The road not often taken: racing on road courses is very much a different ballgame for Winston Cup drivers, crew chiefs and cars. (NASCAR).

The joke that Winston Cup crew chief Brandon Thomas was about to tell wasn't one of send cocktail partygoers into martini-spitting delirium.

No, Thomas' joke was of the had-to-be-there, insider variety.

"We've got this running joke when we get to a road course," says Thomas, who runs the crew for Petty Enterprises driver John Andretti. "Somebody on the crew will invariably pick up a wrench to go work on something, and halfway there he'll realize that he's going to the wrong side of the car!"

There might no to be zinger punch line in Thomas' joke, but there is a point. Twice a year--once each at Infineon (formerly Sears Point) Raceway and this ...