Background and career
Boris Robert Said III (born September 18, 1962) is an American professional racing driver. Said has competed in a variety of disciplines including stock cars, sports cars and touring cars. Said last competed part-time in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, driving the No. 17 Chevrolet Camaro for Hendrick Motorsports. His NASCAR career began in 1995 as a road course ringer primarily due to his success on such tracks; he won one race each in the Xfinity and Truck Series. He routinely ran NASCAR Cup races at road courses, with best results of third at Watkins Glen 2005 and fourth at the 2006 Firecracker 400 at Daytona. Said served as a factory BMW Motorsport driver, claiming the Rolex Sports Car Series GT drivers title in 2004. He also won overall at the 24 Hours Nürburgring in 2005 and the Six Hours of the Glen in 2006. His father Boris "Bob" Said was a sports car racer and Olympic bobsledder.
Said's early interest and pursuit was in motocross racing. In 1985, while attending the Detroit Grand Prix as a spectator, he met SCCA champion Bob Sharp. Said began racing with the SCCA in 1987. Said was named SCCA rookie of the year in 1988. In 1991, he began driving for Baer Racing, later to become Baer Brake Systems. Upon Baer's withdrawal from the series to focus on the manufacturing of brakes in 1992, Said got another big ride driving in the IMSA series in 1993, driving a BMW M3. He won the 1997 and 1998 24 Hours of Daytona and the 1998 12 Hours of Sebring in IMSA. He also became the first American to win the 24 Hours Nürburgring in 2005, driving a BMW Motorsport-entered BMW M3 GTR with co-drivers Pedro Lamy, Duncan Huisman and Andy Priaulx.
Said made his NASCAR debut in 1995 in the Craftsman Truck Series at Sears Point International Raceway, driving the No. 4 Ford F-150 for Irvan-Simo Racing. He started 25th and finished 24th out of a 26-truck field due to overheating problems. He made three starts the following year driving Irvan's No. 28 1-800-Collect Ford. His best finish was thirteenth, at I-70 Speedway. Said moved to trucks full time in 1997, in the No. 44 Federated Auto Parts Ford. While his rookie season did not yield any wins, he finished second at the Pronto Auto Parts 400K and finished 16th in the final standings. Said received notice from fans and drivers when he contacted championship contender Rich Bickle at the 1997 October Sonoma truck race. Bickle had blamed Said for causing him to lose a top-five running and made contact that cut down Said's tire. In reply, an angry Said waited for Bickle to come back around and retaliated. Both drivers apologized the next day. Said was fined $15,000 and was suspended until he paid the fine. The following year, Said won his first career Truck Series race, at Sears Point, in addition to his first truck pole, at Heartland Park Topeka. He also made his Busch Series debut, at Watkins Glen International Raceway, starting on the pole but finishing fortieth in the No. 12 Zippo Chevy owned by Jimmy Spencer. In 1999, Said scaled back on his Truck Series schedule, running only six events. He won poles at Portland and Topeka for Irvan-Simo, as well as driving for Team Racing and Bobby Rahal. He made his Winston Cup debut, at Watkins Glen, qualifying on the outside pole and leading nine laps before his No. 14 Ford suffered engine problems. He also drove at Homestead-Miami Speedway, finishing 34th. In 2000, Said made what would be his final truck series start for five years, at Portland, finishing fifteenth. After a 30th place run at California Speedway, he returned to the Cup Series, driving the No. 23 for Jimmy Spencer, and finished 42nd at Sears Point. He also attempted the Cup race at Watkins Glen but failed to qualify due to a lack of owner's points.
