Boris Said wins the pole at Daytona

By Greg Engle
Cup Scene Daily,July 1

Boris Said wants to be taken seriously.

An accomplished road racer, Boris has spent his entire Nextel Cup career running selected road courses, most often filling in for teams at one of two road courses on the circuit.

But earlier this year, Said partnered with veteran crew chief Frankie Stoddard, bought cars and equipment from Roush Racing and sit about trying to make his mark at the ovals.

Friday at Daytona International Speedway, he made quite the mark.

Said scored his second career pole laying down a lap of 186.143, just ahead of the defending Pepsi 400 champion Tony Stewart. Said scored his first pole at Infineon 2003. His previous best start on oval was fourth in this race in 2005.

“It feels damn good,” an elated Boris commented.” I’ve been trying to do this for so long, break into NASCAR from road racing.”

Boris Said watches as other drivers drive their qualifying rounds Friday, June 30, 2006, for the Pepsi 400 auto race in Daytona Beach, Fla. He qualified with a speed of 186.143mph.
(AP Photo.Brian Myrick)
Pepsi 400 Lineup

This will only be Said’s third restrictor plate race, and Said is well aware that his lack of experience will be a factor.

“I’m under no false impression that I can contend with these guys right away,” he said. “But if I can learn – my realistic goal, if I could be 15th to 20th, that would feel like a win for me.“

Tony Stewart will start second, an ironic twist after he and Said tangled in last weekends road course race at Infineon, but that’s all water under the bridge according to Said.

“We actually talked after the race last week on the helicopter pad and we’re all right,” he said. “We made up and we’re all good. It was good fun.”

While Said purchased all his equipment purchased from Roush, one item was worth more than the rest.

“It’s like the American Express commercial. Jack said, ‘Cars, $150,000. Motors $75,000,’ but the fact that he offered me his little black book with all the setups in it, that’s priceless.”

Rookie David Stremme qualified a career best third, his previous best start was fourth at Darlington earlier in the season. He started 32nd at Daytona in February.

-(Cont'd from front page) “It's the same chassis we ran in the 500, “Stremme said of his Dodge. “I wish it was back in February and the year was starting out so we could start out the year a little different, but I'm pretty proud of my team.“

Behind Stremme, Jeff Gordon will start fourth and Joe Nemechek round out the top five.

Five cars failed to qualify, Scott Wimmer, Kevin LePage, Kenny Wallace, Chad Blount and Kertus Davis.

For Boris Said, his first pole on an oval had the road course ace grinning ear to ear.

“I’ll probably sleep like a baby tonight,” he said. “I’m just delighted and have a lot of pride and satisfaction with what our little team has done in the last eight weeks – to get a top 10 last week at Sears Point and run in the top six all day, and then to come here and beat all these guys for the pole is just a dream come true. It’s really, really exciting.”

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