USG Sheetrock 400 - Ford Saturday Quotes

Elliott Sadler, driver of the No. 38 Combos Taurus, is in fourth place in the points standings heading into tomorrow's USG Sheetrock 400. In the first 17 races of this season, he has recorded nine top-10s while finishing outside of 21st only twice after qualifying for the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series Race for the Chase last season. Sadler also is competing in this afternoon's Busch Series' USG Sheetrock 300.

ELLIOTT SADLER - No. 38 Combos Taurus - THIS TEAM HAS BEEN VERY CONSISTENT THE LAST TWO SEASONS. HOW IMPORTANT IS THAT FOR A DRIVER? "It means a lot to a driver, and I think it means a lot to a team. My guys this year have done a great job on the mechanical end. We haven't had anything fall off the cars, we haven't had any problems, I've had great pit stops, no lug nuts coming loose, and we've had great engine success this year, no drive-train problems - and that's a great place to start. Then it's just up to the driver and the crew chief to make the right decisions on Sunday, to make sure we get great track position and to stay out of trouble, pick your battles correctly. If you can do all of those little-bitty things, they add up to one thing and that's consistency, and I think my team has done a great job of that this year."

WHAT ABOUT THE DRIVER'S CONTRIBUTIONS? IS PATIENCE A BIG PART OF THAT CONSISTENCY? "I think as a driver you just got to know when to race and when not to race. You got to know who to race and who not to race. We spend a lot of the race racing the race track and getting my car set up for end of the race, making adjustments here and there, and I've done a lot of communicating with Todd [Parrott, crew chief] before I really start racing other cars. We want to run up as much as we can, but we're more focused on running every lap, seeing the checkered flag, and then we get down towards the end of the race and we get my car where we need to have it, then we go race hard and see how many positions we can pick up."

YOU MADE THE CHASE LAST YEAR AND ARE IN THE THICK OF IT AGAIN THIS YEAR. FROM A STRATEGIC STANDPOINT, ARE YOU APPROACHING THE CHASE DIFFERENTLY THIS YEAR? "I think we're doing it a little bit differently. We're starting testing a lot different than we did last year. We're testing tracks that are all in the Chase, but we're testing them the first time we go through. Like New Hampshire, for example. We know we go to New Hampshire twice, so we've tested for the first race, even though the second race is the one that belongs in the Chase. So, we're doing things like that - Texas, Charlotte, Atlanta, Phoenix, all these places we've gone to test at the first time so we got a good race under our belt and got a lot of good notes on it so when we go back for the Chase, hopefully we'll be well-prepared."

HOW IS THIS TEAM'S PROGRAM ON MILE-AND-HALF TRACKS, SUCH AS THIS ONE? "We've not run as well on mile-and-a-halfs this year as we did last year. Last year that was a big-time strong suit of ours, and this year's we've struggled a little bit on mile-and-a-halfs. But, we are getting better and we are doing a lot of testing on those style of race tracks because that used to be our strong point. But, we've made our team so much better on speedways and so much better on short-track racing. We're so much better at Phoenix, we're so much better at Richmond, and we're so much better at Martinsville, New Hampshire, Bristol, places that we've struggled the last couple of years. We're really closing the valleys on those type of tracks, we just got to get a little bit better on the mile-and-a-halfs."

WHAT ABOUT THIS TRACK, IN PARTICULAR? YOU HAVE ONE TOP-10 IN FOUR STARTS HERE. "We ran awesome here last year. We ran in the top five the whole day, and then we decided not to put tires on and that kind of bit us and we fell back. We had a great, great race car. We got a good car again this weekend, I think. Qualifying didn't show everything, I think, we have for Sunday. We brought a really good car, it's comfortable to me. We'll be fine. And, you know, a lot of places that Todd and I went together for the first time last year that I had never run good at before, and had some great finishes. California comes to mind, where my best finish was 21st and all of sudden we come back and win the race and then go back this year and finished eighth. So, you give us a little time together, we figure each other out at each track, and Chicago's another one that they know what I want, and we were very fast in practice, just messed up qualifying a little bit, but come Sunday we'll be fine."

YOU'RE ALSO COMPETING IN THE BUSCH SERIES' RACE THIS AFTERNOON. HOW MUCH OF A BENEFIT WILL THAT BE FOR TOMORROW? "I think it's big time. We looked around last year during the Chase and all the teams we were racing for the championship last year had Busch teams or Busch affiliates. I think that means a lot. You can do a lot of testing on Saturday to help you for Sunday. A lot of tire-pressure things - you know, Goodyear changing the tire this year, we learned a lot with the Busch car on Saturdays that's helped our Cup program on Sunday. With this impound racing, practice is a lot more limited this year than it has been in the past, so that's what we're using the Busch car for. It's like a big-time test session for two days, and we've learned a lot from it. We're training new guys on the pit crew, and things like that, also for Sunday. So, not only is training the driver and the crew chief, it's also training all the crew members. I love it, and I want to do it again next year and the year after that. I think if you can take the time to run the Busch Series and learn from it, you're going to have a better Cup program on Sunday."