A road course ringer, also called a road course specialist or road runner, is a term used to describe a non-stock car driver entering the series to run road courses, either as a part-time entry, an additional car for an existing team, or as a replacement for a regular driver.
The practice originated in the early days of stock car racing, when road courses were a smaller part of the schedule; teams would often bring in road racing specialists to run the road course races in hopes of gaining points to win the owner's title (drivers rarely competed in every race during a season, so missing races was not as large of a concern).
Origin[edit | edit source]
"Ringer" is a slang term commonly used in sports to describe a competitor who is brought in to win in a specific game as opposed to competing in the entire schedule, and/or a professional athlete who competes in amateur sports. The term does not relate directly to racing and does not refer to the shape of the race course.
World Stock Car Championship[edit | edit source]
Wins[edit | edit source]
Decline[edit | edit source]
The practice has largely disappeared in the World Stock Car Championship for a number of reasons:
- The schedule features a significantly higher percentage of road courses; drivers are expected to be skilled in both road and oval racing.
- The points system makes it very difficult for a driver to compete for an overall series championship without entering every race.
- Sponsors are less willing to approve of a non-injury substitution than in years past.
- The Independent's Trophy allows smaller teams to pick drivers best suited to their grouping on the schedule.