The Teacher Becomes the Master: Said Wins In Montreal

Boris Said has been teaching short track kids how to turn right for over a decade.

Until Sunday, Boris had only one touring series win ever, the 1998 Craftsman Truck series race at Sonoma. That year was also the last time Boris Said was an actual full time driver in any NASCAR series.

Boris has 11 years of Cup Series expirence, but has never driven more than 9 races in a single year. But that doesn’t mean that Boris is not a great driver. He’s just better known as a Road Course ringer than a full time driver.

Hundreds have received lessons in road racing from Boris Said. It was time for the master to show them how it’s done. After Marcos Ambrose yet again suffered heartbreak in Canada, this time thanks to an electrical problem, it seemed that this was going to come down to Carl Edwards and Robby Gordon.

Jacques Villeneuve and Max Papis looked to challenge the two Cup regulars, but both road ringers were having problems keeping up. Montreal would not allow Edwards to win back to back. A track bar broke on the no. 60 Ford. Once it broke, the rear tires began to shift violently in the rear of the car. Edwards went into the pits, lost a lap and when all was said and done, Edwards was 4 laps down.

He managed to finish the race, but his 20th place finish put his championship hopes further out of reach.

Then there was Robby Gordon. Gordon started alongside Max Papis with just 7 to go. As they hit the turn, Gordon ran Papis right into the grass. This is a move that Mr. Gordon has used to great avail many times in the past. But Papis didn’t relent, he drove through the grass and right back into the path of Gordon. Due to the move, Jason Leffler was hit by teammate Jacques Villeneuve, and Colin Braun was collected.

Caution.

Gordon was now running low on gas, but felt he could make it. That was until Trevor Bayne got into J.R. Fitzpatrick and Jason Leffler blew up, causing a red flag. You could make the case that Gordon’s move caused both accidents, since Leffler blew because of the damage he took in that wreck.

The incident would be Gordon’s undoing. When the feild got back under way, Gordon ran out of gas. He would finish 14th, two laps down. Ambrose just may have smiled.

That set up a wild finish that saw Boris Said in the Zaxby’s Ford battling with Max Papis in the Rheem Chevy, and Jacques Villeneuve in the Dollar General Toyota. Boris and Papis would battle side by side to the flag, where Boris would out run Papis by a fender.

Something the ESPN announce team failed to tell you was that not only was it Boris Said’s first Nationwide victory, but it was also RAB Racing’s first ever Nascar Victory. The 09 has never won in 53 starts.

I loved this race, but ESPN let me down big. They talked to Papis, who was great as always, and Villeneuve, then gave a very weak interview with Boris Said before cutting to basketball. Not to mention the very weak qualifing coverage. There was no more then 6 cars on track at the same time during qualifing, yet ESPN failed to show every driver making a lap. When Papis and Ambrose were out there, we didn’t even see Keselowski or Logano make a run. Of the 46 cars making a lap, we saw maybe 20 of them. It was incredibly biased and quite dissapointing. They failed to talk about the fact that some of these guys had to race in on time, and even failed to tell us who failed to qualify. I had to go online just to see that Stanton Barrett, Kevin O’Connell and Canada’s own Pierre Bourque failed to make the race. What a joke. Bad broadcasting failed to take away from a one of a kind race though.
Results and more after the JUMP!

Keselowski had one of the hardest fought top 5’s I’ve seen all year. There was nothing left of Keso’s car when he crossed the line, and I’m pretty sure if they would of had one more lap, that car would have fallen apart. The 2011 debut of Andrew Ranger and Justin Marks was rather uneventful. Both were out before lap 14.

The race for the top 30 got a bit more interesting. With Boris Said winning, that propelled the RAB Ford from 28th up to 24th in owner points. A bad day by both the 35 and 81 kept Keller in and McDowell out. Here’s how they stack up:

That’s all for this week. Join us next week when the Nationwide Boys head to Atlanta for the Great Clips 300. Enjoy!