SONOMA, Calif. - When does a previous champion turn to a guy running only a limited Nextel Cup schedule for advice? When the series is heading to a road course - and when the part-time driver is Boris Said.
That's who has been helping get Roush Fenway Racing, home of Cup champion Matt Kenseth, ready to race this weekend at Infineon Raceway.
Kenseth says he's looking forward to running a car of tomorrow this weekend more than he has been at any other track.
The reason, though, isn't exactly an optimistic one. Since he's generally not finished as well as he'd hoped in the regular car at Infineon Raceway, competing in the car of tomorrow's debut on a road course couldn't be all that bad.
Still, as he seeks his first top-10 finish on the California road course, Kenseth says he doesn't exactly know what to expect in Sunday's race on the 1.99-mile track.
"I expect it to be different," he said. "I'm sort of looking forward to it more than any other COT race just because I haven't run very good here in the stock cars here - the standard cars - so I'm kind of looking forward to doing something different and kind of starting with a clean slate and starting over."
Whether or not that translates into a top finish will be determined Sunday, but for now, Kenseth found himself asked to speculate on the overall impact of putting everyone in the new model. So does running the car of tomorrow on a road course even the playing field a little? Or do the road-course specialists and the people who generally perform well at the track still have an advantage?
"The guys that are better at it are still gonna be better at it and the guys who run good in the COT races, like the Hendrick [Motorsports] guys, are still gonna run good," he said. "But I feel like we've been closing the gap a little bit. I feel like our road course stuff has been pretty good."
And he feels confident in the help the team has gotten.
"Boris [Said] has been doing a lot of testing and been helping us a lot and I think that's gonna be a big plus for us," he said.
That's who has been helping get Roush Fenway Racing, home of Cup champion Matt Kenseth, ready to race this weekend at Infineon Raceway.
Kenseth says he's looking forward to running a car of tomorrow this weekend more than he has been at any other track.
The reason, though, isn't exactly an optimistic one. Since he's generally not finished as well as he'd hoped in the regular car at Infineon Raceway, competing in the car of tomorrow's debut on a road course couldn't be all that bad.
Still, as he seeks his first top-10 finish on the California road course, Kenseth says he doesn't exactly know what to expect in Sunday's race on the 1.99-mile track.
"I expect it to be different," he said. "I'm sort of looking forward to it more than any other COT race just because I haven't run very good here in the stock cars here - the standard cars - so I'm kind of looking forward to doing something different and kind of starting with a clean slate and starting over."
Whether or not that translates into a top finish will be determined Sunday, but for now, Kenseth found himself asked to speculate on the overall impact of putting everyone in the new model. So does running the car of tomorrow on a road course even the playing field a little? Or do the road-course specialists and the people who generally perform well at the track still have an advantage?
"The guys that are better at it are still gonna be better at it and the guys who run good in the COT races, like the Hendrick [Motorsports] guys, are still gonna run good," he said. "But I feel like we've been closing the gap a little bit. I feel like our road course stuff has been pretty good."
And he feels confident in the help the team has gotten.
"Boris [Said] has been doing a lot of testing and been helping us a lot and I think that's gonna be a big plus for us," he said.
