[media-credit name=”Greg Arthur” align=”alignright” width=”222″]
[/media-credit]With the final four races of the Nationwide Series ahead, before the crowing of a champion commences in Homestead-Miami, Elliott Sadler continues to move ever closer to seeing that it’s him.
Sadler finished third on Friday night in Charlotte, after leading on four different occasions for 22 laps. He had started from the pole. Sadler’s 14th top five finish of the year was enough to gain nine points on Ricky Stenhouse Jr., extending his lead to 13 heading into Kansas.
“It was a good run for us. Anytime you gain points on your competitors, to run like we did, we led laps, sat on the pole, finished third, we’re going call this a good night,” said Sadler after the Dollar General 300, which he badly wanted to win for his mother, Bell, who was in attendance with the rest of the Sadler family. It was the first time in a long time that Sadler’s had his family at the track and his mother is a breast cancer survivor.
“We didn’t get the win but we did finish third in our pink car and felt like we learned some things tonight that’s going to help us for the other mile-and-a-half’s left. So, all in all, going to call it a good day.”
Three of the season’s final four races are at mile-and-a-half tracks. Sadler and the men he’s battling in the championship, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and teammate Austin Dillon, have each won at one of those tracks. Sadler won in Phoenix, Stenhouse in Texas, while Dillon swept the races in Kentucky. The two continue to put distance on Dillon for the championship however, looking to make it a repeat of last season in Homestead, the two settling it between themselves.
Thus far, Sadler holds the advantage. That’s if there’s any advantage at all. Both have been in this position before, both have the experience and the equipment to get it done. Yet whereas Stenhouse already has a title under his belt, Sadler doesn’t see any pressure for himself to do the same.
“I’m going to be honest with you, this is fun. This is fun for me; I’ve been in a lot different situation in a racecar than what I am right now,” he said on Friday night. “I’ve got a great race team, I’ve got a hell of a owner that’s all about racing. We’re all pulling the string the same direction; our teams all work well together. This is fun, it’s fun being competitive every weekend and running for a championship if you’re competitive, that’s what we do, this is what it’s all about.
“I’m definitely cherishing this moment, I cherished last year even though we didn’t win the championship, it was fun being in that battle. And I’m doing it again this year, this is what racings all about. Showing up knowing you’re going to be competitive. Knowing under pressure you better do your job, don’t make any mistakes, get on pit road like your suppose to, didn’t make any mistakes with lapped cars. But at the end of the day, this is what we do.
“So to me I’m looking at it as fun, this is what you dream of as a kid. To have a kick ass race team that shows up every week that’s behind you one hundred percent and you get to go out and battle every weekend. So that’s my mentality for it.”
A mentality that drives Sadler in stretching his lead because he knows it’s far from over, no lead is safe. Not just because of the adage that anything can happened, but because there is still one unpredictable race ahead, one with a big question mark.
Next weekend’s race at Kansas will be on a new track surface as it was recently repaved. There will be a test session on Thursday, which will give drivers their first look at the new speedway. Through 29 weekend this season Sadler, Stenhouse and Dillon have shown how evenly matched they are, never seeming to finish far from each other. On display again Friday as Sadler and company took just gas only on their final stop in hopes of not giving up track position or risking a mistake on pit road. He finished third, Dillon was sixth and Stenhouse seventh.
Now, so late in the season it’s all about taking what you can get making the right calls, keeping yourself in contention and near your contenders. Suddenly Kansas and it’s uncertainty becomes a big part in determining this season’s champion.
“Texas, we’ve already raced there this year, we’ve already raced at Phoenix, which we were able to win Phoenix,” said Sadler looking at the upcoming schedule and what he expects. “Ricky won at Texas, so we know what’s going to happen there. Homestead is the normal old Homestead that we know a lot about. So, I would say Kansas right now is the last kind of wildcard race.”
And when it comes to mile-and-a-half tracks, all three of the contenders have respectable average finishes. Something Sadler is well aware of, predicting all three will continue to run around each other and keep the fight close. This one, he says, is going all the way down to Homestead.
As such, states Sadler, “That means you better have your mess together and run in the top four or five or you’re going to lose points to the other two guys.”
