in NASCAR Articles

Boris Said

One of these days, and it won’t be long, Boris Said will not be known as a road-race ringer. Sunday will not be that day.

The NASCAR Nextel Cup circuit is making its annual stop at Watkins Glen International for Sunday’s AMD at The Glen, the second and final road race of the season. Just like June’s event at Infineon Raceway, Said will bring his open-wheel experience to the table for his own fledgling No Fear Racing team. Said finished ninth at Infineon and is near the top of the odds list at +800 to collect his first career Cup victory.

Said rose to the top of the road ringer pile after June’s ninth-place finish, but he really made a name for himself when he grabbed the pole position at the following event, the Pepsi 400. The Carlsbad California native held on to finish in fourth place, a breakthrough performance for the No Fear team on a generic oval track. Unfortunately for Said, his performance last week at the Allstate 400 at The Brickyard wasn’t quite as successful. He had to settle for 42nd place after getting caught up in an accident. That won’t cut the mustard at The Glen, and Said knows it.

“At Indy, I went in knowing that I needed to learn and my goals were more realistic,” Said told reporters. “I felt if I could finish 25th, that would be like a win for me, whereas I would be very disappointed with a 25th at Watkins Glen. I’m going there with the immediate goal of finishing in the top five.”

In the top five happens to be where Said is ranked on the odds list, behind Tony Stewart (+250), Jeff Gordon (+350) and a pair of fellow ringers: Robby Gordon (+550) and Ron Fellows (+800). Said’s decision to join Frank Stoddard and Mark Simo (the latter being yet another ringer) in forming No Fear Racing gives him a decided advantage over Robby Gordon and Fellows, since Roush Racing is supplying Said with equipment and expertise. His No. 60 Ford Fusion is, for all intents and purposes, a Roush machine.

The trick for Said will be to find a way to loosen Stewart’s grip on Watkins Glen. The defending Nextel Cup champion has won the last two events there and three of the last four. Robby Gordon scored one for the ringers in 2003, while Jeff Gordon proved his versatility by taking the checkered flag in four of the five previous trips to The Glen. Fellows, meanwhile, has also enjoyed tremendous success there with wins on both the Busch and Craftsman Truck series.

One driver who won’t be having any success at The Glen this week is Jeremy Mayfield. He’s reportedly been taken out of the No. 19 Dodge by Evernham Motorsports and replaced with Bill Elliott. Mayfield was still listed at +6500 at the time of this writing. It’s an odd decision for Evernham to make at this point of the season, especially considering Mayfield has 21 career road races under his belt. Speculation is he will be replaced full-time by Elliott Sadler (also listed at +6500 for Sunday) in 2007.

The festivities get underway Sunday at 1:35 p.m. Eastern Time with NBC providing the television coverage.