Riverside set precedent for road specialists of today (cont'd)

Gurney's early success sparked other teams to bring in their own specialists from other forms of racing. Throughout the years, racing greats like Bob Bondurant, George Follmer, Al Unser, Roger Ward, Mario Andretti, Augie Pabst, Dick Guldstrand, Al Holbert, Elliott Forbes-Robinson, Bobby Rahal, Willy T. Ribbs and Irv Hoerr have all competed in NASCAR events at Riverside. Legends Parnelli Jones, A.J. Foyt and Mark Donohue have each won a race there.

Weekend That Was

NASCAR needs more road races, writes Joe Menzer, and it also needs more Juan Montoya, so says Humpy Wheeler.

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Gurney's early dominance, along with the presence of so many greats from other forms of racing, have clearly influenced, inspired and instructed NASCAR's regulars. Without a doubt, they rose to the challenge.

Riverside's winners reads like a veritable list of first-ballot inductees to the NASCAR Hall Of Fame: Bobby Allison (six wins), Richard Petty (five), Darrell Waltrip (five) Tim Richmond (four), Cale Yarborough (three), David Pearson (three), Terry Labonte (two), Ricky Rudd (two), Rusty Wallace (two) Ray Elder (two), plus Benny Parsons, Bill Elliott and Geoffrey Bodine with one win each.

Look all you want. You won't find a track on the NASCAR circuit with a more renowned a list of participants and winners.

With about three entire generations of NASCAR drivers now fully versed in competing on road courses against world-class talent, the impact of these hired guns is not as great as it once was. But road-course ringers still raise the bar for all drivers. We see it 36 weekends a year.

As a result, more people the world over are taking notice of our success. Without it, would Chip Ganassi ever have had a shot at hiring Juan Montoya as a full-time driver?

Montoya's victory yesterday in California is as convincing an argument there is that the occasional importing of talent from outside of NASCAR's traditional feeder venues continues to improve the breed.

It's an embarrassment of riches. And I, for one, hope it continues.

The opinions expressed are solely of the writer.