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Well, it wasn't so bad. Scott Pruett salvaged the day for the left-right guys by posting the best finish of his Winston Cup career, a second.
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Beyond that, Sunday's Sirius at the Glen at Watkins Glen International probably did more to prove that hiring road course specialists isn't the way to go.
OK, sure, Pruett was second. But then P.J. Jones drove Morgan-McClure Motorsports No. 4 Pontiac to 24th. And Paul Menard put Andy Petree's No. 33 Chevy in 29th. Jones' teammate, Johnny Miller, ended up 36th.
Ron Fellows and Boris Said both ran well, but neither finished well. Fellows was 38th in the No. 1 Dale Earnhardt Inc. Chevrolet, while Said was 39th in the MB2 Motorsports Pontiac.
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| Ron Fellows spun late and finished 38th. Credit: AP |
But there was one road course guy smiling after the race. Pruett, the former road racer turned Winston Cup driver turned road racer again, sat on the pit wall after the race, basking in the glow of a hard-earned result.
"We had a great car at Sears Point, and of course we got knocked out," said Pruett, driving a fourth Chip Ganassi Racing Dodge. "We had a great car here last year and couldn't play it out.
"We had a great car here this year, and we got the most out of it this year. We got the most out of it that we could get."
 | VIDEO CLIPS | |  | Kevin Harvick's car catches fire briefly in the pits
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| | |  | Robby Gordon wins, Jeff Gordon hits the wall on the final lap
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| |  | Jeff Gordon is frustrated after last-lap crash
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|  | Hear from the top five finishers at Watkins Glen
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Pruett, who currently races Jaguars on the SCCA Trans-Am circuit, made a gamble similar to winner Robby Gordon by diving on to pit road as the caution came out with 38 laps to go.
On the lap 53 restart, Pruett was 16th, but several cars ahead of him had to pit for gas, and Pruett's car was handling well enough that he could charge through most of the others.
Eventually, he found himself fourth, right behind teammate Casey Mears.
"I had strict instructions: 'Do not touch my teammates, any of them,'" Pruett said. "(His crew) said you could make a move on him, but it had to be a good, solid move."
Pruett made it to move into third behind Robby Gordon and Kevin Harvick. There were still some questions about fuel, but Pruett said his team could afford to gamble since it isn't running for the points title.
The first gamble was deciding to race the final 38 laps on one tank of gas. The second gamble was a bold move that Pruett executed on Harvick on the final restart.
"I think he missed a shift," Pruett said. "I got a run on him on the inside, and we both went in deep. That was that.
"We got a little behind the eight ball because at the end we really had to conserve fuel. Those last few laps we had to let off a little early. We had a good pace. I could pace (Robby) Gordon, but I certainly couldn't catch up to him."
Still, second wasn't so bad, especially when you consider the fate of the two other leading road course contenders, Fellows and Said.
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| Boris Said finished 39th, 10 laps down. Credit: Autostock |
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Fellows, who finished seventh at Infineon Raceway in June, ran in the top 10 for more than half the race before running into trouble.
At one point, Fellows ran in third behind Jeff Burton and DEI teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr.
"The car was really quite good," Fellows said. "I felt that we were just a little bit better than Jeff Burton and Junior the longer we ran, but I was quite comfortable just to sit there because I was a solid third. I was just hoping to have something at the end."
The team made an adjustment to help the car turn, but Fellows then struggled to turn left, and the No. 1 Chevy began to vibrate.
"It got worse and worse and worse, and then finally the right-front cross member or something broke, and I went off into the gravel," Fellows said.
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| Scott Pruett gave Chip Ganassi Racing its top finish of 2003. Credit: Autostock |
Said didn't end up in the gravel, but his day all but came to a halt when he bumped the guardrail down the backstretch after contact from Gordon just past the halfway point.
Said had charged into the top 10 after starting in the back because of an engine change, leading Jeff Gordon -- who spun on the first lap -- and Tony Stewart, who also changed engines, from the rear of the field.
"What a real shame," Said said. "We had such a fast car. This was the first time I felt I had a legitimate shot at winning a Winston Cup race. But I guess some others had different ideas.
"We had the fastest car out there up to that point. I guess it's just one of those deals. It's unfortunate for the entire MB2 Motorsports team. They worked so hard in the morning to get a new engine in, and we were moving up fast. I truly believe we would have been tough to beat. But we'll never know that for sure."
Said, the reigning Trans-Am champ who currently drives a BMW in the SCCA Pro Racing Speed GT Championship, said he hoped to hook up with MB2 in the future. He drove at Infineon and Watkins Glen as an injury sub for Jerry Nadeau.
Fellows, too, hopes to be back someday with his team.
"We have unfinished business," Fellows said.
Seems there were a lot of road course drivers who felt the same way Sunday.
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