Sunny California

Well, it’s high noon on Friday afternoon, August 16, 2007 here in sunny Carlsbad, California and I’m sitting in the lobby of No Fear’s corporate headquarters watching Nextel Cup Qualifying from Michigan International Speedway. I guess most people would be happy to be sitting around relaxing and taking in Nextel Cup qualifying, but as I sit here watching each driver take his shot at Michigan, I’m bummed. I wish more than anything I was out there driving. But right now I’m fast at it, pounding the pavement looking for sponsors for 2008 (unless DEI calls me up and tells me they’re putting me in the Number Eight car for the ’08 Daytona 500). It’s funny sitting here watching cars qualify under bright blue skies when the last two times I tried to qualify for a Cup race, the rains came and sent me and our crew home. As you can imagine, Daytona was a biter pill to swallow. It was tough to have to miss a race miss we did so well at last year. And, man, Daytona is such a cool place to race at. It was a real bummer to not get the Bud Pole at the Pepsi 400, but the biggest disappointment is that if the rain would have stayed away, we’d probably would have made it into the 2008 Bud Shootout. Watkins Glen was full of highs and lows. I went from being super-disappointed at not being able to qualify, to getting an early Christmas present the next morning when the Woods Brothers asked me if I’d be interested in racing their car. To drive for a team as prestigious as the Woods Brothers and to be behind the wheel of the #21 car was just awesome. I felt good about coming from 43rd to 14th in the race, but I really think we could have gotten into the top 10. Unfortunately, I couldn’t drive my normal race as I was on a mission to get the team in the top 35 in Owners’ Points. Towards the very end of the race I was 10 places ahead of Dave Blaney, so I had to take that into account and hold stay true to the masterplan. In fact as the laps wound down, #2 and #12 cars were racing me hard. I made the decision to pull over and let them by as they’re trying to get in The Chase and I had gotten the car into the Top 35. So what’s next for me and the #60 No Fear team? Next week I go to Charlotte to give rides to Ingersol-Rand employees. Then I’ll do a couple of weeks of ESPN TV. And… Hopefully, soon I’ll be able to announce I’ll be doing a one-off race at New Hampshire for a different, very high profile Nextel Cup team. As far as driving the #60 No Fear Ford Fusion goes, my next race will be at Talladega in October. Then it’s time to go right back to work in finding sponsors for the 2008 season. We’ve had a lot of interested sponsors kicking tires, so maybe we’ll get lucky and get the support we need to run a full schedule in 2008. Okay. Stay tuned to this site for breaking news. I’ll be back in contact with you fine folks soon.

See ya’

Boris Said