I love an underdog.

You tell me about a guy who doesn't have a snowball's chance in you-know-where, and that's the guy I'm pulling for.

I guess it's because as a kid, I was a wee fella. Being 13 and 4-foot-11 doesn't exactly make you a favorite to win anything, so I can identify with the little guy.

The 1980 U.S. Hockey team still makes me weepy- eyed when I watch the semifinal game against the Soviets.

I get all kind of excited when I watch Jim Valvano running around after the 1983 NCAA Championship game.

The best parallel in racing is the 1992 Winston Cup Champion, Alan Kulwicki, the last driver-owner to win the championship. His car wasn't even a Ford Thunderbird -- it was the "Underbird." There was no way that guy should have won a championship. It was awesome.

So, you shouldn't have to think too hard to figure out who I was on my knees yelling for last Saturday night.

There is no logical reason why Boris Said should have won the pole for last week's race at Daytona in a car that his team, No Fear Racing, leased from Roush Racing.

But there he was at the drop of the green flag leading the field. Of course, the car, as Said predicted, "fell through the field like an anvil through water." A few laps into the event Said was backsliding toward the back of the pack. It looked like Said was destined to be another one of the non-regular also-rans (how's it going, Derrick Cope?) after spending most of the race near the back of the lead-lap cars.

But after a late caution, and a brazen call by crew chief and team co-owner Frank Stoddard (he of "we have to make a new pitting rule in the All-Star race" fame), there was ol' Boris running in the front of the field. A lead he held until two laps to go.

I have never cheered for someone to wreck a race car, but I was want-ing everyone from Tony Stewart on back to crash so that Boris could win.

There is no good reason Boris should have been leading one of NASCAR's biggest races with two laps to go.

Said is a world-class racer.

Road racer, that is.

This is a guy who has made a living driving in the SCCA TransAm series and a variety of sports cars in Europe. At 6-3, and a head capped with bushy hair, he looks like the two guard on the Lithuanian national basketball team, not like a guy who is leading a NASCAR race at Daytona in a rented race car.

Watkins Glen, maybe.

But Daytona, no.

In the current climate of NASCAR, Boris Said is just the kind of guy race fans need. It was nice to see a sometime guy at the front mixing it up with the mega-team drivers like Stewart, Matt Kenseth and the Busch Brothers.

Even Stewart said that a Said win would be the best thing for racing. To Said, the fourth-place finish was as good as a win.

Said and Stoddard plan to run the No Fear Ford at least twice more this year: At the Watkins Glen road course, where he will be a prohibitive favorite, and at Indianapolis in August.

Hopefully, Boris will make us underdogs proud again.