PLAYING IN THE BACKYARD:The NASCAR Nationwide Series comes home to racing’s backyard, Charlotte Motor Speedway, for the 13th race of the 2011 season. Elliott Sadler will take on “The Beast of the Southeast” in a Nationwide car for the first time since 2006. Sadler has eight Nationwide Series starts at the track, with one top five, one top 10, and a best finish of second (2005). Sadler made a Charlotte start for Kevin Harvick Inc. (KHI) in 2010, racing one of the team’s Truck Series entries to a fifth-place finish after starting fourth.
PICKING FAVORITES:Charlotte Motor Speedway is a favorite of Sadler’s, especially because it is the site of milestones and successes for the 16-year NASCAR veteran. Sadler made his first career NASCAR Sprint Cup Series start at the 1.5-mile quad-oval in 1998 and earned a pole at the track in the fall of 2005. Sadler has a combined total of 34 starts at the track and has led has led 223 laps across NASCAR’s top-three series.
RECORD BREAKER: Sadler has proven that he has what it takes to go fast at Charlotte Motor Speedway. In the fall of 2005, he broke the track’s speed record when he laid down a lap of 193.216 m.p.h. in Sprint Cup Series qualifying, nearly five miles per hour faster than the previous year’s speeds. In addition to clocking the fastest lap ever on the track, he vaulted Charlotte Motor Speedway to the title of fourth fastest non-restrictor plate track on the NASCAR circuit.
CHASSIS HISTORY: The No. 2 OneMain Financial team will unload chassis No. 072 this weekend at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Sadler raced this chassis to a fifth-place finish in its on-track debut at Texas Motor Speedway in April.
PREVIOUS RACE RECAP:In front of a sold-out crowd, Sadler brought home a fifth-place finish in his first visit to Iowa Speedway. Overcoming a pit road speeding penalty early in the race, Sadler fought his way back through the field to earn his seventh top-five finish of the season, maintaining a seven-point advantage in the NASCAR Nationwide Series Driver’s Point standings.
THOUGHTS FROM THE DRIVER: Elliott Sadler Charlotteseems to be a favorite track for a lot of drivers. What do you think about CMS? “I love it; it’s one of my favorite tracks that we race. It’s one of the tracks that I feel fits my driving style very well and it has always been good to me. I have the track record at Charlotte Motor Speedway in a Cup car, so it’s pretty cool to be known as the fastest guy to ever go around that racetrack. It’s a fun track, and it offers a lot of opportunity as far as multiple grooves. I feel good heading to Charlotte in this Nationwide car. We ran well earlier in the year at Texas, so we should run well there.” CitiFinancial CitiFinancial, soon to be OneMain Financial, is the premier community lender in North America. With more than 1,300 locations across the United States. CitiFinancial has been serving communities since 1912. Additional information may be found at www.citifinancial.com.
Citi Citi, the leading global financial services company, has approximately 200 million customer accounts and does business in more than 140 countries. Through Citicorp and Citi Holdings, Citi provides consumers, corporations, governments and institutions with a broad range of financial products and services, including consumer banking and credit, corporate and investment banking, securities brokerage, transaction services, and wealth management. Additional information may be found at www.citigroup.com or www.citi.com.
@KHI_NNS @Elliott_Sadler @OneMainRacing @KevinHarvick @DeLanaHarvick @KHI_TruckSeries
Fast Facts:
Elliott Sadler Nationwide Series Statistics at Charlotte Motor Speedway Starts: 8 Wins: 0 Poles: 0 Top 5: 1 Top 10: 1 Laps Led: 0 Average Start: 15.6 Average Finish: 23.0
Race Info: May 28, 2011 Charlotte Motor Speedway Top Gear 300 1.5-mile Quad-Oval 200 Laps/ 300 Miles
Broadcast Info: TV:ABC will broadcast live at 2:30 p.m. EST Radio:PRN will broadcast live at 2:00 p.m. EST
Car Specs: Chassis:072 Engine:Earnhardt-Childress Racing (ECR)
