NASCAR WCUP: Elliott Sadler Interview: The first half of the 2001 season
Posted By Terry Callahan
Motorsports Editor, The Auto Channel
July 18, 2001Elliott Sadler, driver of the No. 21 Motorcraft Quality Parts Taurus, comes into this weekend's New England 300 at New Hampshire International Speedway sitting in 16th place in the NASCAR Winston Cup point standings. Sadler, whose best career points finish is 24th, was this week's guest on the NASCAR Winston Cup teleconference.
ELLIOTT SADLER --21-- Motorcraft Quality Parts Taurus -- CAN YOU TALK ABOUT YOUR CONSISTENCY THIS YEAR. "That's something we really tried to work on this winter is kind of just try to get more consistency out of it and get the best you can each weekend. If you don't have a top 10 car, get a top 15, a top 20 and run all the laps. That's worked for us this year. We have, knock on wood, no DNFs yet. We've made the most of every opportunity. We've run a large percentage of the laps, especially compared to last year and I think that's been a big turnaround for our team. Also, the big run at Bristol and Daytona were a big boost to our team. I think they're split up enough to really get us back in gear. We did not have a great car last week at Chicago, but we made the most of it and got us a 15th-place finish on the lead lap again, and we're still 16th in points and not far out of 10th. We feel like we've still got some shots at making up some ground the rest of the year."
YOUR RECORD SHOWS YOU'RE GETTING BETTER AT NEW HAMPSHIRE. "Yeah, it's kind of funny. New Hampshire has never really been my favorite place to go to, I've just never really run all that great there, but of all the tracks on the Winston Cup circuit, my average finish is 10 positions better at New Hampshire than any other track we race at, so, for some reason, we've always ended up finishing pretty well there. We had some good finishes there last year and we want to go and do the same thing this year. We're down here today at Greenville-Pickens testing a brand new race car that we're gonna carry this weekend just for the short tracks. This is the first time I've really ever had a short-track race car, so we're down here getting all the kinks and bugs out of it and, hopefully, we'll have a good showing this Sunday."
HOW MUCH CAN YOU LEARN FROM TRACKS LIKE GREENVILLE-PICKENS? "I think a lot of the teams come here to Greenville-Pickens because it's pretty close to Charlotte. A lot of teams come down here, so you've got a little bit of a baseline to go off of. We've actually got about six or seven teams down here testing today, most of them truck teams getting ready for this weekend, so everybody's got a little something to go off of. It's just a good place to come and shake stuff down and make sure everything is right, especially if you've got a new car like we've got. You want to make sure everything is braking like it's supposed to, everything feels good like the steering so when we get to qualifying mode on Friday morning at New Hampshire, we're not worried about how the car is gonna be because we've already got all that stuff out of the way. Then we can just worry about going fast. It's just something a lot of teams try to do and we're just down here today trying to take care of that."
ARE YOU HAPPY WITH YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH ROUSH RACING? "Yeah, I think so. I think Eddie and them from the business side are real happy for what Jack and Geoff Smith and everybody is doing. I do know that the guys in the Roush motor department have really been working hard. In the last few months they've really made a lot of big gains in that area and the motor we had in Chicago was the best motor I've had in three years from that group, so I've seen a lot of gains from them. As far as the body and the chassis goes, we're still working pretty close with them on that. I know we're sending some cars up with them the next couple of weeks to get done in the wind tunnel -- to make sure what we think we've got is what we've got -- so I think things are going good. I'm pretty happy with the response that we're getting from Roush and the help we're getting from 'em and I think it's paying off for us."
IT SEEMS THE YOUNGER GUYS ARE DOING WELL THIS YEAR AND THE OLDER GUYS ARE STRUGGLING. DO YOU HAVE ANY EXPLANATION FOR THAT? "I don't know. I really think the biggest equalizer is these new Goodyear tires. I think that notes and experience from the past are not working like they once were. I think you have to throw a lot of your stuff out and start over fresh, and I think that puts everybody on an even playing field and gives more guys an opportunity to run well. I think that's why you maybe see newer teams or newer guys running well because it's more of an even playing field. These new tires from Goodyear are so good but they're so much different than what we've had in the past. A lot of the setup stuff that you think would work are not working, so it's tough on us because we're a single car team. We really have nobody to turn to and we're already out of tests this year, other than Indy left next week, and it's maybe taken us a little bit longer to catch up more than it is some of the other guys, but I think that is the one common denominator that's made the difference this year in the types of races that you've seen every Sunday. The strategies are a lot different. The people up front seems to be a lot different. I was glad to see Robert Pressley get his best-ever finish of second this past weekend. It's pretty cool to see guys like that emerge from the middle of the field to get a great finish every now and then. It just keeps everybody more on an even playing field."
