NASCAR Cup Series

Said, Biffle put feud on hold after chat

Published Aug. 17, 2011 1:00 a.m. ET

Larry McReynolds

I know that after the postrace issues Monday at Watkins Glen between Boris Said and Greg Biffle, fans were excited to see when those two might be racing together again.

Actually, I don’t think they will race again this year. Biffle doesn’t run any NASCAR Nationwide Series races, and, since we are done with all the road-course races in the Sprint Cup Series, Said might not return this year. He hardly drives anything more in Cup than those events.

As you all know, I am very vocal about never using the race car for retaliation. It tears up equipment that the guys back in the shop have to fix. It costs the owner money, plus there is always the risk of someone getting hurt that had nothing in the disagreement.

Said felt the same way, and that’s why he went over to have it out face to face with Biffle following the race. The two argued and were separated and then everyone knows what Boris said in his interview on TV. If you don't, he spoke in disparaging terms of Biffle and threatened physical violence at a later time.

Hopefully, everyone realizes it was the heat of the moment. Now sure, Said talked about giving Biffle a black eye. But in reality, he didn’t mean it, nor would he do it.

The two of them have talked on the phone for about an hour and have resolved their differences. You will never ever hear me say that is a bad thing when professional athletes, like these two are, sit down and put their cards on the table.

Now, obviously, there is no guarantee that once these two are on the track together again and something happens that all this won’t come back to the surface. To me, though, knowing from what Said revealed, that they talked for an hour, leads me to believe both have moved forward and are putting this all behind them.

As I mentioned earlier, they might not see each other on the track together again until at Infineon Raceway next year. So I think this storyline has definitely become old news.

What I found interesting from Monday was that four of our top-10 finishers are teams that had crew chief changes in the past two months or so.

Martin Truex Jr., with his new crew chief Chad Johnson, actually got his first top-five finish of the year. Juan Pablo Montoya was another, and he finished seventh. AJ Allmendinger also enjoyed the benefits of a new crew chief by coming home eighth. Jeff Burton finished one spot back as his team got its first top 10 of the year.

With Brad Keselowski all but wrapping up the first of the two wild-card spots, there are three drivers — Denny Hamlin, Paul Menard and David Ragan — who had golden opportunities to improve their chance for that final wild-card spot, but didn’t. Unfortunately, all three had dismal days and no one could take advantage of the other two's misfortune.

So I am sure all three of those guys are glad to put Watkins Glen in their rearview mirror.

This weekend, the race is at Michigan International Speedway. Hamlin has won there before, so he has to be feeling pretty upbeat. Michigan is also a good track for Menard and for Ragan, so the storyline of who will get the final wild-card spot, with only four races to go, is one I will be definitely watching.