:
2010 Circuit Gilles Villeneuve - Trucks:
1998 Sonoma Raceway
Juan Pablo Montoya
- Cup:
2007 Sonoma
2010 Watkins Glen - Xfinity:
2007 Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez
Marcos Ambrose
- Cup:
2011-12 Watkins Glen - Xfinity:
2008-10, 14 Watkins Glen
2011 Circuit Gilles Villeneuve
- Cup:
2014 Watkins Glen - Xfinity:
2013 Road America
2013 Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course
- Xfinity:
2016 Road America
- Xfinity:
2016 Mid-Ohio
- Trucks:
2017 Canadian Tire Motorsports Park
- Xfinity:
2017 Road America
Joy joined Frontstretch in 2019 as a NASCAR DraftKings writer, expanding to news and iRacing coverage in 2020. She's currently an assistant editor and involved with photos, social media and news editing. A California native, Joy was raised watching motorsports and started watching NASCAR extensively in 2001. She earned her B.A. degree in Liberal Studies at California State University Bakersfield in 2010.
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And Jeremy Clements !!!
You’re right, how could I have missed that one? Thanks Mathieu!
Justin marks!
Thank you! Will add him also