Road specialists eager for NASCAR race at Infineon (cont'd)

Neither a hot weather forecast nor unfamiliarity with the COT daunts Labonte, who did a "10-lap shakedown" of the car recently at Carolina Motorsports Park in Kershaw, S.C.

Butch Leitzinger steps into the Bill Davis Racing Toyota usually driven by Jeremy Mayfield, which is another of the Camrys that has been severely handicapped by being outside the top 35 in the Cup owner standings.

Leitzinger, 38, who lives on a working farm in Rebersburg, Pa., has an American Le Mans Series win at Sonoma and three victories in the 24 Hours of Daytona. He has three career Cup starts and won three road races in what is now the Busch East Series, at Watkins Glen and Lime Rock Park in Lakeville, Conn.; along with a second place in the 2000 Glen Busch race, to Fellows.

"We've done a fair amount of testing to get ready for Infineon Raceway, and we feel like we've done everything we can to prepare for it," Leitzinger's teammate, the veteran Blaney, said. "We'll just have to see how things go once we get there.

"There are a bunch of road-course guys going, and that makes us a little nervous being outside the top 35, but it should help to have Butch Leitzinger as a teammate this weekend [because] he's got just a ton of experience on road courses, and that should be beneficial to both of our teams."

Klaus Graf burst onto the NASCAR scene with a splash in 2004, when he stepped into a BAM racing car and scored a top-20 finish at Sonoma. Graf showed well in some additional ARCA Re/Max Series starts, including at least one top-five finish, that season.

He went on to win the 2005 SCCA Trans-Am championship, but neither he nor BAM general manager Eddie Jones has managed to put together a program for him to return to Cup. This weekend, Graf replaces regular BAM shoe Mike Bliss, who has Busch and Craftsman Truck duty at The Milwaukee Mile.

Another former SCCA Trans-Am champ, Brian Simo, outshone most of his more highly touted ringer brethren two years ago at Infineon, scoring a 10th-place finish in a fourth Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet.

This weekend Simo, the twin brother of Boris Said's car owner Mark Simo, will need all his magic to qualify Front Row Motorsports' No. 37 Dodge, for the team that's made two starts in about 20 attempts this season with two cars -- but for whom Simo qualified this past August at Watkins Glen.