Top-10 Sawyer Strikes Again

CLERMONT, Ind. (Aug. 7) – Tight, tight, tight, is about all Busch Series driver Elton Sawyer could muster after 200 grueling laps in Friday night’s Kroger 200 at Indianapolis Raceway Park. Even though the Lysol Racing team made a multitude of adjustments, Sawyer could not turn the car in the middle of the corners like he needed to and survived for a sixth-place finish.

Sawyer matched a season-best third place in qualifying for Friday’s event but fell back to ninth at the start of the race after getting caught on the inside lane. As a result, a train of cars passed him on the outside.

Sawyer recovered but knew by lap 13 that his car was too tight.

“We made a ton of adjustments on the car to try and loosen it up,” Sawyer said. “On our first stop we only took two tires and made track bar and air pressure adjustments and pulled rubber from the right front.”

Sawyer’s two-tire stop came during lap 61, and he picked up valuable track position and re-entered the race in fourth place. He remained in the top 10 for the remainder of the race.

To help alleviate the tightness problem, crew chief Rick Viers made air pressure and wedge adjustments on the team’s last pit stop.

“This Lysol team did a great job adjusting the car,” Sawyer said. “We continually made changes but fought tightness all night. If I was not careful in the center of the corner, the car would keep driving up the corner. One thing I did not need to worry about was pit stops because this team always gets me in and out of pit road fast.”

The sixth-place finish is Sawyer’s 11th top-10 finish in his last 13 races.

The NASCAR Busch Series takes this weekend off but will return to action on August 19 at Michigan Speedway for the NAPAOnline.com 250.