Sawyer Earns First Top-Five Since New Hampshire

MILLINGTON, Tenn. (Nov. 1) – Lysol Racing driver Elton Sawyer recorded his first top-five finish since May 8, as he finished third in the inaugural NASCAR Busch Series Sam’s Town 250 at Memphis Motorsports Park.

With four top-five finishes and 14 top-10 finishes to date, Sawyer continues his best NASCAR Busch Series season to date. Sawyer, who is fifth in the standings with two races remaining, cushioned his lead over Jeff Purvis, who is sixth. Sawyer picked up 83 more points than Purvis on Sunday and leads by 203 points.

Sawyer had a commanding presence in the top five for much of the race and had a heated battle with Todd Bodine for the lead during the middle portion of the event.

“We really wanted to lead some laps,” Sawyer said. “I got a couple of good runs on Todd but couldn’t make the pass. While working to pass him, I heated up the right front tire and started to push in the center of the corner. I had to back off a little then to save the tire for the rest of the run.”

Though many drivers had mixed reviews of the .75-mile tri-oval, Sawyer said he liked the facility.

“This is a good race track,” Sawyer said. “It has a lot of characteristics of Richmond except the corners are much tighter. This Lysol crew adjusted the car great to fit the track after our final practice Saturday, and we did not make an adjustment on the car all day.

“It’s been awhile since we had a top-five, and I owe a lot of that to this crew. They gave me awesome pit stops to gain track position. Our first stop was down in the 16.5-second range. The track position was important here because with the corners being tight, it was difficult to pass. We got shuffled back on one restart with lapped traffic, and it just took us too long to try and catch Jeff (Green) and Earnhardt Jr. We had a great car, and I think if we could have caught them, we would have had something for them.”

The NASCAR Busch Series heads to another new facility this weekend for the running of the Outback Steakhouse 200 from Phoenix International Raceway on Saturday, Nov. 6. Coverage begins at 2 p.m. ET on TNN and radio coverage will be on MRN.