Boris Said to drive the No. 21 Little Debbie car Sunday!

I'm watching NASCAR Live! on Speed, dozing because I woke up at ever-lovin' 5 a.m. and couldn't get back to sleep! I just saw Bob Dilner interviewing Bill Elliott, resplendent in his Georgia twang, and heard him say that Boris was going to drive the car tomorrow in the NASCAR Nextel race at Watkins Glen.

Elliott said something like, "I'm not in the points. The car's in the points." Then he said that's why Boris is going in the Wood Brothers' car, because Boris' road-racing skills are based in road racing. Then he said, "I like Boris." My word. Bill Elliott--a class act from way back. And evidently the two guys are similar sized, so not too much will have to done to the car/seat, according to the Little Debbie crew chief Fatback McSwain.

Excited, wanting to read any reports already online, I Googled "Boris Said" and found a 35-minute old report from Scene Daily dot com. Here's the link in case you want to read it: http://www.scenedaily.com/stories/2007/08/06/scene_daily271.html.

In a little while, Said will qualify for today's NASCAR Busch race, but he did get in some practice in the No. 21.

I guess I'm turning into a bit of a Said Head. For those of you who can't fathom that last comment, that great head of curly hair has prompted his fans to show up at races wearing curly wigs and to be known as Said Heads.


Boris Said, photo from The Garage Blog dot com

Here's a link to cartoon that puts it all in perspective--http://www.borissaid.net/06%20cartoon.jpg.

Time has passed and Busch qualifying is now running on ESPN2. Bye for now.

UPDATE No. 1 Boris qualified 9th for the Busch race. In front of him are several full-time NASCAR Nextel drivers, which is another bone I'd like to pick with NASCAR, letting the big dogs run in races that I feel ought to be for the up-and-coming drivers.

UPDATE No. 2 Boris finished 9th overall, gaining 11 spots in the Busch standings.

NASCAR Qualifying Rained Out in Watkins Glen ... drat!

Naturally, the weather's gonna be the weather. Anyone's who's lived like I I have as an adult in Mississippi, Kansas, Texas and Oregon understands that. Plus as a kid, over a period of seven and a half years, my daddy's work took us to right at half the United States. The longest we lived anywhere was three months, the shortest was one night. I know one must put up with the weather and what it causes.

But.

As a life-long racing fan, rain frustrates me. I cannot even imagine how these teams who keep getting their dreams dashed feel in the pits of their stomachs. Drivers like Boris Said . Here's what I found about Said in an article at USAToday dot com:

"But another road-course ace won't be racing. Boris Said, who placed third at the Glen in 2005, will miss a Cup race because of weather for the second time this season. His Ford was on the pole last month at Daytona International Speedway before a thunderstorm washed out qualifying.

Said believes NASCAR should have postponed qualifying until Saturday morning both times.

"All the weather tomorrow is sunshine, sunshine, sunshine," he said. "NASCAR should roll with the punches and make a change. They've done it in the past."

The rainout "puts our team out of business," he said. Said is running a part-time schedule of road courses and restrictor-plate tracks. He said the fall race at Talladega Superspeedway likely will be the last for the No. 60 Ford.

"I guess they care about the top 35 teams," Said said. "The small guys, we're trying to make it, but it's twice as hard. We're probably pretty much done now. It's a bitter pill to swallow."

Elliott Sadler, a guy who wasn't civil at all to my friend Kay when we were in the Talladega garage in April, 2006, said on "Trackside" on Speed today that NASCAR ought to at least let the teams out of the top 35 have a chance to run against each other on Saturday, for the final eight starting spots. That sounds fair, doesn't it? Instead, NASCAR went with the 43 teams with the most owner points. Six drivers were eliminated because they have fewer qualifying attempts and/or lower standing in owner points than those who made the race.

Come on, NASCAR. Get real. You began as America's sport, the everyman of competition. Take the time and be responsible. Work this out so that something no one can control won't shaft the same teams again and again. Three times this season. Three out of the last four years at Watkins Glen.

I don't like this one bit. Do you?