Musical chairs is seriously in effect this weekend at Infineon Raceway, as six Nextel Cup teams have replaced their regular drivers with men with better road-racing backgrounds.

The switches, which involve Hall of Fame Racing, Michael Waltrip Racing, Bill Davis Racing, BAM Racing and Front Row Motorsports, don't even take into account the four Cup teams which have drivers who are competing at The Milwaukee Mile, halfway across the country, Saturday night in the Busch Series' AT&T 250.

Busch Series championship leader Carl Edwards, second-place point man Dave Blaney, fellow top-10 runner David Ragan and wild card Denny Hamlin all had to figure out an itinerary to fit Nextel Cup's Saturday practice at Infineon and some portion of the Busch activity at The Mile the same day, with the race scheduled to begin at 8:30 p.m. ET.

But that's something as many as nine Cup drivers will have to do at least six times this season, to deal with conflicting events. The more significant aspect this weekend is the replacement drivers.

Ron Fellows' trip to Infineon, hot on the heels of his attempt in the 24 Hours of Le Mans for Corvette Racing, is his latest effort to satisfy a 13-year goal of winning a Cup Series road race.

"It'd be huge," Fellows said of a possible win. "It's why we keep pursuing it. It's unfinished business for me. We've been fortunate enough to win in the Truck Series and the Busch Series, but I really want to get a win in Nextel Cup.

"When you look at how big and popular Nextel Cup racing is, it's impossible to ignore. It would be, without a doubt, one of the biggest wins I've ever had."

Fellows' selection to drive Hall of Fame's No. 96 Chevrolet is a bitter disappointment for its regular driver, Tony Raines, who has it 27th in the driver and owner standings based on consistent top-20 finishes.

But team managing partner Bill Saunders, who raced against Fellows in the SCCA Trans-Am Series, lauded his driver and his replacement.

"Tony has done a great job for Hall of Fame Racing and DLP this year," Saunders said. "We're very happy with what he's done so far this season and look forward to getting better throughout the summer and the fall.

"I've known Ron for many, many years and he is a tremendous road racer. We're thrilled to have him drive the DLP car at Infineon and Watkins Glen [but] we're also really appreciative of Tony being a true team player. As a former driver I know how hard it is to sit out a race, so for Tony to put the team in front of himself speaks volumes about what kind of a class act he is."

Fellows' record in stock cars -- five wins between the Busch and Truck series, though all coming on the Watkins Glen International road course -- keep him coming back for more.

"I thoroughly enjoy doing [NASCAR races], whether it's Busch, Cup or Truck," Fellows said. "The Nextel Cup Series is the cream of the crop and on the competitive side of it, these guys are all very, very good. The racing is incredibly close and that's enjoyable.

"It's also a lot shorter than what I've been doing recently [Le Mans] -- and I don't have to get out of the car during the pit stops."

Fellows, 47, is in a car guaranteed to start, for the first time in a while in Cup, and that excites him.

"We'll be able to put more effort into the race setup and that's a real positive," Fellows said. "I had a chance to test with the DLP team last month at Virginia International Raceway, and I got a chance to know Brandon [Thomas, crew chief] and the team.

"I had heard a lot about the COT and how it might behave [but] I didn't really notice a whole lot of difference. Maybe I will, but being a little rusty in those cars, it seemed fine to me."

Former 24 Hours of Daytona winner P.J. Jones will replace David Reutimann in Michael Waltrip Racing's No. 00 Toyota; while the team owner gets out of his No. 55 Camry for former two-time Cup champion Terry Labonte, who recently came out of "retirement" to test a Busch Series car on the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve road course in Montreal.

Jones, 38, winner of the 1993 24 Hours of Daytona and a veteran of dozens of Indy car starts on road courses, tested Reutimann's car at VIR and, given the fact that crew chief Frank Kerr has a similar dirt-track background to his own, is looking forward to it.

Jones started this event a year ago for Morgan-McClure Motorsports, finishing 36th when his No. 4 Chevrolet's rear end failed.

Labonte, a road-race winner in both Cup and Busch who wound down his schedule the last two seasons before retiring, replaces Waltrip for both the Sonoma and Watkins Glen road races.

The most significant aspect of that might be his chance to work with Toyota Racing Development's senior manager for the Cup Series, Andy Graves. Graves was Labonte's crew chief at Hendrick Motorsports in their 1996 championship season, when Labonte won the Bud Pole and finished fifth at Sonoma and was second at Watkins Glen.

"Winning the championship with Terry in 1996 was a great moment in my career," Graves said. "I think the world of Terry and having the chance to work with him again when he drives a Camry at Sonoma is really exciting.

"I think it's going to be a big help to have him at Sonoma. Knowing what Terry likes in a car and how to interpret his comments, I think we'll get a lot of good, useful feedback as far as engine performance and drivability, as well as about the COT Camry road-course car."

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.