Joe Gibbs Racing has added Boris Said to its group of drivers to fill-in for Kyle Busch in the XFINITY Series.
Denny Hamlin (Full Story) and Erik Jones (Full Story) are also part of the rotation to fill the seat vacated by the injured Busch. On Tuesday JGR confirmed the addition of Said to its plans.
The 52-year old veteran will pilot seven XFINITY Series events with the No. 54 team including Talladega Superspeedway on May 2, Iowa Speedway on May 17 and August 1, Chicagoland Speedway on June 20, Mid Ohio Sportscar Course on August 15, Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin on August 29 and Kentucky Speedway on September 26.
Said has competed in 137 events across NASCAR’s top three divisions, on all types of racetracks. Additionally Said has recorded time in the K&N East/West Series, ARCA, V8 Supercars, Grand-Am Sports Car, American Le Mans, Tudor United Sports Car and other exhibition series races. Said has experienced on-track time with various team owners and with all of NASCAR’s manufacturer partners including Toyota Racing in 2010. In the XFINITY Series Said has registered 23 races and one victory earned in 2010 at the Montreal, Canada event.
“We hate this for Kyle (Busch) obviously and I think everyone is focused on getting him back healthy,” said Joe Gibbs, owner of Joe Gibbs Racing. “We can’t thank Monster Energy and all of our partners enough for working with us while Kyle is recovering and certainly it is nice to have Denny (Hamlin) and Erik (Jones) ready to fill in. We’re also excited that Boris (Said) will have the opportunity to drive the car for seven races in 2015.”
“We are excited to be able to have talent like Denny (Hamlin), Erik (Jones) and road racing guru Boris Said to come in and back up Kyle in tough times. Of course we miss Kyle and wish he was out there for us, but we have full confidence in all our guys,” states Vice President of Sports Marketing for Monster Energy Mitch Covington.
Jones, who finished 13th at Atlanta this past weekend in the No. 54 Toyota, will next race at Phoenix International Raceway on March 14 and subsequently April 24 at Richmond International Raceway.
