Sharpie 500 Preview - Bristol Motorspeedway - Elliott Sadler
STATESVILLE, N.C. - No. 19 Stanley Dodge driver Elliott Sadler returns to familiar surroundings this weekend at Bristol Motorspeedway where he earned the first of his three career victories in 2001 driving for the Wood Brothers. He also took the checkered flag in a 1998 Nationwide Series race.
This weekend Sadler visits the Tennessee half-mile with a new face on his pitbox. Wally Rogers, the team's car chief, will serve as the interim crew chief for the Richard Petty Motorsports entry. Rogers, a multi-time winner as a crew chief in the Nationwide series, replaces Kevin Buskirk who will be reassigned to other duties within the Petty team.
ELLIOTT SADLER ON ROGERS: "Wally is one of those guys that you know is going to be pretty special in this sport. He's young, smart, but still has a ton of experience. We've worked great this season. Wally has been the leader of the crew guys on our team so the transition will be pretty easy. Kevin worked like heck for us and I appreciate all that he did for us this season."
WALLY ROGERS: "I'm pretty excited about the opportunity and want to thank Elliott and the team for having confidence in me. Our goal is to show immediate improvement in the final 13 races as well as start building a foundation for the 2010 program. We have a great group of guys here and we can't wait to get started at Bristol where Elliott has had so much success."
SADLER ON BRISTOL: "Man I love Bristol. That place is the best track we visit. It's our Fenway Park and Lambeau Field. It's one of those sports venues that saying just its name evokes a lot of excitement. To win at Bristol means you have made a mark in racing. I've won at Bristol race with the Wood Brothers and now I want to win one for Richard Petty."
Additional Notes of Interest
- Stanley will make a $1 million donation to Children's Miracle Network on behalf of the Ace Hardware Foundation if the No. 19 Dodge wins Saturday night's Cup Series race at Bristol.
- Sadler has won at Bristol Motor Speedway in both the Sprint Cup (2001-1) and Nationwide Series (1998-1). Sadler has also started from the pole position in the Cup Series(2005-1).
- Sadler is tied with Tony Stewart for the longest active DNF streak (46 races) of drivers that have competed in every race. Regan Smith is at 52 races, but has not competed in every race during that span.
- Elliott Sadler has officially become a member of the Twitter community. Follow Elliott's updates by visiting www.twitter.com/Elliott_Sadler.
- Follow along with Richard Petty Motorsports each weekend for real-time in-race updates on Twitter at www.twitter.com/ RPMotorsports.
- Richard Petty Motorsports reached the Facebook "Friend" limit of 5,000 friends on Tuesday, Aug. 18. RPM has now moved its postings to a "fan" page, which can be found by visiting: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Statesville-NC/Richard-Petty-Motorsports/47023671652
- In 2009, Sadler leads all Richard Petty Motorsports drivers in bonus points (35 points). All of his bonus points have come from leading laps.
- SPEED TV viewers can see Sadler every Friday night on "Trackside Live" for the rest of the season.
