DOVER, DE (May 30, 2015) – Roush Fenway Racing’s Elliott Sadler finished in the 21st position during Saturday’s NASCAR XFINITY Series (NXS) race at Dover International Speedway. Sadler qualified for the 200 lap event on Saturday morning and started the NXS race from the 13th position. Sadler battled handing issues at the beginning of the race, but continued to work his way forward. Running 10th, Sadler radioed in that his power voltage gauge was starting to drop. With 20 laps remaining in the race, Sadler was forced to come down pit road and replace batteries. With only a few laps remaining, Sadler returned to the track and crossed the finish line in the 21stposition.
“It was extremely unfortunate to have a battery failure at the tail end of the race,” Sadler said after the race concluded. “We battled with loose conditions during the first hundred laps, but the car started to react better to the track after the halfway point. But around Lap 130, my power gauge started to drop. I cut off my fans to help the problem, but with twenty laps to go, the gauge dropped to zero and my engine started popping. I was forced to come down pit road and swap batteries. It’s unfortunate, because we would have had a top-10 finish.”
Sadler started from the 13th position for the NXS race on Saturday afternoon. For the first 50 laps, Sadler battled loose handling conditions and radioed in multiple times that he wanted more rear grip.
When the caution came out on Lap 56, the No. 1 OneMain Financial crew added four fresh tires, two cans of racing fuel and cranked two rounds down on the track bar. Sadler entered pit road 13th and exited 11th.
Sadler had a great restart when the race went back to green and he quickly moved up to the 10th position.
On Lap 101, the No. 39 car spun across the track, which brought out the yellow flag again at the Monster Mile. Sadler came down pit road with the field and the crew added four more fresh tires, fuel and this time cranked one round down in the right rear wedge. Sadler restarted 11th.
On Lap 132, Sadler radioed to the team that the electricity volts gauge on the dashboard was starting to drop in power. Phil Gould, Sadler’s crew chief, radioed for Elliott to cut off the fans which would help draw less power from the battery. Cutting the fans off helped for 50 laps, but on Lap 180, Sadler radioed in the voltage completely dropped and the engine was starting to stutter. Sadler quickly pulled off the concrete race track and came down pit road. The crew changed four tires, added fuel and replaced batteries when the left side of the car was jacked up. Changing the battery helped solve the voltage problem, but Sadler went four laps down in the process.
When Sadler left pit road with a new battery, there was only a handful of laps remaining in the race. Sadler returned to the track in the 22nd position and crossed the finish line in the 21st position. It was an unfortunate ending to a potential top-10 day.
Sadler and his No. 1 OneMain Financial Ford Mustang will be off next weekend, but Sadler will be back in action in two weeks at Michigan International Speedway.
NEXT UP:
NASCAR XFINITY Race
Great Clips 250
Michigan International Speedway
Brooklyn, MI
Saturday, June 13th, 2015
1:30 p.m. ET on FOX Sports 1
RACE SUMMARY
Elliott Sadler
Started: 13th
Finished: 21st
Complete Race Results:
POINTS SUMMARY
Elliott Sadler
2015 Season Total: Sixth with 375 points
2015 SEASON SUMMARY
Elliott Sadler
Starts – 12
Wins – 0
Poles – 0
Top-5s – 0
Top-10s – 5
