Advance Auto Parts 500 - Elliott Sadler Notes

ELLIOTT SADLER, M&M’S RACING
MARTINSVILLE SPEEDWAY
APRIL 10, 2005

SADLER CARRIES SHORT TRACK SUCCESS TO MARTINSVILLE

CHARLOTTE, NC (April 6, 2005) – It’s a first for NASCAR NEXTEL Cup racing, back-to-back short track races at Bristol Motor Speedway and Martinsville Speedway. When Elliott Sadler and the M&M’S® Racing Team entered the two race run, there philosophy was simply to maintain their position in the top-10 in the Championship point standings.

But after a strong showing last weekend at Bristol, including a pole and second place finish, Sadler and the #38 Team are holding their heads high as they travel to Martinsville Speedway for this weekend’s Advance Auto Parts 500. With the M&M’S Team currently fifth in the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup point standings, the Virginia native returns home with hopes of scoring his second career top-five at the circuit’s shortest track.

Quoting M&M’S® Driver Elliott Sadler:

On running consecutive short track races…“There is no doubt that this is an important stretch for this team. We had these two races circled on our schedule. Two short tracks in a row, that's cool. We did not run well as a team on short tracks last year, so we really wanted to come to work on that part of our program. We're trying to make that a strong suit of our race team, so to put them back to back, that's good. We kind of see early in the season where we stack up on short tracks and what we need to do for later on in the season when the Chase comes around.”

“Our goal was to go into this two race stretch and maintain our position in the top-10 in the points. We felt like if we can leave Martinsville in the top-10, we’ll be in good shape. After what we did at Bristol, I think that we feel more confidence and would like to ride that success into Martinsville and really make a statement about our team.”

Differences between Bristol and Martinsville…”The race track as far as driving them is totally different. Pit strategy and track position are both are very crucial to how you're going to run during the race. You've got to be up front and you've got to stay out of trouble, so hopefully what we learned at Bristol will help us at Martinsville, too, as far as that situation

On his success last weekend in Bristol…“I think we may have surprised a lot of people last weekend in Bristol. We knew the car was great in race trim but didn’t really know that we had a shot at the pole, until we were out there qualifying. I think that as a whole, we're more prepared than we've ever been for the short track races so we’ll try to continue the success of last weekend.”

“My crew chief, Todd Parrott, called a great, great race last weekend at Bristol. It was just an excellent job with pit strategy. Pit strategy plays a big part in your success at short tracks and at Bristol he called a perfect race. I'm very proud of him for that. If we could start doing that every short track - Bristol, Martinsville and Phoenix and New Hampshire and places like that - we're going to have a lot of good finishes.”

NOTES OF INTEREST…