A week after coming down with an apparent severe case of food poisoning, Elliott Sadler arrived in Phoenix this week feeling much better and it showed with his finish in Saturday’s DAV 200 – Honoring America’s Veterans.
In his next to last race driving the No. 11 Toyota Camry for Joe Gibbs Racing, the Emporia, Virginia native never fell out of the top-10 during the race, and held off a hungry pack of competitors from behind on a late race restart to claim his seventh top-five performance of the season.
“I was kind of hoping those boys would rough each other up a little bit,” said Sadler after the race. “My race team gave me a great race car today. This Sport Clips Toyota was fast — qualified good, raced good. I wish I would have been a little bit better to get back up there and race with those guys. All in all a really good day for us.”
Saturday’s effort was a much needed boost for Sadler, who lost eight pounds in two days because of his recent illness.
“I feel great,” offered the 10-time Nationwide winner. “I’ve been racing since I was seven years old and last week was the first time I had to even think about getting out of the race car. I played six sports in high school and never missed a game of anything.
“I just couldn’t eat anything or keep anything down. Probably the roughest day I’ve ever had and it just happened to be on a race day.”
Feeling back in prime, Sadler’s 24th top-10 run of the season undoubtedly helped his cause in the point standings. Even though series rival Chase Elliott locked up the title with a fifth place finish Saturday at Phoenix (Ariz.) International Raceway, the 39-year old driver still finds himself vying for a spot inside the top-five.
“We’re still racing for points,” added Sadler, who will join Roush Fenway Racing in 2015 driving the No. 1 OneMain Financial Ford Mustang. “I don’t know where it’s at right now, but I think were third or fourth and we’re racing the 2 car, Brian Scott, and Ty Dillon and Regan Smith. We’re all there together and we all want to finish as high as we can. We had a really fast car at Homestead last year and we want to go there and end on the highest note that we can.”
With just one race remaining, Sadler sits fourth in the standings, one point behind Brian Scott and 14 behind current second-place holder Regan Smith. Last season, Sadler ended the year fourth overall.
“I’ve got a lot of friends on this race team and guys that have worked for me and you always want to end the season on a good note no matter what the situation is. We want to go there and be the
best we can. We owe it to our team owner, race team and definitely our sponsor.”
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