SO YOU ATTRIBUTE IT MORE TO THE NEW TIRE? "Yeah, I do. I could be wrong. This is just my opinion, but it seems like everywhere we've gone this year, the setups and notes that we've had in the past we could have just used them probably for a good bonfire. I think the tires just change that much, and I think that's why you see new people running up front every now and then. It's a different feel for the driver and if you haven't been in racing long, you really haven't gotten worn into a certain groove so it might take you a little less time to change."
POCONO IS COMING UP AGAIN. WHAT IS THE TRICK TO THAT TUNNEL TURN? "It's a very fast turn with a few bumps in it and a lot of speed can be made or lost in that turn. Pocono is a very unique race track. I don't think there's a place like it on Earth. It's just three totally different turns with three totally different bankings and you have to give up a little here and there to be good in one turn, and you have to give up some in another one. The tunnel turn is a place that they warned me about a lot before I ever went. I went there and really worked hard on it and it reminded me of the tunnel turn that they have at Nazareth a little bit, but you just run so much faster through it at Pocono and it's a tough turn. It's a place that we always try to make sure our car is gonna be good at when we get there, especially in race trim."
WHAT'S THE KEY TO GETTING INTO THE TUNNEL TURN? "That's the biggest mistake a lot of people make is that they're worried about getting into the tunnel turn more than getting off. It's easy to drive it in so hard hitting that tunnel turn and then you slide up off and you lose all of your momentum going through turn three, which takes you all the way down the front straightaway which is a mile long. All of that starts back at the tunnel turn. The momentum that you carry off that turn through turn three makes a lot of difference, so it's not really how hard you get in. You really have to set yourself up to be back on the gas wide-open in the middle of that corner and, if you can do that, you're gonna have a pretty good day."
HOW MUCH DISCIPLINE DOES IT TAKE TO RACE A CAR THAT MAY NOT BE AT ITS BEST? IS THAT ONE OF THE THINGS YOU'VE LEARNED IN THREE YEARS? "Yeah, I think so. I tell you, when you're young and growing up all you know is to go fast 100 percent wide-open on the edge all the time. When I first started with Diamond Ridge Motorsports in the Busch Series, my crew chief was Sandy Jones, who I think is one of the smartest men I've ever met in racing -- not only from a chassis standpoint but just how a driver's mindset should be -- and the first thing I did when I went over there was I tore up a bunch of race cars trying to go on the edge every lap. He had to teach me how to race and I think he started that back in the Busch Series and I'm just learning more and more about it. The older I get, the more I grow up. If you've got a 17th-place car, you need to try to finish 17th, 16th or 15th instead of trying to finish 10th and wind up hitting the wall and finishing 33rd or 34th. It's just something you have to learn. You've got to take what the race track gives you and what your race car gives you that particular weekend, I think. Everybody's belief is probably different, but that's the belief I've been using this year and it's been working pretty well. We've been finishing every race and I really haven't torn up that much equipment. That lets our guys prepare the cars a lot easier and stay ahead of the schedule."
WILL THE NEW SEALER AT NEW HAMPSHIRE CHANGE THE RACING AT ALL? "I didn't know they had done that, but if it's the same people that do Richmond, that's great. The people that do Richmond usually do a great job. The sealer is always very, very sticky -- very tacky -- it's usually good on qualifying runs and all. New Hampshire has always been a place where it's really slick on qualifying. It's always pretty tough to qualify there, so that's good. That new sealer will give everybody a new playing field to play with and some new tidbits to work with, so that'll be pretty neat."
