FORT WORTH, Texas (Nov. 6, 2011) - Elliott Sadler and the No. 2 OneMain Financial Chevrolet finished ninth at Texas Motor Speedway in the Saturday afternoon race. The Kevin Harvick Inc. (KHI) team earned their fifth pole award of the NASCAR Nationwide Series season.
The No. 2 OneMain Financial Chevrolet brought the field to green from the pole position for 200 laps of racing around the intermediate track. Sadler grabbed the outright lead and continued to sail around the 1.5-mile track as the first caution of the day came on lap three for a spin involving the No. 52.
The field went back to green on lap nine with Sadler as the leader, and he continued to hold the top spot until lap 17 when a run of three cars moved past the OneMain Financial Chevrolet. Sadler relayed that the No. 2 had become increasingly loose as he fell to the seventh position.
The car began to come back to him as he chased down the No. 6 car for the sixth position on lap 40. Sadler used his momentum to move into the fifth spot, looking to track down the leaders.
Green-flag pit stops began near lap 50, and crew chief Ernie Cope called Sadler down pit road on lap 52 for four tires, fuel and a chassis adjustment to tighten up the car. An issue on the stop slowed the crew, putting Sadler in the 11th position after the field cycled through the stops.
Sadler communicated that the car still seemed a bit loose, but he continued to work his way up to the seventh position by lap 93 when a yellow flag dropped for debris. During the caution, Cope called the OneMain Financial Chevrolet down pit road for four tires, fuel and a chassis adjustment.
The stop put the No. 2 on the track in the seventh position for the restart on lap 96, but Sadler quickly moved into the top five and was the fastest car on the track on lap 112.
The field was slowed for the third caution of the day on lap 114 involving the No. 08, and Sadler relayed that the car was a bit too tight on exit of the turns as he drove down pit road to be serviced. The KHI crew put on four tires and fuel, and the quick stop gained the team two positions to restart second on lap 119.
Race leader Carl Edwards began to pull away, but Sadler continued to run laps to rival Edwards. Another round of green-flag pit stops began at lap 160, and Sadler said the car was still a little free as he came down for four tires and fuel on lap 166.
With 30 laps to go, Sadler sat in the second position, but radioed that the set of tires that the team had added on the stop was very loose. Battling the loose-handling car, the No. 2 fell back to the fourth position as the caution fell on lap 179 for debris.
Cope instructed Sadler not to pit, and the field returned to green-flag racing on lap 184 with the No. 2 in the fourth position. The field was slowed again on lap 189 for an incident involving the No. 38 car, and the field resumed racing on lap 193.
Continuing to battle the loose-handling car, Sadler fell back to ninth on the restart and remained there until the checkered flag waved. With the ninth-place finish, Sadler remains in the second position in the Nationwide Series Driver Point standings, 17 points behind the leader.
The No. 2 OneMain Financial team will head west next weekend to Phoenix International Raceway for the 33rd event of the Nationwide Series season. ESPN 2 will broadcast the race beginning at 3:30 p.m. ET as well as MRN at 3 p.m. ET.
Comments from driver Elliott Sadler:
“This was a disappointing race. We had a really great race car, and our team worked so hard throughout the weekend. That last set of tires just made me really loose, and we couldn’t recover. It’s disappointing that we couldn’t make up points on the championship standings, and now it is onto Phoenix. Our team is not giving up.