Sadler wins the NNS STP 300 at Chicagoland

[media-credit name=”Dan Sanger” align=”alignright” width=”233″][/media-credit]Elliott Sadler won the NASCAR Nationwide Series (NNS) STP 300 at Chicagoland Speedway on Sunday. Sadler led 35 laps and captured his first win at Chicagoland and the third of the season.

Sadler, spent most of the week battling a stomach virus, held off a hard charging Ricky Stenhouse Jr. on the final green-white-checkers restart.

Sadler also claimed a $100,000 bonus from series sponsor Nationwide Insurance through its Dash 4 Cash program. Stenhouse, Allgaier and Wallace will be the other three drivers vying for the $100,000 bonus next weekend.

Stenhouse lead a race high of 135 laps but had to pit during the green flag and the caution came out during his stop and he had to go to the back on the restart with 28 laps to go.

Justin Allgaier finished third, Kenny Wallace (best finish this season) fourth and Michael Annett rounded out the top-5.

“That’s just shades of the past.” Wallace said. “That’s the Hermanator.”

They started the race in overcast skies and Stenhouse loved those track conditions. Stenhouse started on pole but Sam Hornish lead the first 7 laps but then Stenhouse took over the lead and never looked back. Stenhouse, who drives for Jack Roush, has never won in Chicagoland and never has his team owner. They have had 37 starts and 11 poles, but Roush Fenway Racing (RFR) continues on without a win.

Green flag pit stops were starting to occur around lap 40 with the leaders coming in about two laps later. Kyle Busch was running 4th when he was too fast exiting and had to come in for a drive through penalty. Busch caught a good break when the No.23 of Jamie Dick broke something and stopped on the apron in turns 1 and 2. Brenden Gaughan also had trouble in the pits when he went to go in but caught the commitment cone and missed pit road. The caution came out and he and Mike Bliss went in for there stops.

On lap 127 the 3rd caution was waved when Brad Sweet spun the 38 Great Clips car in turns 1 and 2. Everybody pitted except for Stenhouse, Parker Kligerman, Austin Dillon, Brian Scott and Cole Whitt.

The third round of pit stops occurred around lap 165 when Dillon came in. Dillon got an air pressure adjustment hoping to correct a too tight condition. Stenhouse came in saying that something starting to go wrong with the right rear tire “bouncing”. Right in the middle of green flag pit stops Brad Sweet spun coming off of turn 2 and the caution came out. The rest of the drivers that did not pit on green including the No.2 of Elliott Sadler and the No.31 of Justin Allgaier came in and got four tires.

The final caution came out with 7 laps to go when the No.12 car of Sam Hornish Jr. pushed the No.54 of Busch into the wall collecting Gaughan. Busch was not happy and declined to comment after exiting his car. Hornish Jr. went on his radio told his crew chief to tell the “No.54 and the No.33 he is sorry and it was all his fault”.

News and Notes:

Elliott Sadler told ESPN’S reporter Mike Massero that he was 60% but he would run the entire race.

ESPN reported on lap 40 that 12 drivers have already start and parks.

Danica Patrick finished 14th and Travis Pastrana finished 17th respectively.

Elliott Sadler, Ricky Stenhouse Jr, Kenny Wallace and Justin Allgaier all qualified for the Nationwide series Dash for Cash at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.