Travis Kvapil began working on his racing degree with a major in stock car racing before he ever completed high school, but at the time, it never occurred to the Wisconsin native that he would receive a minor in road racing.

Road racing master Elliott Forbes-Robinson began his tutelage of the young Kvapil in mid-January at a 2-mile road course in Kershaw, S.C. It continued through the next four months, encompassing Infineon Raceway and Virginia International Raceway as well as Kershaw. By the time Kvapil and his No. 77 Kodak Racing Dodge arrive in the Napa Valley for his road racing debut in late June, he will have undergone eight days of instruction on the winding courses under the watchful eye of the 60-year-old Forbes-Robinson.

"He's fearless, but in these cars, you just have to slow the car more going into a corner than on an oval," Forbes-Robinson said. "That is where he is having all of his trouble. It's a hard thing to break when that's what you've trained all your life to do."

Kvapil, whose only road race prior to the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup weekend at Infineon occurred in a Late Model-type car in 1998 at Topeka, Kan., agrees with the veteran driver known in the motorsports community as "EFR."

"At an oval, you want to drive into the corner deep, make the car turn good, be able to get on the gas and accelerate out," Kvapil explains. "On a road course, it's about straight line braking, being completely off the brakes when you start to turn into the corner. You don't worry about how fast your corner entry speed is, as much as getting the car pointed correctly and accelerating out of the corner. Making your speed out of the corner is very important."

It's a procedure Forbes-Robinson could have explained constantly to Kvapil, but one he would have had difficulty understanding without another car on the track. That's where a unique instruction method was implemented. Two cars were taken to the road course - one for Kvapil and the other for Forbes-Robinson. The two drivers also were in radio communication with each other.

"This allows me to follow him around, see what he's doing and make suggestions," Forbes-Robinson explains. "Then I'll have him follow me around to see what I'm doing - where I'm slow, where I'm fast. Then we'll change back. It's worked out quite well that way. It's so easy to learn when somebody is out there that you can follow to see how it's done."

When Forbes-Robinson won his first professional race in 1969 at the Northern California track then known as Sears Point Raceway, Kvapil's birth was still seven years away. That day, Forbes-Robinson drove a 911 Porsche in the 2.5-liter SCCA Trans-Am division, while Mark Donohue piloted his Roger Penske-owned 2-liter car to victory in that class. After the event, Donohue and Forbes-Robinson, a Southern California native, shared the podium.

When Kvapil, his team engineer Matt Lucas and Forbes-Robinson arrived at Infineon for a day of testing on April 20, it was the first time the 2003 NASCAR Truck Series champion had visited the 1.99-mile road course. Forbes-Robinson elected to focus solely on teaching Kvapil how to drive the race track.

"The main thing at Infineon is to position yourself correctly," Forbes-Robinson explained. "It's a road course where the corners are blind. The Kershaw course doesn't have blind corners. Infineon is a course where you have to commit yourself to a corner before you see it.

"At Infineon, you also have to save the tires."

Kvapil's plans include competing in two races at Infineon, the NEXTEL Cup event on June 26 and the Southwest Series race a day earlier. Chuck Carruthers, of Prescott, Wash., will field the Southwest car and hire the crew chief. A few members of Kvapil's Penske-Jasper team also will be involved in the effort.

"Yes, we want to run good and win the race, but the goal is to get Travis some lap time," crew chief Shane Wilson said.

When NASCAR's premier series made its debut at Infineon in 1989, many cars were turned over in the track's Carousel. That section of the track has now been removed from the NEXTEL Cup race, but Forbes-Robinson notes turns 2 and 4, as well as the esses, are still a struggle for many drivers.

Kvapil admits he has yet to adopt the heel-and-toe method commonly used for shifting by full-time road racers.

"Our transmissions are so good these days that you can get away with not having to use the clutch when you are downshifting or up shifting," Kvapil says. "I'm doing it the easy way, not using the clutch when I shift. EFR has enough experience and enough coordination that he uses a clutch and it's something he would like for me to use, because it's definitely easier on the equipment."

Forbes-Robinson still requires Kvapil to rev the engine as he shifts down to help stop the rear axle from hopping.

Wilson said on the first day of the team's inaugural trip to Kershaw, a transmission and a gear were "wrecked" by Kvapil simply learning to shift.

"By the next morning, just the shifting and the brake modulation were so much better," Wilson said. "There was no wheel hop, no brake lockup, just good, clean, crisp shifts.

"A stock car is difficult to drive on a road course, because you're trying to stop a pretty heavy mass and accelerate a heavy mass. Normal road race car tires are 15 inches on a 1,500-pound vehicle, while a stock car with a driver is 3,500 pounds on a nine-inch tire with about the same horsepower. It's the difference between driving a sports car and a station wagon with bad shocks on it. A stock car is rolling all around and your sports car is more like a Go-Kart."

In reflecting on that initial Kershaw test, Kvapil said it was his first time on a road course in a NEXTEL Cup car and "I didn't know what I was supposed to be doing."

"It was great to have someone who knows what they are doing, who knows how it should be done to coach you along and tell you what needs to happen and how to drive the race car," Kvapil said. "That helped me to learn really quickly. After a day and a half, I could run some pretty good lap times at that first test. Now, we're going to keep getting better and better."

Still, Kvapil is happy to be able to draw on Forbes-Robinson's knowledge to help him set up his car.

"It's going to be a challenge for me to give good information to the crew as far as what I need for changes since it's all new to me," Kvapil commented.

"But I had an absolute blast my first two tests at Kershaw. There were times when I was out there making practice laps that I found myself laughing because it was so much fun. It reminded me of when you're 16, 17 years old, tearing around the back country roads, just tearing up your car, driving as hard as you can. It was just a lot of fun."

Forbes-Robinson says he and his pupil have discussed numerous road racing issues and Kvapil now understands why certain procedures are followed.

"If he can control himself and drive the way he drives at the end of the day," Forbes-Robinson says, "I think he will surprise some people as a brand-new guy that's never raced on a road course."