TWO TAMING: This Friday, Elliott Sadler and the No. 2 OneMain Financial team head to Darlington (S.C.) Raceway for the 10th race of the NASCAR Nationwide Series season. Sadler is no stranger to tangling with the track “Too Tough to Tame,” having made a combined total of 26 Darlington starts in NASCAR’s top three series. Sadler has two pole awards at the 61-year-old facility, having earned his first-career NASCAR Sprint Cup Series pole at Darlington in 2003, as well as a Nationwide Series pole at the track in 1997. On the Nationwide side, Sadler has earned one top-five and two top-10 finishes in seven starts at the 1.336-mile egg-shaped oval, completing 98.5-percent of scheduled laps.
BACK TO BLACK: Sadler has already danced with the “Lady in Black” in 2011, competing in the Truck Series race in March of this season. In his first ever truck start at the track, Sadler started from the eighth position and went on to lead 16 laps before bringing home a seventh-place finish.
LADY TROUBLES: Kevin Harvick Inc. (KHI) looks to finally tame Darlington Raceway, one of the tracks that has eluded the organization in both Nationwide Series starts and finishes. Darlington is one of 11 tracks on the current series schedule where KHI has not won a race or a pole. Sadler hopes to be the one to break the streak for KHI when the No. 2 OneMain Financial Chevrolet rolls into town.
CHASSIS HISTORY: The No. 2 OneMain Financial team will utilize chassis No. 070 this weekend at Darlington Raceway. This is the same car that Sadler drove through the field from 34th to finish fifth at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California in March.
PREVIOUS RACE RECAP: Sadler came to his home track, Richmond (Va.) International Raceway, sixth in the running for the NASCAR Nationwide Series championship, but a top-five finish bumped the Virginia native up four spots in the Driver’s Point standings. After a fourth-place finish under the lights, Sadler now sits second in points, only six markers outside of first.
THOUGHTS FROM THE DRIVER: Elliott Sadler
How do you feel about Darlington Raceway?
“Darlington is a very cool place with a lot of history and a special energy to it. I’ve been to a lot of races as a fan so it brings back a lot of memories for me, and it has also been special in terms of milestones in my career. I got my very first ever NASCAR Sprint Cup Series pole there, and I got a pole there in 1997 in the Nationwide Series car, so competition-wise I feel like it’s a great racetrack for me. There’s so much tradition and history at Darlington, so you always want to go there and do well. We learned in the Truck Series race a couple of months ago that the track is becoming a lot different since it’s starting to age again, and tire wear is starting to be an issue again. Our event is a night race, so it brings back that Friday night racing fever that you used to have growing up on short local tracks.”
Media Access: Members of the media can now log on to www.kevinharvickinc.com to gain access to press kit information online. For more information, please email Jessica Trippy at KHI at jtrippy@kevinharvickinc.com.
Fast Facts:
Elliott Sadler
Nationwide Series Statistics at
Darlington (S.C.) Raceway
Starts: 7
Wins: 0
Poles: 1
Top 5: 1
Top 10: 2
Laps Led: 1
Average Start: 10.1
Average Finish: 21.0
Race Info:
May 6, 2011
Darlington Raceway
Royal Purple 200
1.366-Mile Egg-Shaped Oval
147 Laps/ 200.8 Miles
Broadcast Info:
TV: ESPN2 will broadcast live at 7:30p.m. EST
Radio: The Motor Racing Network (MRN) will broadcast live at 7:15 p.m. EST
Car Specs:
Chassis: 070
Engine: Earnhardt-Childress Racing (ECR)