Smack: Looking for a road ringer this week in Sonoma

1. It's road course time again, with the Sprint Cup tour heading to Sonoma. If you're the owner of a middling team, do you hire a road course ringer?

David Caraviello: Absolutely. Why not? Fans pay to see the stars of NASCAR, and if you're running in 30th place, odds are, you're not a star. So put someone in the seat who can give you and your team a more realistic chance of winning. All for it.

Dave Rodman: That's a 50-50 question, and it depends on commitment. And of course, this top 35 situation now plays into it as well. If you're committed and you're trying to develop an all-around driver, you stick with him. But if the yaw of the top 35 looms, you ring it up, probably.

Duane Cross: No question -- you owe it to the sponsor, who may like your regular driver, but exposure is the key. Ringers give teams the opportunity to get that much-needed exposure. Owners also owe it to the guys who work on the cars; a good run can do a lot for the morale of a team. The best finish possible is the goal each week, so why not step out and snag a ringer who may get you another five, eight spots in the race?

David Caraviello: Of course, there's the little matter of actually finding a ringer. Really, there aren't that many out there who can seriously get the job done, especially now that Marcos Ambrose is running full-time. Pickings are a little bit slimmer.

Dave Rodman: The cool thing about the way the point system is structured, if you're in the swamp at this point of the season, as you said David, you aren't escaping that, so you might as well maximize things. The secondary issue might become keeping your regular driver pumped up -- but Regan Smith didn't seem to have a problem with that last year, now did he?

David Caraviello: Not at all, Dave. And yet, I'm looking at the entry list for Sunday's race, and you don't see many ringers that you'd say would have a good chance to win. Ron Fellows, Boris Said and Brian Simo are all running for what you might call lower-rung operations. Patrick Carpentier in the No. 55 might be the only true "ringer" out there this weekend, at least the only one taking over a full-time, fully-funded Cup car.

Dave Rodman: It's pretty interesting -- and a pretty strong statement about how good in general NASCAR drivers are -- that road course ringers have a general lack of success driving Cup cars on road courses. That makes someone like Irv Hoerr's eighth-place debut at Sonoma back in the day so impressive. Just like finding the right young gun, an owner has to find that unpolished gem who can get the job done -- and overall road course success isn't the only answer.

Duane Cross: As for the regular driver, he should have enough confidence and understand it's a one-off deal. If not, he needs to hone his road-course skills away from just two weekends a year.

David Caraviello: And like Dave said, the regular Cup drivers on average are a lot stronger on road courses than they used to be. That's why you probably aren't seeing as many ringers as you used to -- well, maybe that and the economy, which might be limiting a team's ability to hire a Said or a Fellows for a one-off deal.

Looking up

Juan Montoya is in the midst of his best season despite the fact he is in winless in 71 races. Luckily for him he's returning to the site of his only Cup win with his confidence high.

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Dave Rodman: Exactly. You can't minimize how good these guys actually are in these cars -- and that's the Cup regulars I'm talking about. Back in the day guys like Ricky Rudd and Terry Labonte stood out, but Davey Allison and Ernie Irvan were damned good on road course. These days, you've got more Cup regulars who can really get it done in Cup cars, as the ringers are finding out.

Duane Cross: David, I'll make the argument that Carpentier should be behind the wheel for 36 races. He did enough last year to prove he can drive a stock car. If Martin Truex Jr. doesn't work out with Michael Waltrip Racing, Carpentier would not be a bad Plan B.

Dave Rodman: For sure Carpentier deserved to be in a car this year, Duane -- and unfortunately a lot of people are the worse off for it. Us, unfortunately, because he's a great guy to work with; the fans, because he's a real character and whatever sponsor would align themselves with him because, I think, with a little more time in stock cars he had potential that was only a few fractions behind A.J. Allmendinger.

David Caraviello: Also, look at all the guys with road course backgrounds that have full-time rides these days, guys like Juan Montoya, Allmendinger, and Ambrose. One of those guys could really win Sunday. Montoya especially, given the leaps forward he's made this year.

Duane Cross: Juan has three top-10s in the past four races -- and he won here in 2007. No question he should be running at the front of the field on Sunday evening.

Dave Rodman: If something like fuel mileage (choke) doesn't leap up and derange the race, he certainly could. It's hard to imagine someone running off at a course like either Sonoma or Watkins Glen -- and particularly in this crowd we're talking about -- but Montoya could do it.

Duane Cross: The Earnhardt Ganassi folks have picked up the pace on the No. 42. I still believe that team can be competitive in the long run. It was in such a hole that it's going to take time -- and more than just 15 or even 36 races. But EGR will be on the beam.

Dave Rodman: And DC, to your point about potential winners, I'm sure you remember when Brian Simo was out there in a Richard Childress Racing car. It was a top 10. In the second-class stuff, not such a threat, to the point he's struggling to qualify. That's a pure equipment issue.

David Caraviello: No question about that, Dave. I just miss all the ringers that used to be in this race. They made Sonoma seem that much more exotic. And that's before we ever got to the wine! (Continued)