Pruett Answers the Call Again

Veteran driver Scott Pruett is taking another one for the team.

The 46-year-old Californian competes mainly in the Grand American Rolex sports car series, where he and co-driver Luis Diaz lead the standings in the Daytona prototype division.

They drive an exotic-looking Lexus-Riley for the CompUSA Chip Ganassi Racing team, and their season so far includes winning their series’ first street race at Long Beach in April.

Pruett also won the Grand Am Rolex series title with co-driver Max Papis in 2004.

Now team owner Chip Ganassi has tapped Pruett for another job: Driving the NASCAR Nextel Cup car that Ganassi owns with Felix Sabates in next month’s road-course race at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma.

The team’s No. 40 Coors Light Dodge normally is driven by David Stremme, 28, but the relative newcomer to the Cup circuit is struggling.

Stremme is 37th in points and his highest finish this year was 21st at Texas Motor Speedway two months ago. He has yet to finish better than he did in his first Cup race last July at Chicagoland Speedway, where he placed 16th.

Enter Pruett, with more than 20 years’ racing in NASCAR, open-wheel cars, Grand Am, SCCA Trans Am, the International Race of Champions and professional karting.

He also previously has handled this task for Ganassi. Pruett’s NASCAR experience includes 37 starts -- he drove the entire Winston Cup season in 200 -- including driving the Ganassi Dodge at the road course in Watkins Glen, N.Y., last August.

In that race, Pruett substituted for Sterling Marlin, started last in 43rd and finished fourth, the car’s highest finish all year.

Pruett has driven six NASCAR races over the last five seasons for Ganassi, with three top-five finishes.

Stremme remains “an important part of the future of Chip Ganassi Racing,” but with Pruett “we have one of the best road-course drivers in all of racing and once again have the luxury of being able to utilize the experience,” Ganassi said in a statement.

For Pruett, who lives in Auburn, taking the seat in the Dodge/Save Mart 350 at Infineon on June 25 gives him another swing at winning on the Cup circuit.

“I’m looking forward to the opportunity,” he said by telephone from Watkins Glen, N.Y., where he was practicing for Sahlen’s Six Hours at the Glen, a Grand Am race there Saturday. “My biggest challenge left is to try and win a” Nextel Cup race.

Pruett also has a Grand Am race at the Mid-Ohio course in Lexington, Ohio, on the weekend of the Cup race at Infineon. That means practice in Ohio on Thursday, qualifying in Sonoma on Friday, racing in Ohio on Saturday and racing in Sonoma on Sunday.

“It’s going to be hectic, but I love driving,” he said.

In the NASCAR race, Pruett said, his desire to win would be tempered by his deference to the regular Cup drivers as they tackle the 1.99-mile, 12-turn Infineon Raceway.

“I’m not going to take them out or do anything foolish that puts them in harm’s way,” he said. “I try to be smart about it. You gain the respect of the regulars by doing that.”

But he added: “In the last 10 laps of the race, everybody will be going for it.”

Last Laps

* In June at Perris Auto Speedway, children 12 and younger will be admitted free every Saturday night when accompanied by an adult.

Carla Laney of Torrance will be looking for her second consecutive win in the late-model class Saturday on the half-mile clay oval in Riverside County.

* The USAC/CRA sprint cars that normally run at Perris will compete this Saturday at Ventura Raceway, with Cory Kruseman of Ventura trailing Damion Gardner of Concord, Calif., by 34 points in the standings.

The USAC national sprint car series is off this weekend after Darren Hagen of Riverside won the most recent race in Anderson, Ind., on May 24.

* Super late models will be featured in Irwindale Speedway’s six-race program Saturday night.

Dan Moore of Burbank leads the division by 17 points over Van Knill of Tucson.

* The California Sports Car Club is scheduled to run national and regional races at the California Speedway in Fontana on Saturday and Sunday.

More than 200 drivers in eight divisions have entered the event and admission is free, according to the club, a regional affiliate of the Sports Car Club of America.