Said saw limited action in 2001, as a warrant for his arrest was issued relating to a civil lawsuit dating back to 1989, though the situation was settled out-of-court soon afterwards, allowing Said to resume his career. He would go on to finish fourth in a Busch Series race at Watkins Glen in a Robbie Reiser-owned car and drove a pair of races for Jasper Motorsports. He competed for the win in the 2001 Cup Series race at the Glen. While running third on the final restart, Said tried to make a pass by Jeff Burton to try to take the lead from the dominant car of Jeff Gordon but got held up in traffic, causing him to slip back to eighth place, scoring his first top-ten of his Cup Series career. After running with Jasper again in 2002, Said served as a fill-in driver for Jerry Nadeau at MB2/MBV Motorsports. He won the pole for the Sears Point race in California. He stayed in the top-ten all race. With pit strategies, it seemed like the win would come down to Said and fellow road ace Ron Fellows. However, Said and Fellows forgot to pit when they were told to before a caution came out. Because they did not pit before the caution with 38 laps to go, Said and Fellows lost their shot at the win. Said restarted 26th and recovered for sixth place. At Watkins Glen, Said would have a very fast No. 01 Pontiac driving through the field towards the front, only to be taken out by Robby Gordon who would go on to win the race. In a post-race interview, and in the years afterwards, Said would claim that the 2003 Watkins Glen race was the biggest disappointment of his racing career, as it was the best car he had ever driven. Said signed on to drive a limited schedule for the team in 2004, running the No. 36 Centrix Financial Chevrolet, and finished sixth once again at Sears Point. The team expanded to run more races for 2005, where his best finish in nine starts was a third at Watkins Glen. During that season, he returned to the truck series, finishing 35th at Kentucky Speedway while filling for an injured Rick Crawford. He also ran two races in the Busch Series for Phoenix Racing and had a fifth place finish at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez in Mexico City. At year's end, Said and the MB2 team parted ways after Centrix Financial went bankrupt.
Said joined Evernham Motorsports to help the team's road-course program in 2006. He won the pole at Mexico City and finished second, as well as driving the No. 4 Geico Dodge Charger for Biagi-DenBeste Racing at Lowe's Motor Speedway, starting 40th and finishing 31st. In May 2006, Said and crew chief Frank Stoddard and Mark Simo announced the creation of No Fear Racing, which used equipment from Roush Fenway Racing. They ran four Cup races starting with the Dodge/Save Mart 350 at Infineon Raceway. He won the pole at the Pepsi 400, his first Nextel Cup pole on an oval, in one of the biggest upsets in Daytona history. Following his pole win, he promised a pit reporter that if he either won the race, the race at Watkins Glen International or an NNS race within three years, that he would shave his head, come to the channel the next week and show everybody. He was leading the race with three laps to go and was passed by his friend Tony Stewart; after two more laps, he finished fourth—his highest career NASCAR finish on an oval track. In a post-race interview, Said emotionally said his performance in the Pepsi 400 was "the highlight of my career." At Watkins Glen, Said had originally finished sixth, but hours after the race was over he was to 31st place by officials due to a scoring error. Years later, it was revealed that Said and fellow road-course ringer Ron Fellows had each been given a thirt-second penalty for having made illegal passes through the inner-loop on the final lap. Said qualified and ran in the 2007 Daytona 500. Although he was not in the top 35 teams from the 2006 owner's points, Said posted the fastest qualifying time among non-locked teams and the sixth-fastest qualifying time overall. Starting in 23rd position, Said dropped back to last place near the beginning of the race and had no hope of regaining enough speed to finish well. However, he got a good finish when he managed to avoid a massive crash at the finish and cross the line in fourteenth place, behind winner Kevin Harvick. Said finished ninth at Sonoma but failed to qualify at Daytona and Watkins Glen due to rain. Said failed to qualify for the 2008 Daytona 500 but had a productive NNS season. Following an incident with Marcos Ambrose at Mexico City that wrecked his car, Said angrily wagged his finger at Ambrose when he passed by to lap him down. Said initially vowed payback against Ambrose, but he ultimately moved forward. Said came back and finished fifth in Montreal that year. The following week, Said drove one race at Watkins Glen for Jimmy Means in partnership between Means and No Fear. Due to the weather, qualifying was rained out, and the No. 60 car failed to qualify. Said instead drove the No. 45 car for Petty Enterprises.
No Fear Racing merged with the No. 08 E&M Motorsports car in 2009 to become Carter-Simo Racing, and Said qualified for the races at Infineon and Watkins Glen in the No. 08. He also attempted the Daytona 500 in the same car, but failed to qualify for the race for the second straight year. Said drove the No. 26 for Latitude 43 Motorsports in 2010. He also announced a one-year deal to drive the No. 09 Zaxby's NNS Ford for RAB Racing in the Nationwide series road-course events. He ran the first four races and Infineon. His crew chief, Frank Stoddard, was livid with Tony Stewart for contact on the final lap of the Infineon race and confronted him in the garage, but Said did not take part in it and apologized for his team's behavior the next day. The cars used were former Roush Fenway Racing Fords, and the team, which finished 22nd in 2009 and was sold to satisfy NASCAR's four-cars-per-team rule, had exemptions for the first five races of 2010. By August 2010, Said stated that he did not expect to be back with Latitude 43. Said received a one-race deal from Red Bull Racing at Watkins Glen to replace an ill Brian Vickers. He was having a good run, but in the ending laps, he made contact with Stewart that took him out of contention to win.
