WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. -- Don't look for Roush Fenway Racing's infamous "Gong Show" -- an elimination-style development driver selection process -- to return anytime soon.

A recent two-day session at Rockingham Speedway also played no part in Roush Performance Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge driver Billy Johnson making his Nationwide Series debut this weekend at Watkins Glen International -- that was set five weeks ago as a one-shot deal replacing regular driver Ricky Stenhouse Jr., who'll be back in the car at Montreal later this month.

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When we tested last month at Road Atlanta, Billy was fast and seemed to have a good grasp of the Nationwide car.

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MIKE KELLEY

But all the same, Johnson was one of seven young stock-car hopefuls who got seat time in a current RFR Cup chassis at Rockingham. And if nothing else, it might've helped the 23-year-old Californian post a top-15 speed in his first practice at The Glen on Friday, driving RFR's No. 6 Ford.

"Since I was a kid, doing the major races like the Daytona 500, the Indy 500, the 24 Hours of Daytona, the 12 Hours of Sebring -- and now the Brickyard [400] has always been something that you would aspire to do," Johnson said. "So I guess when you look at it that way you could say I've always wanted to race at [this] level and to race in NASCAR."

But it took until two weeks ago for Johnson to get his first shot in a stock car, first at Rockingham and then in a test at the Road Atlanta road course in northeast Georgia.

For the past four seasons in the Grand-Am series for slightly modified performance street cars, Johnson has been the best, statistically, with eight victories and more podium (top-three) finishes than any driver. This season, driving Ford Mustangs with team owner Jack Roush's son, Jack Roush Jr., Johnson has a pair of victories in eight starts and is third in the lead division, Grand Sport.

He shared the car with Roush Jr. when Roush's son, 35, won his first career sports-car race and earlier this year at Homestead-Miami Speedway, when the elder Roush scored his 400th victory as a car owner.

"To get [Roush] Junior's first win in sports cars was phenomenal and to be a part of Jack's 400th career victory was a huge honor," Johnson said. "To go to Rockingham was a last-minute decision and to get an opportunity to do something I had never done [drive a stock car] was a really neat opportunity."

The low-key Rockingham event, which was conducted by RFR's R&D team, was followed by a test with the actual Nationwide crew.

"When we tested last month at Road Atlanta, Billy was fast and seemed to have a good grasp of the Nationwide car, which is a positive," crew chief Mike Kelley said. "He has plenty of experience on road courses and has even won at The Glen before, so it should be a great weekend for our team."

Johnson got off on the right foot in practice at Watkins Glen, as 12 of the 14 men in front of him -- including practice leader and Roush Fenway teammate Carl Edwards -- were either Sprint Cup drivers or road-racing champions. Right in front of him were a couple of Nationwide regulars, Steve Wallace and another Roush Fenway teammate, Colin Braun.

Before practice, Johnson -- who's raced everything from formula cars to off-road vehicles -- claimed the transition from his Grand Sport Mustang, which weighs about 3,275 pounds, would be simpler than if he'd tried it from something more dissimilar. A Nationwide car weighs 3,300 pounds.

"I'd driven a lot of different cars before, from GT cars to rally cars -- a lot of different vehicles that have upwards of 1,000 horsepower," Johnson said. "Our Mustang weighs about the same, so I was used to the weight of that kind of vehicle -- though I have raced formula cars before, something with high downforce and no weight -- and that's a pretty big transition, to a stock car.

"So the cars I've been driving and this [Nationwide] car are similar in the mass of the vehicle, but not in the suspension geometry and the way they brake and go around corners. But it felt similar enough that it was a lot of fun." (Continued)