WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. -- Boris Said's "bucket list" will get another check Sunday at Watkins Glen International when the veteran road racer drives Kyle Petty's No. 45 Dodge in the Centurion Boats at The Glen.

For the fourth time in the last five years, pole qualifying for the Sprint Cup Series' second road race of the season was canceled Friday when rain eliminated NASCAR's "window of opportunity." Said is a part owner of No Fear Racing, whose No. 60 Ford was sent home Friday. That's when Petty approached him.

“

If somebody had told me 10 years ago that I would drive for Eddie Wood and now Richard Petty I would have told 'em, 'Yeah, you're crazy -- I might as well land on the moon.

”

BORIS SAID

"I love Watkins Glen, but I don't love Fridays at Watkins Glen because it's always raining, and this is two years in a row," Said said of being sent home without a qualifying attempt. "Kyle Petty asked me to drive his car to help them out in the points situation -- and for me, personally that was like the movie The Bucket List.

"It's pretty cool to put on your bucket list that you drove for the King [Richard Petty] and Kyle. So I'm pretty pleased about it. If somebody had told me 10 years ago that I would drive for Eddie Wood and now Richard Petty I would have told 'em, 'Yeah, you're crazy -- I might as well land on the moon.'"

Last year when qualifying also was rained out, Bill Elliott stepped out of the Wood Brothers' No. 21 Ford and let Said drive. He finished 14th.

"Boris is known around the world as one of the premier road-course racers," said Robbie Loomis, vice president of operations at Petty Enterprises. "He'll give us another great opportunity to assess our program. Everyone at Petty Enterprises is grateful to Boris for helping us out."

The No. 45 Dodge is 40th in the owner standings, 242 points out of the top 35.

It's the 10th consecutive race in which Petty has been out of the seat. The absence began when he attended daughter Montgomery Lee's wedding at the beginning of June, included six races in which he was part of the TNT broadcast team and continues as the team evaluates its cars and organization.

Points leader Kyle Busch and second-place Dale Earnhardt Jr. will lead the 43-car field to the green on Sunday after the lineup was set according to the rulebook for the fifth time this season. Previous rainouts occurred at California, Bristol, Michigan and Chicagoland.

NASCAR spokesman Kerry Tharp said that it takes two hours and 15 minutes to conduct a Sprint Cup single-car qualifying session on The Glen's 2.45-mile road course, 90 minutes to conduct pre-qualifying inspection and "obviously we'd need some practice."

"There is a Grand-Am Rolex Series race scheduled at 6:15 p.m., and it's being televised," Tharp said at about 2:40 p.m. "Our window of opportunity has left us."

Cars also needed to practice for Saturday's Nationwide Series Zippo 200, whose qualifying session is scheduled Saturday at 10:40 a.m. Nationwide activities could be conducted on rain tires, but they never got on the wet racetrack for their first practice, which was scheduled at 1:45 p.m.

Fast facts

What	Centurion Boats at The Glen
When	2 p.m. ET Sunday
TV	ESPN, 1 p.m. ET
Radio	MRN (Sirius Ch. 28), 1 ET

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• By the Numbers: The Glen

Nationwide practice began on a dry track dry at 2:51 p.m., and it ended a few minutes before 5 p.m. when Landon Cassill crashed his No. 4 Chevrolet in Turn 1, without injury.

Some of the 45 Sprint Cup cars in the garage had rolled onto pit road for their 11:45 a.m. practice session when, only minutes before practice started, a heavy rainstorm hit. Rain fell intermittently until almost 1:30 p.m.

With the cancellation of Sprint Cup qualifying, the car of Brian Simo (No. 34 Front Row Motorsports Ford) was the other that was sent home. Ironically Simo is a co-owner of No Fear Racing.

Said had to receive permission from Doug Hervey, manager of Ford Racing Technology's North American operations, to do the deal with the Pettys.

"Before I could do it, I actually had to ask Ford for permission because this is the first year [Ford] has actually helped me out. They gave me the go-ahead to do it," Said said. "Doug was really gracious. He said, 'I know you're a racer and I don't want you driving a Dodge, but you don't get to do this every week,' and he gave me his blessing.

"I'm depressed because the four guys that we have working in our shop put so much work into getting that car so good for here, and now two years in a row we haven't even started the motor."

A 45-minute Sprint Cup practice is set for noon Saturday, with final practice following at 1:20 p.m.