HOW IS IT TO WORK WITH THE WOOD BROTHERS AND THE EXPERIENCE THEY HAVE? "I tell you what, I have definitely had a ball driving for the Wood Brothers. They're some of the best people in the world to work with. They really bend over backwards for you and really give you the benefit of the doubt on a lot of things, not only in racing but a lot of stuff off the race track. That's stuff that's hard to find in NASCAR Winston Cup racing today. As far as experience, when I took that job I knew it was a single car team and I knew it was not in Charlotte -- it was in Stuart, Virginia -- but the stability that team has is unbelievable. I think as young driver you need a team that doesn't have much of a revolving door -- that has the same people working there day-in and day-out all the time, people you get used to and start feeling easier around the more you race. I think that's what's happening to our team. Last year at this time I think we were 32nd in points and this year we're 16th. I just think we're that much further ahead from where we were and I think we're gonna keep going in that direction. We're having a lot of fun doing it. I mean, it's a lot of pressure. We have a big-time sponsor with Motorcraft now that has had a bunch of great years in racing, so we're definitely feeling the pressure to do a good job and we're trying to do so."
THE AVERAGE JOURNALIST OR FAN MAY NOT HAVE A CLUE AS TO WHAT YOU GUYS DO. WHAT DO YOU TRY TO DO WHEN YOU TEST? "You're just looking for comfort. You're looking for good balance between the front of the car and the back of the car. Actually, I've been in the car for about an hour-and-a-half straight this morning until I got out to call you guys and I'll probably get back in for the rest of the day. We're just making long runs and trying to figure out what kind of package we need for this particular race car. Each car, we all try to build them the same, but they all turn out a little bit different -- just like in anything else you do. We're looking at what stuff will actually help this particular race car. We'll try some stuff with springs and shocks. With this new spring rule, this is really the first short-track race we've had since the new spring change rule and no bump stops, so we're working on that a little bit also. We're trying to find the right package that we think we'll need to have a good car on Sunday and that's what we're gonna try to do."
TESTING ISN'T FUN IS IT? "No, it's not the funnest thing in the world, especially if you're not having a good day. It's hot out here. It's about 89 or 90 degrees right now and it gets pretty hot in the car, but it's something you've got to do. When you have a good car on the weekend, it pays off to have a terrible day of testing during the week. That all makes up for it, so if we can learn stuff and use it, it's all worth it."
WHAT ABOUT NO RESTRICTOR PLATES THIS WEEKEND AND WILL NOT HAVING BUMP STOPS SLOW THE CARS DOWN? "I think it should. I think we're not gonna run as fast as Rusty Wallace's pole was there last year. I think the bump stops are gonna have a big thing to do with it and I these Goodyear tires will have a big thing to do with it. Unless that new sealer is that much better, that sealer might make it seem like we're running faster but we won't know until we get there. The restrictor plates were fun and all. We had a good car there last year, but that's not gonna change the way you get around New Hampshire Speedway. That's always a tough place to pass no matter if you have a restrictor plate or not. That race got a bad wrap because of Jeff Burton dominating so much, but it was still the same guys running up front that run up front every weekend at those short tracks, so we just have to get our car dialed in without a restrictor plate this time and, hopefully, we'll be able to do that."
YOUR BROTHER HERMIE IS GOING TO TRY AND MAKE THE BRICKYARD 400. WHAT WOULD THAT MEAN TO YOU IF HE QUALIFIED? "It would mean more to me than anything in the world. I was kind of hoping he was going to test the same time I was so I could kind of keep an eye on what was going on. I talked to Hermie last night and they were struggling a little bit, so I kind of pitched him some ideas that we had done in the past at Indy to qualify good there and, hopefully, they were gonna try that today. It would mean more to me to see him qualify at Indy than a lot of things that have happened to me in racing. I'm the biggest Hermie Sadler fan on the planet and to see him make the Brickyard would be special. This is the first time he's ever gone and tested that track and the first time he's ever seen it. We talked about it before he went up there and it would be a pretty cool family thing if that was able to happen."
WHAT ARE THE DRIVERS THINKING HEADING BACK TO NEW HAMPSHIRE THIS TIME AFTER ALL THE TRAGEDY THAT HAS TAKEN PLACE THE PAST YEAR? "Hopefully it'll just be business as usual. We've all got jobs to do and we all think we've got our safety stuff up to the 100 percent maximum that we think we can do, and I know a lot of the drivers have been working together on that a lot lately -- on making sure that we're all comfortable in there and we all have our Hutchens devices on or HANS or what have you, and that everything is safe inside the car and we're going back to New Hampshire. Tragedy has struck us twice at New Hampshire and, definitely, those two drivers will be on our minds when we get there, but I think once practice starts and we get down to business that's one thing we have to concentrate on."
Text provided by Marti Rompf
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