Boris Said finished 17th on Sunday. Credit: Autostock

Sunoco Pit Move: Sonoma

SONOMA, Calif. -- Boris Said it was just a matter of one second.

Said lost a shot to win the Dodge/Save Mart 350 when he elected to pit just as the caution flew on Lap 69.

	Autostock
	Sunoco Pit MoveSaid gambles and loses with an ill-timed stop Sign up for TrackPass now and earn Fan Miles BUY YOUR NEXTEL DRIVER PHONE

Said was running fourth, but NASCAR said he entered the pits too soon. The resulting penalty sent Said to the rear of the field.

"I committed to the line and the light went red right when I got there," said Said. "The same thing happened to me in Mexico.

Could he have beaten Tony Stewart if he hadn't gotten caught on pit road?

"I don't know if I had anything for Tony, but I think I would have finished second," Said said.

Fill 'er up

Sonoma makes for some interesting strategy because teams don't necessarily place a lot of emphasis on fast pit stops.

A handful rolled the dice on Sunday with 45 laps to go, and they made it work, mainly because teams spend an eternity on pit road making sure the fuel cells are packed full.

"(Crew chief Wilburn) Billy told them that was the most important thing on that pit stop," said Dale Jarrett, who finished fifth. "Making sure we got plenty of fuel in it."

Martin biggest casualty of speeders

DODGE/SAVE MART 350 •   Results •   Driver Standings •   Lap-by-Lap

Mark Martin was burned for speeding during his stop on Lap 35, and that penalty was the death knoll on his day.

Martin qualified third and remained in the top five until the first round of pit stops, but he was ticketed entering the pits. After a drive-through penalty was served, he never was able to return to the lead pack.

He finished 15th and remained fifth in the points.

Sonoma: Simple pit road

The pit lane at Sonoma gives the drivers a nice break after experiencing the demons of Dover, Pocono and Michigan in recent weeks.

Sonoma's pit lane is easy to locate entering Turn 10, and its wide expanses make for clean pit stops.

Quotable

"We passed a lot of cars on pit road. We should have been out of fuel, but we figured we have to get in The Chase. We were 13th in points. The 24 and 48 had broken transmissions and the 16 had pitted out of sequence. We had to take the chance and it ended up working out."
-- Slugger Labbe, crew chief for Jeremy Mayfield, after his car used fuel mileage to finish seventh and jump two spots in the standings.