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Kroger 200 - Elton Sawyer Notes Elton Sawyer Notes, Quotes: Kroger 200 Busch's Most Successful Driver At IRP One of the hottest teams in NASCAR Busch Grand National race since the Spring, Elton Sawyer and the Starter/Purdue University Taurus team head to the tricky .625-mile Indianapolis Raceway Park this week for Saturday night's Kroger 200. Sawyer is fifth in championship points earned since the May 4 race at Richmond, Va., trailing fourth-place Jeff Green by just 18 points. 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 has been owned by Brad Akins. No driver has been more consistently successful in recent years than Sawyer. His string of four consecutive top-10 finishes at Indianapolis Raceway Park is the longest for any active driver, and was broken going back to 1996 only because he did not run that race. In 1995, for example, Sawyer finished second after winning the pole. Sawyer finished sixth in last year's Kroger 200 after started third. In 1999, he finished eighth after starting sixth. In 1998, Sawyer finished ninth with a fourth-place starting position. His third-place finish in 1997 came after starting 14th. Sawyer has finished second twice and third once at IRP. 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 123 and is second in career top-five finishes with 48 to David Green's 49. The thoughts of Starter/Purdue University Taurus driver Elton Sawyer heading into Indianapolis Raceway Park: "I have always liked that place. No matter who I drove for, whether it was my own car or somebody else's, I've just always been able to run pretty well there. "It's flat. I guess that is the biggest difference. For the most part, flat tracks are good for me. I grew up on a flat track, Langley Speedway. So anywhere we go that's flat, I have a pretty good idea of what we're looking for. I can do that and I like the place, so that crosses two hurdles pretty quickly. A lot of it is just me being comfortable on a flat race track. "About the first time I went to IRP, I knew I liked it. In 1987 we went up there. I was leading the race when we took the white flag. (Larry) Pearson was running second, right on my tail. We got through (turns) one and two fine and headed down the backstretch. We got into three and I started passing a lapped car. I guess he didn't see me or whatever, and eased me up towards the wall. Pearson got underneath me and, coming out of four, I got back underneath him. I finished second but that race kind of started our IRP success. "The race at IRP has always been big for the Busch Series. That place will be packed Saturday night, just like it's been packed for every race we've had there. It's a big event for our series, no matter what is going on up the street at the other speedway. I don't think anybody looks at us taking a back seat to the Winston Cup guys. If nothing else, the Cup race enhances our Busch race. I know the people at IRP sure act like it's a big event to them, and I think it's a great deal for the race fans in Indianapolis. This weekend they get a chance to see all three of the top NASCAR series race. "We look at this race like we have the rest of them - a chance to continue our momentum and continue moving forward. Brad (Akins) gave this team a great opportunity to build a foundation. We've done that. Hey, we've finished fifth, fifth and sixth in the final points the last three years. "But to get to the point where we can be a championship caliber team week-in and week-out, we needed great management on a daily basis. Michael (Kranefuss) has brought that to the table along with Marty (Gaunt). We're getting some great day-to-day management and leadership on the marketing side of things and on the competition side too. Michael's engineering background and his company have brought a lot to us. We have the same cars, the same people working on the cars working with the same equipment - Michael and Marty just have us working smarter now. "No disrespect to what we had but this is what we needed right now. Tom Stewart, our engineer, can work with Michael's guys, throw out suggestions, get good feedback, talk about chassis, those sorts of things. Like I said, it's the same people and the same stuff. Just the way we work on things now is a little bit different. "You have to give my guys a lot of credit. We're going through some changes right now. It's all for the better and we're going to be a better race team in the long run but, sometimes, people are just resistant to change. But everybody has handled this change really well, and I think that's because of the way Michael and Marty have handled things. Everybody communicates. Everything is above board. "I couldn't be more pleased. Our race team is stronger. Next year, we can be in a position to be a legitimate championship contender. That's what we're looking to do and looking to accomplish - move this race team, Starter and Hot Tamales up where we want to be."
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