WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. -- Before road-course ace Ron Fellows made his first NASCAR start at Watkins Glen International 12 years ago, he counted maybe six regular drivers he considered legitimate contenders. Two years later, Boris Said qualified second the first time he ever sat in a Cup car, and even after falling to the rear of the field didn't have much trouble working his way back to the front.

"It seemed easy to pass these guys," Said said.

“

Once you show them how to do it, they take to it, they work at it. There are 15, 20 guys that could win the race here easy.

”

-- BORIS SAID

It was the beginning of a prosperous era for the men who would become known as road-course ringers, those unfamiliar drivers who would show up at Sonoma or Watkins Glen and fill in for regulars who were about as comfortable on road courses as they would be on the face of the moon. At their height, it wouldn't be uncommon to see half a dozen ringers in the field, all of them in fully sponsored cars.

Just look at the results for the 2003 Cup event at Watkins Glen, where Scott Pruett teamed with Chip Ganassi, P.J. Jones with Larry McClure, John Andretti with Gene Haas, Said with MB2 Motorsports and Fellows with Dale Earnhardt Inc. Wood Brothers, Petty Enterprises, Michael Waltrip Racing and Hall of Fame Racing have also used road specialists in recent years, to enhance their chances or replace oval-trained regular drivers not as comfortable making left and right turns.

Although no road-course specialist has won a race on NASCAR's premier since Mark Donohue won at Riverside International Raceway in 1973, the practice has become as common as the sight of "Said head" wigs in the grandstand at the Glen. And yet this weekend offers evidence that it is coming to an end.

Fellows, the Canadian road-racing ace who's won three Nationwide events and twice finished second in Cup races at Watkins Glen, is driving the No. 09 of Phoenix Racing, which isn't a full-time entry. Said, who finished third here in 2005, is driving for the team he co-owns. Other specialists in the field -- like Max Papis, Andy Lally, and Jones -- are running for lower-rung operations. Not too long ago, there would have been a handful of ringers racing in fully-sponsored regular rides. This week, there's one: Patrick Carpentier, filling in for Michael Waltrip in the No. 55 Toyota. And that almost certainly won't be the case again next season, when Martin Truex Jr. slides into that seat. (Continued)