Said knows qualifying is tough at Daytona
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - Despite his successful recent history at Daytona International Speedway, Boris Said knows he faces long odds in trying to qualify for the 2008 Daytona 500.
Said won the pole for the 2006 Pepsi 400 at Daytona and held the provisional pole for the same event in 2007 before rain washed out qualifying and sent him packing. But with Toyota having made enormous gains with its restrictor-plate program, Said must find some speed in his No. 60 No Fear Ford to have a shot at making the show.
"The big worry for us is that, realistically, there are only six spots available in the race because somebody is going to take a past champion's provisional, and Kurt Busch is probably going to race his way in," explained Said, who was 24th fastest at 182.352 mph in Tuesday morning's session of single-car runs.
"He'll be fast enough to make it, and there are six Toyotas that seem to be pretty fast that are in the go or go-home group, so that kind of leaves us behind the eight-ball right now. We're just working hard, trying to find something to get some speed."
Said's analysis is correct. The top 35 in owner points from 2007 are guaranteed one of the 43 starting spots in the 50th running of the 500.
Kurt Busch, whose 2007 owner points were transferred from his No. 2 Dodge to the No. 77 of rookie Sam Hornish Jr., is likely to race his way into the field.
If either Dale Jarrett or Bill Elliott has to use a past champion's provisional, that leaves six spots open. If the number of cars attempting to qualify for the 500 equals last year's 61, that means 24 cars will compete for six starting spots, assuming Busch makes the field either on time or through one of the two Duel 150 qualifying races.
Newman's in for a surprise: Ryan Newman, who topped the speed charts during the first drafting session Tuesday afternoon, loves the bumpy racing surface at Daytona.
Asked whether the track needed repaving, Newman was adamant in his opposition.
"I hope they don't even think about repaving it," said Newman, who topped out at 188.013 mph in his No. 12B Dodge. "The character of Daytona is in the race track as well as the entire facility. To me, it's just like Darlington, where it's nice to have the character and manage through the bumps.
"It's nice to have that challenge of making your car handle and as a driver, make the difference. The bumpier the racetrack the more the driver does make a difference. It's kind of like the icy road thing. The icier the road, the guys (parked) on the shoulder are the guys that don't have the talent."
Only one problem. Someone must have forgotten to tell Newman that repaving at Darlington started Monday with the addition of the first of two layers of new asphalt.
Toyota's strength: Owner and driver Michael Waltrip says the strength of the Toyota teams in testing at Daytona was predictable. A two-time Daytona 500 winner, Waltrip was second fastest during single-car runs in Tuesday morning's session, and teammate Dale Jarrett was quickest in the opening session on Monday.
"I knew we would be really, really good, because we knew what we had at Talladega in October, and we got the pole there - that pole probably needed an asterisk by it, considering it was an impound race, and some of the good cars didn't worry as much about qualifying.
"In fact, one of the bus drivers looked up on the board after qualifying and said it looked like they were lining up for the B-main (event), because all the numbers up there were funny looking. But we know what kind of power we had then, and we know what kind of aero we had then. We came here with a little bit more of each, and I'm not surprised at all."