AT MONTREAL: Canadian Ron Fellows notched a top-five finish in the inaugural NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve last August. The Windsor, Ontario, native started third and led four laps en route to finishing fourth. This weekend, Fellows will drive the No. 5 GoDaddy.com Chevrolet for JR Motorsports.
NATIONWIDE SERIES CAREER: Fellows has made 12 Nationwide Series starts—all on road courses—and has recorded three wins, five top-five finishes, six top-10s and two pole positions. He has led 193 out of 891 laps completed (21.66 percent). Fellows scored his most recent Nationwide Series win on July 8, 2001 at Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International after starting from the outside pole.
NASCAR RACING THIS SEASON: Fellows competed in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series earlier this season, starting 22nd and finishing 29th at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, Calif. In 18 career Sprint Cup starts, Fellows has recorded three top-five finishes and five top-10s.
VERSATILE VICTOR: At 48 years old, Fellows has enjoyed success on several motor sports circuits. In addition to his three Nationwide Series wins and two NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series wins, Fellows has been a part of three class championships in the American Le Mans Series (ALMS) and two class wins in the 24 Hours of Le Mans. He also is a 19-time race winner in the Sports Car Club of America’s Trans-Am Series.
FIRST CLASS: Fellows, a charter member of Corvette Racing when it joined the ALMS in 1999, earned his fourth class win at the 12 Hours of Sebring in March. Fellows co-drove the No. 3 Corvette in the GT1 class with Johnny O’Connell and Jan Magnussen. The last time Fellows helped win the endurance race was 2004. In 71 career ALMS starts, Fellows has recorded 26 wins, 58 top-three finishes, 66 top-fives and 71 top-10s. In, 2000, he scored the first win for Corvette Racing at Texas Motor Speedway.
DOUBLE DUTY AT MONTREAL: On Friday, Fellows will compete in the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series event at Montreal. Fellows, who has recorded two top-10 finishes in the series this season, will pilot a Pontiac in his third Grand-Am appearance of the year.
CHASSIS CHOICE: Crew chief Cam Strader has chosen Chassis No. 389 for Saturday’s race in Montreal. This is the car Adrian Fernandez drove to a 14th-place finish in April at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez in Mexico City. Chassis 389 also was used in 2007. Casey Mears posted the car’s best finish—eighth—at Watkins Glen on Aug. 11, 2007. Fellows recently tested the car with the No. 5 team at Carolina Motorsports Park in Kershaw, S.C., at the end of June.
UP NEXT FOR THE NO. 5: In his seventh of eight scheduled races this season, Dale Earnhardt Jr. will pilot the No. 5 GoDaddy.com Chevrolet on Aug. 9 at Watkins Glen International. This marks the second of two races Earnhardt will drive the No. 5 GoDaddy.com Chevrolet in 2008.
Quotes
RON FELLOWS, DRIVER OF THE NO. 5 GODADDY.COM CHEVROLET (ON HIS COMFORT WITH ROAD RACING.): “Road course racing is what I do regularly with Corvette Racing, which is why it’s relatively comfortable for me. Although the Nationwide Series cars are quite different than the Corvette C6-R, it’s still road racing, and I have to adapt to the car and not the track. I have tried to drive the NASCAR Chevys as smoothly as possible, making sure that the chassis is doing what I need it to do. And these races are not any more appealing than oval racing; it’s more about where I have had the opportunities.”
FELLOWS (ON TESTING WITH THE NO. 5 TEAM RECENTLY.): “I tested with the No. 5 team in late June at Carolina Motorsports Park, and it went very well. I was impressed with the team’s engineering capabilities as well as the crew’s ability to dial the chassis in for me. I can’t wait to get to Le Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. I think we will have a strong car and be very competitive, which is all you can ask of a team.”
FELLOWS (ON LAST YEAR’S RACE AT MONTREAL.): “Last year’s race, driving the No. 33, we were competitive and ran in the top three or four all day. The last few laps were as wild a finish as I’ve ever been a part of. Unfortunately for us, we managed to get run into on one of the final restarts, which took us out of contention to win. This year we will try to be more careful about who is around us, particularly inside the last 10 laps and hopefully be even more competitive with the No. 5 GoDaddy.com Chevy.”
FELLOWS (ON DOING DOUBLE DUTY THIS WEEKEND.): “We will be doing double-duty also driving a Pontiac GXP.R in the Grand-Am GT race. The biggest difference between the Grand-Am cars and the Nationwide Series cars is the weight and the stopping power. The Pontiac is about 400 pounds lighter and uses a larger diameter wheel, which means you can have a larger brake package. The Montreal track will be a test for brakes in both races, but the Nationwide Series even more so because of the more powerful engines creating more top speed making even more difficult to stop consistently. The challenge for me when doing multiple races on the same weekend is more about the scheduling. At the Montreal event, the schedule should work out very well with the all Grand-Am practice on Thursday and the race on Friday afternoon.”
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