Sadler loves ovals, accepts road courses on schedule
By SceneDaily Staff
Thursday, August 07, 2008
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Geoff Burke / Getty Images for NASCAR
Gillett Evernham Motorsports' Elliott Sadler (right) talks with team director Rodney Childers.
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Count Elliott Sadler as one of the Sprint Cup drivers who is happy there aren’t any more road races on the Cup schedule. Not that he doesn’t like racing on road courses, but Sadler’s background makes him long for oval tracks.
In 19 road-course starts in his Cup career, the Gillett Evernham Motorsports driver has only five top-10 finishes. So as the series heads to Watkins Glen International for this weekend’s Centurion Boats at The Glen, Sadler is simply hoping to escape with a solid finish.
“I’m glad we only [race on a road course] twice a year,.” Sadler said. “Road courses are extremely challenging on both the driver and the team. It’s definitely a challenge I enjoy, but it takes a much different approach to driving and setting up the car to be successful on a road course.
“We prepare our cars each week to do one specific thing – turn left, and now we have to set up the car in a completely different way. We have to drive the car in a completely different way. I think it’s exciting for the fans, and they really enjoy it, and I know most of the drivers enjoy it. We just go out, try to have fun and of course we do our best to win.”
Sadler grew up racing on the short tracks around his home of South Boston, Va., so road racing is a foreign concept to him. He’s still learning the finer points of racing on a road course.
“We tested at [Virginia International Raceway] last week and worked on the car to find a good balance,” Sadler said. “[Team director] Rodney [Childers] and I worked on our setup for this week and tried a lot of new things. As with almost any road course, the real preparation begins when we arrive at the race track on Friday. We test what we can on similar style road courses, but there is nothing like getting on the actual race track and working on the car.
“I try to push my Dodge to the limit in each and every area of a road course. Once I figure out how far I can push it, that’s when start to put
together a strategy to drive the car. With every lap in practice, you find out just what you can and can’t do with your car.”
- Mentioned Drivers:
- Elliott Sadler
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