Road Tripping

LAST SUNDAY'S Sprint Cup race at Watkins Glen International in upstate New York had a little bit of everything. There was domination, as Kyle Busch led 52 of 90 laps en route to his eighth victory of the season. There was a brilliant performance from an unheralded part-timer, Australia's Marcos Ambrose, who took third after starting last in the field of 43. There were spinning cars and daring passes. And there was a nine-car wreck on Lap 75 that knocked four cars out for the day. All in all it was wildly entertaining. But in the end it underscored once again the odd role of road racing in NASCAR.

With just two such events each season (at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, Calif., in July, and at the Glen in August) and none in the Chase, the championship impact is minor. Indeed, four of the last five season champs, including Jimmie Johnson in 2006 and '07, have never won a Cup race on a road course. NASCAR's popularity was built on the ethos, Go fast, turn left. For every driver in the Cup garage who sees road racing as the ultimate test of a driver's all-around skill, there seem to be at least two to whom it represents a foreign version of the sport, in which they have no interest. "I grew up racing ovals, and racing ovals is what I chose as a career," says Dale Earnhardt Jr., who has never won a Cup road race. "I wouldn't want more road courses on the schedule." Not surprisingly, the drivers who do like road racing also tend to be the ones who excel at it. In the last decade Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart have combined to win 14 of 20 Cup races at Sonoma and the Glen.

And that's the problem. Drivers who don't like road racing seem content with ceding two wins a year to Stewart and Gordon. (Only four other active Cup regulars—including Busch, who won at Infineon in July—have won a road race.) The result is that while a handful of drivers gun for victory, most seem happy just to get through both events without disaster. "Every race is important when you're trying to get into the Chase," insists 2003 Cup champ Matt Kenseth. But Kenseth has never finished better than eighth in 18 combined starts at Sonoma and the Glen. Says Stewart, "If you're going to have road courses on the schedule, then they ought to be important. We have superspeedways in the Chase. We have short tracks."

The answer would be to add a road-course race to the Chase (something NASCAR says it has no plans to do). The 10-race postseason currently includes five events on cookie-cutter 1.5-mile ovals. It would be easy to replace one of those with a second trip to Sonoma or Watkins Glen. This would encourage most of the top Cup drivers—at least those who make the Chase—to go for a road-course win at least once every season. There is a precedent for this. From 1981 to '87 the Winston Cup wrapped up its season at Riverside (Calif.) International Raceway, a road course that had been a regular stop on the circuit since 1961.

Johnson, for one, doesn't burn to win a road race just because it will help him win another Cup. He's got his legacy on his mind. "When I wake up in the morning and look in the mirror, this is my challenge," he says. If only every other driver shared his motivation.

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Lars Anderson's Cup analysis and Mark Beech's Racing Fan.