NASCAR WCUP: Sadler and a new attitude ready for Martinsville
Posted By Terry Callahan
Motorsports Editor, The Auto Channel
April 3, 2001Martinsville has been a tough track for Elliott Sadler since joining Wood Brothers Racing. The third year competitor will make his fifth start at the Virginia track following close on the heels of his first Winston Cup victory at another short track - Bristol.
Sadler talks about the track and his test there a week ago. Crew chief Pat Tryson also comments on the test and what the win at Bristol did for his team.
ELLIOTT SADLER, -21- Motorcraft Ford Taurus - "Martinsville is a track that I used to love going to watch races at when I was growing up. It is only three hours from my hometown. And of course it is only 30 minutes from the Wood Brothers' shop, so it's their home track. I think that Eddie and Len really love going to Martinsville. I just never have had success there. I love the atmosphere there, though, because a lot of the people from Virginia come there to support the Wood Brothers and me."
WHAT MAKES MARTINSVILLE SO TOUGH FOR YOU? "I don't know. I think it is the cement in the corners is so rough. It is just an old-fashioned short track, which I should be good at because I grew up on them. And I always ran really good there in the late model stock cars. It's just the Cup cars where I haven't had any good luck there. We just haven't had the speed we want there. We go there to test every year and hopefully this year we'll turn over a new leaf and be a lot better. It's just a place that's so tough, and it's hard racing there. You can really have a fast car there and get caught up in somebody else's stuff really quick because it is so tight. But I think Clay Campbell and everybody involved there really do a great job for us keeping that place up. The new garages they've built look very nice. They've redone pit road and moved the wall back ten feet to give us all extra room and make the crews feel safer. Now it's our job to make the car work the best we can on the racetrack."
YOU HAD A GOOD TEST AT MARTINSVILLE THIS PAST WEEK. "I think it went very well, probably the best we've ever run there. It is place the I really want to run good at being from Virginia and they really want to run good, and we just have never hit it. So we went there and made some long runs, and we think it went very well. We're running normal set-up stuff, nothing off the wall and we got it to run pretty good so we've got pretty high hopes going back to Martinsville."
DID THE WIN AT BRISTOL HAVE ANYTHING TO DO WITH THE SUCCESS OF THE TEST? "I'm pretty sure part of it was the momentum out of Bristol. We feel like we've got a lot of confidence on our side now."
PAT TRYSON, Crew Chief, -21- Motorcraft Taurus - ON THE TEST AT MARTINSVILLE: "Things went real well. We tested one car on race stuff and one car on qualifying stuff and we got a lot accomplished. We feel pretty good about qualifying and race. We were right in the ballpark on qualifying with what the other guys were doing there, and on race runs we felt like we were good and we made longer runs that anybody so we feel pretty comfortable with everything."
DO YOU KNOW WHICH CAR YOU WILL TAKE BACK? "Yes, a new Roush car that we have not run yet and we tested it one other time, but we have yet to race it."
WHAT DID THE WIN AT BRISTOL DO FOR THE TEAM? "I think it has just given everybody more confidence and I think everybody just feels more comfortable with everything."
WHAT ABOUT PAT TRYSON, PERSONALLY? "I guess it just maybe took a little weight off the shoulders and let me relax a little bit and it makes me more confident like everybody else."
Text provided by Marti Rompf
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