03/22/2015
Sadler Brings Home First Top-Ten Finish Of The Year
Fontana, Calif. (Mar. 21, 2015) – Roush Fenway Racing’s Elliott Sadler finished in 10th-place during Saturday’s NASCAR XFINITY Series (NXS) race at Auto Club Speedway (ACS). Sadler qualified in the 10th position for the scheduled 150 lap event. Sadler’s car handled well for the majority of the race and the team made the right mid-race adjustments to make the No. 1 OneMain Financial Ford Mustang handle even better. However, the last pit stop of the day came with a price. A crew member jumped over the wall too early, which resulted in a penalty for Sadler. Sadler didn’t give up after the penalty and pushed through the adversity. Sadler passed nine cars in the final 30 laps and crossed the finish line in the 10th spot.
“We still have a lot of work to do,” Sadler said at the end of the race. “The guys are working hard, but we need these two weeks off to regroup and get some things together before we go to Texas and Bristol. The guys are making improvements as a team and it’s starting to show on the race track. We’ve just got to keep digging and hope we get some better finishes ahead. We’ve had four issues in the past five races this year. Today’s penalty hurt our chances of finishing in the top-five. I know everyone is working hard, so we’ll continue to work on improving these items over the break.”
Sadler started the NXS race at ACS from the 10th position. The first two laps consisted of heavy three-wide traffic and Sadler dropped back a few positions to play it safe. On Lap 15, Sadler was scored in the 14th position and radioed in that he was killing the right rear tire too much.
Lap 32 brought out the first caution of the day. Sadler entered pit road 14th and the No. 1 OneMain Financial crew added four tires, two cans of fuel and made a track bar and air pressure adjustment in the rear. The crew executed a fast stop and Sadler restarted 12th.
Sadler liked the changes made by the team and by Lap 43, Sadler had moved his way up to the 10th position.
Still running 10th, Sadler decided to come down pit road one lap after the halfway point on Lap 76. During the green flag pit stop, the team added four fresh tires, fuel and made another adjustment in the rear to tighten up Sadler’s car.
On Lap 116, the yellow caution flag waved again. The field came down pit road and the No. 1 pit crew added a fresh set of tires, fuel and made another small adjustment on the track bar. Not long after exiting pit road, NASCAR issued the No. 1 team with a pit road penalty. The penalty was issued for a crew member jumping over the wall too early. The penalty resulted in Sadler restarting 19th, instead of ninth.
In the final 30 laps, Sadler battled back from the penalty and worked his way into the Top-10. Sadler finished the race in the 10thposition.
The NXS has the next two weekends off. The No. 1 OneMain Financial team will return to the track for the first night race of the season at Texas Motor Speedway on April 10th.
NEXT UP:
O’Reilly Auto Parts 300
Texas Motor Speedway
Fort Worth, TX
Friday, April 10th, 2015
8:30 p.m. ET on FOX Sports 1 and PRN
