Ron Fellows overcame a costly pit-road speeding penalty
en-route to a fourth-place finish at Sunday's NASCAR Nextel Cup Series Centurion Boats at the Glen, giving the #96 DLP HDTV Chevrolet for Hall of Fame Racing its best finish in 14 months and its second-ever top-five result.
Fellows, the Canadian road-course specialist sitting in for regular driver Tony Raines for the second time this season, came from far back in the pack twice during Sunday's 90-lap event around the 2.45-mile, 11-turn Watkins Glen International Raceway circuit.
It gave the No. 96 DLP HDTV team its best finish since Terry Labonte came home in third place in June 2006 on the Infineon Raceway road course in Sonoma, California.
Fellows started 26th on a grid set by owner points after Friday's qualifying session was rained out, foiling the team's hopes of starting at the front of the pack after Fellows posted the third-fastest practice time to open the weekend.
Nonetheless, Fellows made full use of his stout racing machine to march toward the front from the start, and was able to avoid several on-track melees in the process. He picked up four spots on the very first tour of the circuit and never looked back, cracking the top-20 by Lap 3, the top-15 by Lap 13, and he found himself within one spot of the top-10 when the second caution period of the day came out on Lap 22.
On the first pit stop of the day, crew chief Brandon Thomas called for four tyres and fuel and pressure adjustments on both rear tyres to correct a slightly loose condition exiting the fast, sweeping turns, particularly the final one leading onto the front straight. After the pit work was complete, Fellows was blocked into his pit box briefly by Bobby Labonte and resumed in 28th when the race went back to green on Lap 25.
Again, the Canadian meticulously picked off car after car, working his way back up to seventh when the caution came out again shortly after the race's midpoint on Lap 52, setting the stage for the day's second and final pit stop.
