| | | | | | ROAD COURSE ACE | Fellows to drive in place of Regan Smith at Infineon | |
| | SceneDaily Staff Veteran road racer Ron Fellows will drive in place of Regan Smith in the Dale Earnhardt Inc. No. 01 Chevrolet for the Toyota/Save Mart 350 on June 22 at Infineon Raceway.
Fellows, an accomplished road racer, is filling in to bolster the team's chances of leaving Infineon in the all-important top 35 in Sprint Cup owner points.
Smith finished 30th in his only Infineon start, which came last season.
“Our goal for Regan remains winning the rookie of the year title and building momentum that we hope will carry us into 2009," said John Story, DEI's vice president of motorsports. "Ron has a successful history with DEI, and he certainly knows his way around Infineon. The opportunity to capitalize on his experience and abilities against some of the other road course experts is our objective.”
Fellows, who ran road courses for Dale Earnhardt Inc. in 2003 and 2004, has 17 career Cup starts, with the majority coming on road courses. He finished second at Watkins Glen in 2004 and seventh in 2003 at Infineon, driving for DEI on both occasions.
Fellows competed in both road course races last season, finishing inside the top 15 in both outings, including a fourth-place finish at Watkins Glen.
"I’m confident in my abilities on a road course, but it’s hard to question the success Ron has had around the world in road racing,” Smith said. “Obviously you always want to be in the race car, but I see the big picture and understand the common goal here. Ron is one of the best road course racers in the business and is clearly in a different class than all but a few who will be racing at Infineon."
Fellows boasts three wins in 12 starts in the Nationwide Series and two wins in the Craftsman Truck Series.
| | Posted June 15, 2008 , 7:07 pm EST
Last Updated June 16, 2008 , 10:52 pm EST | | | | | | | | | | |
