Here’s a plea to all of Corporate America: Will somebody please give Boris Said a shot in the arm to go NASCAR racing full-time?
By doing so, you’d be giving all of NASCAR’s fans a boost, much like the current SoBe No Fear energy drink that Boris currently hawks on the side of his No. 60 Ford Fusion.
What does NASCAR desperately need? Well, that’s a long and distinguished list, but the line item currently under discussion is personalities. By any measure, Said is a personality; his crazy ’do and wide-open style combined with a sense of humor have inspired grown men to wear wigs worthy of Don King and Dr. J and parade around the paddock in “Said Head” T-shirts.

What does NASCAR desperately need? Well, that’s a long and distinguished list, but the line item currently under discussion is personalities.

He can be corporate if necessary, but that isn’t necessarily where he’s most comfortable. That would be behind the wheel of a racing car. But for some reason, he hasn’t been able to attract sponsorship for more than a limited schedule.
“This sport has evolved to where it’s not cheap and I don’t really know what the problem is, but we’re not gonna get deterred by it,” he said. “Our No. 1 goal is that we’re gonna be a full-time team eventually, whether I’m driving or not. That’s the plan for No Fear Racing and I think we have everything in place. We have a great relationship with Roush and Yates with the engines, so we have all the pieces in place to be one of the top teams, we just need to keep getting better and better.”
Boris Said is a championship-caliber road racer, with emphasis on the last word there. He’s as much a racer as Tony Stewart is, and that’s saying something. Both would give up body parts to win a race, both have that inborn instinct to go for the gusto that all racers need and finally, they inspire others to appreciate what they do simply by doing it well, with heart and emotion.
To quote the obscure Shane Falco in “The Replacements,” “Pain heals, chicks dig scars and glory…lasts forever.”
 “I love road racing,” Boris said last week during testing at Daytona. “That’s where I came from and I’m proud of that, but my goal right now is to try to make it here [in Sprint Cup]. That’s where 100 percent of my effort is and I’ve actually stopped doing a lot of road racing to concentrate on this and leave weekends open for Cup so I can learn more about it.”
In 29 Cup starts, Said has six top-10 finishes and two poles. One of those was for the Pepsi 400 in 2006, and he nearly won the race had it not been for Stewart’s late pass.
Last season, he had taken a step forward in making races only to see his efforts washed away by that fickle witch Mother Nature.
“This is our third year with our little team,” said Boris. “The first year [2005] was unbelievable and last year looked like it was gonna be a great year and we got hampered by weather. We got rained out while we were sitting on the pole here for the July race and at Watkins Glen we got rained out. Then we went to Talladega and qualified 10th overall and missed the race because the Toyotas picked up so much speed.  It’s really tough for a part-time team to get in these races, so that’s our number one goal. Just to make this race [the 50th Daytona 500] would feel like a win.”
This year, Said will again attempt five Cup races and three Nationwide Series events. As always, he’d like to do more, predicated on “selling more cases, doing more races.”
Said will continue to work hard at making a splash in NASCAR, have No Fear.
“All I do is approach every race the same,” he said. “I wish I could race every weekend, but the races we do make, we’re gonna do everything we can to get the best finish possible. The number one goal for us though is always just to make the races.”
Please, sponsors, do us and yourselves a favor: give this man what he needs so he can give us — and NASCAR — what we need, which is a race-car-driving personality.