Subway 500 - Elliott Sadler Notes

SADLER HOPES TO CATCH A “BRAKE” IN MARTINSVILLE

“Racing at this level is all about patience. I know I have showed a lot of patience in my career. Last week there wasn’t much patience from competitors and unfortunately we came out on the short end of the stick. I said there had been a black cloud following me, and have heard bad things happen in three’s so hopefully wrecking three weeks in a row is the end of our bad luck this season.” --Sadler on crashing at Lowe’s

ELLIOTT SADLER’S VIEW FROM THE DRIVER’S SEAT:
“I usually dread going to Martinsville because I have never run real well there. It’s a long race for both the driver and the team if you are struggling that’s for sure. Todd has some good notes and Raymond and those guys gave me an awesome car last spring at Martinsville.

“Since track position is real important at Martinsville for pit selection and so you don’t go a lap down early on, we are going to focus on qualifying and hopefully will be the class of the Ford’s like we have been quite a few times this year. I will be running in the truck race and will use that race as a test to gather information we can apply to our Winston Cup car. I think running both races will be good for me as a driver, and am looking forward to my second career truck start.”

CREW CHIEF TODD PARROTT’S VIEW FROM THE PIT BOX:
“Martinsville is a tricky track but we are taking the same car that finished 5th in the spring. Track position is everything. Elliott will use a ton of brakes and the shocks we select will be very important. Since it’s just a small paper clip-shaped track, we build bumper bars to reinforce the nose of the car a little better so it can withstand a little more beating and banging in true Martinsville style. The #88 did a brake test at Caraway a week or so ago, so that will help us out.”

SPOTTER BRETT GRIFFIN’S VIEW FROM THE TOP OF LOWE’S MOTOR SPEEDWAY:
“Spotting at Martinsville is a lot like spotting at Bristol because the cars run nose-to-tail all day. The biggest challenge is communicating with all of the other spotters. The roof will hold half of us on the turn four side and the other half of us on the turn one side with the radio and TV towers separating the two sides. It's about 30 seconds from one side of the roof to the other so if we need to chat with a spotter on the other side of the roof, Elliott will have to spot for himself for almost four laps while I make the roundtrip to the other side of the roof.”

M&M’S RACING BITS AND PIECES…
AUTOGRAPH SESSION… Thursday - October 16th -Elliott will appear at the Civic Center, 1001 Boulevard, Salem, Va., from 5:00 - 7:00 pm as part of the benefit for the Victory Junction Camp. Also appearing will be Tony Stewart, Matt Kenseth, Ricky Craven, Kyle Petty, Christian Fittipaldi, Jimmie Johnson and Jeremy Mayfield

TWELVE TIMES THE FASTEST FORD…Sadler’s seventh-place qualifying position for the UAW-GM Quality 500 made him the fastest Ford qualifier for the 12th time this season. In addition to winning two of Ford’s three poles in the 2003 season in the spring Darlington and the fall Talladega, Sadler has been the quickest “Blue Oval” on the ovals at Atlanta, Texas, the spring Talladega, California, Lowe’s, the second Daytona, Pocono, Darlington, Kansas and last weekend at Lowe’s. Sadler has qualified in the top-10 of the field 15 times this season.

DOUBLE DUTY…Elliott Sadler will drive in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race on Saturday October 18th. He will sport the Combo’s colors, and also have the Dale Jarrett Foundation, Trey and Tia Dodson Memorial and the Autism Society of America decals on the truck.

©Copyright 2003 Race 2 Win