Simo proves mettle with Infineon qualification

Automobile racing is always about winning and losing -- with obviously a geometrically greater number of losers than winners.

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But sometimes you can score a small victory in the shadow of a much greater defeat -- and Sunday's Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Infineon Raceway was the perfect example of that for Brian Simo.

This past Friday, on Infineon's very technical road course, Simo -- who can wheel it on road courses, as evidenced by his SCCA Trans-Am championship, four championship runner-up finishes there and a number of other notable race victories -- about did the equivalent of qualifying a Street Stock for the Late Model feature at your local short track.

Sorry to be short on all the precise details, but in a nutshell, Simo sent home some high-dollar, and possibly over-egoed race teams.

It was his first Cup attempt since last summer at Watkins Glen and Simo took the ex-Yates Racing Fusion chassis that had been sort of collecting dust in the "family" race shop, No Fear Racing, which is owned by his twin brother, Mark, their longtime road-racing buddy and business associate Boris Said and crew chief Frank Stoddard; and wrung it out to great effect.

Simo's success was a brilliant stroke for car owner Bob Jenkins, whose number was on Simo's Ford; not the Chevy Impalas the race-crazy entrepreneur Jenkins has brought to every event this season -- and his Scott Eggleston-led crew was massaging the car.

Said, Ron Fellows and Scott Pruett get all the ink when Cup teams look for road-racer fill-ins; but to quantify just how talented Simo is, you only have to look at 2005, when the Californian qualified a Chevrolet fielded by Richard Childress Racing 22nd at Infineon and raced it to 10th.

Simo

There was no way that was gonna happen Sunday, but sadly for the underdoggers, Simo's race in his self-sponsored ride lasted only a handful of laps before his car's transmission broke, ending his day in last place.

The points Simo earned for Jenkins were only a few digits more than the non-qualified Hall of Fame Racing's No. 96, Chip Ganassi Racing's No. 40 and Haas CNC Racing's No. 70 earned for not making the race.

But here's hoping Simo gained an amount of notoriety equal to his sizeable feat.

• Looking ahead to this weekend's race at the recently re-christened New Hampshire Motor Speedway, one can only hope the idiocy that was widely displayed at Infineon won't rear its ugly head(s) on what's actually a pretty high-speed racetrack.

It's hard to say, because passing at NHMS's flat mile has often been called as difficult as it is for most people at Infineon.

But if we don't see bollixed and ill-advised passing attempts such as Marcos Ambrose on Jamie McMurray, Elliott Sadler on Ambrose, Kevin Harvick on McMurray and to a lesser degree, Greg Biffle on Jimmie Johnson, and Kurt Busch on Robby Gordon -- it'll be a much more palatable day.

And it'll probably mean a lot less indigestion for all those NASCAR.COM Fantasy gamers.

The opinions expressed are solely of the writer.