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South Carolina 200 - Elton Sawyer Notes Elton Sawyer Notes, Quotes: Darlington 250 ‘Difference in rookie, veteran at Darlington - size of dents’ One of the hottest teams in NASCAR Busch Grand National race since the Spring, Elton Sawyer and the #98 Starter/Hot Tamales Taurus team head to the tough 1.366-mile Darlington (S.C.) Raceway this week for Saturday’s Darlington 250. Now fifth in the national championship chase, Sawyer is third in championship points earned since the May 4 race at Richmond, Va. Not coincidentally, that was about the time partner Michael Kranefuss and General Manager Marty Gaunt began their full-time running of the race team, which had been owned by Brad Akins. The team was mired as far back as 17th before beginning its incredible run, which includes 10 top-11 finishes in the last 12 races. While running strong this season, the team is also beginning to look towards next year, and a probable run for the national championship. The team is also speaking with several corporations regarding a potential co-primary sponsorship for next season as well. Racing observers consider the team one of the most cost-efficient sponsorships in Busch Grand National racing. Sawyer, a native of Chesapeake, Va., has been the most successful mainstay of NASCAR’s Busch Grand National Series. He leads all active NASCAR Busch Grand National drivers in career top 10 finishes with 125 and in career top-five finishes with 50. Making his 381st career start this week, he leads all active NASCAR Busch Grand National drivers. The thoughts of Starter/Hot Tamales Taurus driver Elton Sawyer heading into Darlington: "Everything you hear about Darlington talks about experience. The guys with the most experience driving the cars are the ones you find up front. The crews with the most experience with setups are the ones who get their cars to the front. "You start to learn after awhile that experience means you’ve made every mistake you can make at a place, and you aren’t making them twice. The reason experience is such a big deal at Darlington is the place is set up so you have a better chance of making more mistakes. "A lot of times, the only difference between a rookie and a veteran at Darlington is the size of the dents in the car. Darlington is so different and so unique that only after you have driven there for a long time do you really understand not just the places where it’s easy to get into trouble but how to stay out of trouble. "Darlington is not particularly intimidating but it’s different. That egg shape makes it tough to get around. It’s not like some tracks where you can forget whether you are in the first or third turn. If you forget that at Darlington, the wall will remind you pretty quick. You hear about drivers being ‘lulled to sleep’ out there. I think that’s what happens. Your mind says first turn and your car is in the third turn. That’s usually bad news. "Because of the egg shape, it makes it tough to get into a rhythm. I think that’s another reason rookies can have trouble with the place. You can’t really stay with your rhythm. Because of the track and because you have other cars to deal with, you have to change your line a lot. "It’s easy to have some bad experiences at Darlington because of that. Some drivers never grow out of those early bad experiences, get to the point they feel they don’t like the track and they never do well there. Once you start disliking a race track it’s really, really tough to run well there. "We had a really good run in Darlington’s fall race last year (third place finish) and we’ve sandwiched that with two ninth-place finishes in the Spring races, so we’re looking to run pretty well again this time out. "We’re a long way out of fourth but we still have a mathematical shot at getting it, so we’re going to do everything we can to do just that. The guys on this Starter team aren’t going to give up, not as long as there is any shot whatsoever at getting it. Sure, they (Jeff Green’s team) need to have some bad luck and we need to keep finishing as good as we can but you never know what can happen. Maybe we used up all of our bad luck at the first part of the year. "We have to take it one race at a time, and that’s what this Starter team is going to do. That next race is this week at a pretty tough race track."
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