Memorable win for Fellows dates to Nemechek's offer

The memories of Gilles Villeneuve are shockingly vivid and in no way resemble the grainy, black-and-white film clips played in the entree to last Saturday's Nationwide Series race held on the circuit that bears his name.

He was a man of startling color -- not just Ferrari red -- but a vast palette of every shade imaginable.

• Send Dave your thoughts
• Dave's Community page

Nearly 30 years ago -- God, how can it be that long -- surrounded by friends and foes alike in the old Formula One pit lane, adjacent to the current hairpin at the far limits of the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, he reveled in the adulation of his vast home country fan base and the respect of his peers.

How odd the sparkling confidence of this fiery motorsports legend would be captured in a 35mm black-and-white image whose very antiquated technology sadly makes you realize how long Villeneuve the man, the doting husband, the loving father, has been gone.

But it's sadly true.

Despite the disparity in their methods of attacking a racetrack, I betcha he would've loved Ron Fellows, his fellow Canadian who held the estimable Villeneuve up as an icon even after his untimely death in qualifying at Zolder for the 1982 Belgian Grand Prix.

Fellows' commitment to family, especially throughout his NASCAR involvement, has been obvious -- as was Villeneuve's, especially earlier in his career.

So it was especially fitting that Fellows, who's made a measured, calculating style more his trademark, unlike Villeneuve's almost super-human speed and daring, would win as the shadows of his career lengthen, in his home country and on this special track -- on a day when NASCAR made history by racing on rain tires, another Fellows forte.

There was a time when Fellows was the ultimate crossover hero to sports-car guys who craved a career taste in NASCAR. From 1997 to 2001, any other road racer could only dream about accomplishing what Fellows did, in all three NASCAR national tours.

He won three consecutive poles in Craftsman Truck Series races at Watkins Glen, and won the 1997 and 1999 races. Between 1998 and 2001, he won three of four Busch Series races at The Glen.

Ironically, the only one he didn't was when he was outrun -- yes, outrun -- in 1999 by Dale Earnhardt Jr. In two of those four years, Fellows started the Glen races from the pole.

No, speed was not usually a problem for Fellows, either, who mastered calculation later in his career.

NAPA Auto Parts 200

Official Results

Pos.	Driver	Make
1.	Ron Fellows	Chevrolet
2.	Patrick Carpentier	Dodge
3.	Marcos Ambrose	Ford
4.	Ron Hornaday	Chevrolet
5.	Boris Said	Ford
6.	Carl Edwards	Ford
7.	Jason Leffler	Toyota
8.	Greg Biffle	Ford
9.	Clint Bowyer	Chevrolet
10.	Steve Wallace	Chevrole

• Results | Videos | Photos
• Fellows wins in rain at Montreal

And at Pocono Raceway on Sunday morning, Joe Nemechek took a moment to reflect on the accomplishment, even as he prepared himself for his own race that afternoon in the Furniture Row Racing Sprint Cup car.

Even though Nemechek was too young, and just getting into motocross racing when Villeneuve was killed, he has a lot of insight into Fellows' ability, and his legacy -- when the Florida veteran's NEMCO Motorsports was a force in Busch Series racing, Nemechek hit a schedule conflict in 1998.

Nemechek remembered winning a pole at Watkins Glen in 1997, but he had to beat a pesky Canadian in owner James Finch's car to do it. When the schedule conflict came up a year later, Nemechek had a short list of candidates to run the WGI road race, and Fellows happened to be at the top. When Nemechek called, Fellows answered "yes."

You know the rest of the story.

All of Fellows' Busch success in that four-year span, which included two poles, came in NEMCO equipment. And so did a 1999 Truck Series win, also from the pole.

"Man, we had some good stuff," Nemechek said, recalling a stretch where NEMCO cars won no less than 11 Busch races and nine poles. "We still do -- we just need [to get sponsorship] to get it back on the racetrack."

Nemechek didn't catch Fellows' big score in Montreal. Showing how much times change, he was helping son John Hunter Nemechek, 10, race a Slingshot car at nearby Hamlin Speedway. But his wife, Andrea, who was actually the listed owner of NEMCO's cars when Fellows drove them, sent him a text message.

"I thought it was cool -- I was happy for him," Nemechek said. "I've got to call him [Sunday] and tell him congratulations, because that was a cool thing."

It's even cooler that Nemechek knows Fellows will be someone he has to contend with this weekend at Watkins Glen -- even as Fellows, a la Mark Martin, summoned wife Lynda to his side in Montreal's Victory Lane, saying "there might not be too many more of these."

"He finished second there, in one of our Cup cars, too," Nemechek said. "When it comes to Watkins Glen, he's on it; and he'll be tough [this] week, too."

And so it goes, when thinking out loud about the current motorsports landscape always causes thoughts of "what if?"

"What if" Fellows thought the SCCA Trans-Am Series was more important than taking Nemechek's offer? Who was second on that list -- the third name of which Nemechek can't even remember?

It was Boris Said, who in his entire career of 114 NASCAR crossover starts has only one Truck Series victory.

What if, indeed?

The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer.