Carter Simo musical chairs ends with Said at The Glen (cont'd)

Reath watched some races, liked the way Patten competed and went down in the pits to meet him and another young man who worked days in an auto parts store owned by New England racing legend Stub Fadden and worked on race cars at night. Reath started out buying Patten some tires and ended up buying his whole racing operation.

Working out of a two-stall garage, Patten and Stoddard, his crew chief and front-tire changer, ran five Cup Series races in 1988 in a No. 96 U.S. Chrome Buick.

Their car's paint scheme this weekend is a throwback, a simple red-and-white look that's a tribute to what the little guys from New England did more than 20 years ago.

"It's exciting to have Bob back in the sport after we started our first Cup race together over 21 years ago," Stoddard said. "I look forward to trying to contend for the win with the retro U.S. Chrome paint scheme that brings back a lot of great memories."

"It's a beautiful-looking car, just awesome," Said said. "But to tell you the truth, I'd like driving that car if it was pink or if it was black -- it doesn't matter. It's just a bonus that it looks nice."

Said said another bonus was meeting Reath, when U.S. Chrome backed their 2009 Daytona 500 qualifying attempt. Said went up to Connecticut, where he grew up, and toured the plant in Stratford.

"He's more of a racing enthusiast than anyone I've ever seen," Said said. "The passion he has for motorsports is unbelievable -- from Indy to stock cars, everything. So part of the sponsorship deal is just his love of motorsports, and he kinda likes the idea that we're the Rocky Balboa underdog and he really like the fact that he's helping us out.

"And two, the people that work at his company are all race fans that are diehard racers, so it's a pretty neat deal."

Stoddard said Reath and several members of his family would be at Watkins Glen this weekend, including Reath's son, who runs the company's Wisconsin plant and got hooked on Sprint Cup racing when Stoddard invited him and his wife to the event at Sonoma earlier this season.

And even though Said knows he's driving now, that doesn't eliminate the knife-edge fact that he's a go-or-go-home entry and he still has to beat at least three drivers in a crowd that includes road racers Ron Fellows, Max Papis, Andy Lally, Scott Speed, P.J. Jones, Brian Simo Tony Ave.

"It's no different than [Sonoma]," Said said of the circuit's other road course, where he tiptoed around to qualify ninth. "If you had a provisional you'd go out there and run 10/10ths, or you could do like Scott Speed did, go off the road and it could bite you and you could go home.

"At [Sonoma] we were lucky that we were fast enough in practice -- we were a top-three car -- that in qualifying you go out and run 80 percent and you qualify. We don't know yet, but if we're fast we'll be OK but if for some reason you're not, you've just got to run a fast lap and hope you stay on the road -- and that's nerve-wracking because it is really easy to make a mistake."