09/20/2015

Sadler Leaves Chicagoland with Eighth-Place Finish

JOLIET, Ill. (Sept. 19, 2015) – Roush Fenway Racing’s Elliott Sadler finished eighth during Saturday’s NASCAR XFINITY Series (NXS) race at Chicagoland Speedway. The No. 1 OneMain Financial Ford Mustang qualified 19th, but Sadler had to start dead last from a post qualifying penalty issued by NASCAR.  In the first 10 laps of the race, Sadler passed 19 cars and worked his way up to 21st. Sadler continued to methodically work his way through the field and in the final 10 laps, the No. 1 OneMain Financial Ford Mustang passed four cars. Sadler crossed the finish line in the eighth position.

“What a day,” Sadler said when he got out of his car on pit road. “Yesterday we had a long practice session and the guys made good adjustments to set me up for qualifying this afternoon. However, in qualifying, we felt like we had some issues with the car and when we looked at it post qualifying, NASCAR penalized us and made us start in the rear.  I feel like we’ve had a terrible month of racing. Anything that could go wrong has gone wrong. After all our bad luck, I’m so happy to finish in single digits tonight. Hopefully the bad luck is gone and we can keep the good luck going next week in Kentucky.”

Sadler made it to the second round of NXS qualifying on Saturday afternoon, but finishing 19th fastest in round two didn’t qualify Sadler to make it to the final round of qualifying. Collectively the crew thought something may be wrong with the car, so the crew took a look for any major problems in the garage after qualifying.
NASCAR penalized the team for tampering with the car post qualifying and Sadler had to start the race at the tail end of the field.

With a chip on his shoulder, Sadler passed 19 cars in the first 10 laps at Chicagoland Speedway for the Furious-7 300. In the 200 lap event, Sadler worked his way up to 21st, with 190 laps remaining.

Running 11th on Lap 60, Sadler radioed in, “I think I have a flat tire.” Sadler drove the No. 1 OneMain Financial Ford down pit road for an unscheduled pit stop and the crew changed all four tires and topped the car off with fuel. Sadler returned to the field one lap down in the 26th position.

Around Lap 75, the leaders started to come down pit road for green flag pit stops. After the field cycled through, Sadler who stayed out during their green flag stops, was now back on the lead lap in the 17th position.

By Lap 80, Sadler had worked his way into the top-10.

Running 10th, the yellow flag waved again on Lap 131. Sadler came down pit road with the field for four tires, fuel and the crew cranked one round down in the rear to help tighten up the handling.

Sadler radioed to the team, “the car is still really loose.” With 28 laps remaining in the race, Sadler drifted back to the 12th position.

In the final 10 laps of the race, a few cars had to pit for fuel and Sadler was able to move forward four positions and cross the finish line in eighth-place.

The NASCAR XFINITY Series and Sadler’s No. 1 OneMain Financial Ford Mustang will be back in action next week at Kentucky Speedway on Saturday night.

NEXT UP:

NASCAR XFINITY Series Race

VisitMyrtleBeach.com 300

Kentucky Speedway

Saturday, Sept 26th, 2015

8:00 p.m. ET on NBCSN

RACE SUMMARY

Elliott Sadler

Started: 19th

Finished: 8th

Complete Race Results:

www.roushfenway.com

POINTS SUMMARY

Elliott Sadler

2015 Season Total: Fifth with 839 points / -106 points back from the leader

2015 SEASON SUMMARY

Elliott Sadler

Starts – 26

Wins – 0           

Poles – 0

Top-5s – 4        

Top-10s – 13