BORIS SAID SAYS......

Boris Said, driver of the No. 60 Sobe No Fear Ford Fusion, qualified fifth for tomorrow’s NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series race. Said, who has formed a business relationship with Jack Roush, plans on qualifying for at least three more races this season including next week at Daytona, Indianapolis and Watkins Glen. He spoke about his goals before Saturday’s practice session at Infineon Raceway.



BORIS SAID – No. 60 Sobe No Fear Ford Fusion – YOU ARE KIND OF BECOMING THE PERFECT EXAMPLE OF PERSEVERANCE WITH YOUR EFFORTS TO BECOME A FULL-TIME CUP DRIVER. “Yeah, I mean my whole life people have always told me no. You’re too poor or you’re too old or you’re too ugly or whatever, and that’s always been my motivation. I’m gonna succeed at this and I had to start my own team to try to do it. Now I’m kind of controlling my own destiny. Yesterday was one of the most nervewracking days because not having any points to fall back on, it wasn’t so much me if I screwed up and went off the track and didn’t make the race, but just the effort we’ve put in the last two months with this team and putting it together. There was more to it than just driving for somebody else. To qualify good, it’s like the weight of the world is off my shoulders and now I just can’t wait to go race.”
HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE THE ARRANGEMENT YOU HAVE WITH ROUSH RACING? “We’re buying some cars, leasing some back-up cars and leasing motors from them. A lot of people can do that, but the biggest thing he offered us was to share his black book – to help us with setups and help me at Indy and help me at Daytona. That kind of information is priceless and the trade for that is I’m opening my books to all of his guys and trying to help them in their road racing program, including all these young guys coming up the pike. I think it’s a good trade for both of us.”
YOU TOOK SOME GUYS TO ROAD ATLANTA RECENTLY. “Jamie, Greg and Matt went to Road Atlanta and then I actually came here and spent two days one-on-one with Carl Edwards. I would think we’ll do more with the other guys before Watkins Glen and then before the Busch race there we’ll do a bunch of stuff with Danny and Todd again.”
SO WHAT’S THE LONG-TERM PLAN FOR THIS TEAM? “We’ll do four or five races this year. We need to build up our inventory. First, we’re gonna try to wait until there is more Car of Tomorrow stuff, so we don’t have to have that extra expense of building cars that are only good for one year, so next year we’re hoping we get to do 10 or 15 races. That’s kind of what we’re looking for because we’re basically looking for sponsorship.”
WITH YOUR EXPERIENCE TO DATE DO YOU FEEL YOU’RE CLOSER THAN EVER OF REALIZING YOUR GOAL OF BEING A FULL-TIMER ON THIS CIRCUIT? “Yeah. When I get on a road course, I know the absolute limits of the car and my limits and on an oval I don’t because I don’t have the experience. But everytime I get in I’m getting better and better. Driving the number 9 Busch car the last few weeks has been a big help and last week I had a lead lap finish, 14th place, so I think I’m really starting to get it. I think all of that is gonna help me when I get to Indy in another month and that’s something I’m looking forward to more than anything in the world this year.”

TONY STEWART PLAYS POKER AT DAYTONA

The 2005 Nextel Cup Series champion played about 90 minutes of poker with media and some of his friends from the circuit. To the right of Stewart in the photo is NASCAR vice president of communications Jim Hunter.

"Hunter never lays down," Stewart said.

Stewart hosts card games with his friends on race weekends. Hunter plays with Stewart "3 or 4 times a year."

TONY STEWART ON THE COUCH

Tony Stewart surrounded by print and radio media at Daytona on Tuesday. He was in town to promote the upcoming race weekend in Daytona Beach.

TONY STEWART VISITS DAYTONA

Tony Stewart dropped in at Daytona International Speedway Tuesday to pump up ticket sales for next week's Pepsi 400.

Here he addresses the media about the upcoming Nextel Cup Series race.

KASEY SPEAK

KASEY KAHNE (No. 9 Dodge Dealers/UAW Dodge Charger)NOTE: Kahne scored his circuit-leading fourth victory o. f the season and the fifth for Dodge at Michigan International Speedway since Dodge rejoined the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup circuit in 2001. Dodge has won more races at Michigan than any other track and is tied with Ford with five wins each at MIS since 2001.


“I was happy either way, whether they started the race back or not. I thought we had a good shot. The team has done a great job this season and they give me a car capable of winning every week. I made ‘em work a little harder this weekend, but everything worked out. They did a great job with the car and that’s the fourth time we’ve won with it this season. “We had a great car. We had a problem early on with debris. We got some debris on the car and it overheated. We had to pit. I was trying to pass Jeff Gordon, racing with him and then we just had to pit and get it off the nose and go from there. We fell back to 38th and started battling back from there. Kenny (team director Francis) took two tires one time and passed some cars on pit road and the pit crew probably passed 10 cars with pit stops. It was a great car to drive and a great team to work with.” COMMENT ON YOUR NEWFOUND PATIENCE “You do need patience on these type of race tracks. The air is such a big deal and if you put your car in the wrong spot against another car or certain areas in the corner you can spin yourself out in a second. You do need patience, but at the same time you need to charge up there. We knew the rain was coming. I knew it would be here sometime around lap 100. We did all we could to pass cars. I think I was four-wide at one time and three-wide another time. My spotter said that wasn’t being patient, but I was like ‘well, it was open. I really couldn’t tell it was four wide.’ It worked out and we’re just happy to be in victory lane.” COMMENT ON YOUR BACKUP CAR “It wouldn’t have been good if we’d had to get the backup out because we had no time on it. Things change. It’s probably a great car. I don’t even know which car is back there. Kenny would know. (Told it was the California car). It ran fourth there. It’s a good car, but we knew what we had with the car I was driving yesterday and just needed to make the repairs to it. It wasn’t too bad. It was bad enough it took a long time to fix, but it wasn’t bad enough to pull out there spare. We knew where that car was, and that’s the car we wanted to race.”


Text courtsey of Dodge Motorsports
Photo courtsey of Getty Images