Click here to subscribe today or Login.
Nationwide driver will serve as standby for Paul Menard in Sunday’s Coca-Cola 500.
Paul Menard qualified in the 16th slot for the Coca-Cola 600
AP photo
CONCORD, N.C. — Elliott Sadler will be on standby for Paul Menard on Sunday, just in case the 20 stitches closing a cut in his foot prevent him from completing the Coca-Cola 600.
It’s the closest Sadler will be to a Sprint Cup race so far this season.
After a dozen years racing in NASCAR’s elite division, Sadler had to take a step back to get his career on track. He’s now one level down, in the Nationwide Series, driving on Saturdays for Kevin Harvick Inc.
Make no mistake, Sadler is hardly slumming.
He’s running up front again, contending for wins for the first time in years, and goes into today’s race at Charlotte Motor Speedway leading the Nationwide standings.
“The biggest adjustment he’s had to make is just to get comfortable racing in the top five every week,” Harvick said. “That’s just something he hasn’t got to do over the last several years. Winning races, you don’t necessarily forget how to do that, but you forget how many small things come with that to be able to compete on a week-to-week basis.”
Sadler had his share of good days at the top level, beginning with his 2001 victory at Bristol driving for the Wood Brothers. It led him to a ride at Robert Yates Racing and a breakthrough season in 2004, when he won two races, earned a spot in the inaugural Chase for the championship and finished a career-best ninth in points.
Sponsorship issues eventually made the situation at Yates shaky, and Sadler bolted in the middle of the 2006 season for Evernham Motorsports. That’s where things went bad. Evernham sold majority interest in the team to George Gillett, and a merger eventually morphed Gillett-Evernham Motorsports into Richard Petty Racing.
All those business deals made Sadler the odd man out, and he once had to threaten to sue to stay in the car when the team tried to dump him.