Elliott Sadler Claims Texas Sprint Cup Pole

Photo Credit: Jamie Squire/Getty Images

Only three races left in the 2010 NASCAR Sprint Cup season, the Texas Motor Speedway AAA Texas 500 race weekend is one of a dwindling opportunities left for top-level stock car drivers. Not only to capitalize on the Chase for the Cup, some racers of NASCAR's top series are determined to put their name in the news before the season wraps. At Texas Friday, one usually quiet driver piloting a Ford delivered positive result that was much needed for him and his surrounding team. Topping the speed chart after qualifying, Elliott Sadler handsomely beat off two Roush-Fenway Racing Fords of Greg Biffle and Carl Edwards to earn the coveted pole position.

Achieving a 195.397 mile per hour average lap speed around the 1.5 mile oval, Sadler claimed his 8th career Sprint Cup pole which was also his first since April of 2006. Wheeling the Richard Petty Motorsports #19 Ford, the entire four-car race team has been finishing out the NASCAR Sprint Cup of 2010 with uncertainty if a team will even exist in 2011. Elliott Sadler and the #19 Stanley Ford will at least place these parties favourably on the race weekend at Texas Motor Speedway. In addition for the pole position for Sadler, the Virginian is celebrating a newly-signed deal to drive a full-time NASCAR Nationwide Series schedule for Kevin Harvick Incorporated starting in 2011.

A Ford 1-2-3 at Texas, Greg Biffle rested into the runner-up position in qualifying. Biffle's 2nd place with the #16 car for Roush-Fenway Racing was 0.249 seconds off the pace of Sadler's sizzling hot lap. Carl Edward's #99 rounded out the Blue Oval brand's top-three.

Juan Pablo Montoya with the #42 car of Earnhardt/Ganassi Racing timed lap propelled a Chevrolet into the only non-Ford present within the at the AAA Texas 500 qualifying's top-five. David Ragan's #6 car settled into 5th place for the start bringing some assurance to Roush-Fenway Racing for the future. While 3 of the Roush-Fenway Racing Fords broke into the top-5, the 4th car of Matt Kenseth starts 19th but no where near out of contention. Kenseth won the 2002 event at Texas Motor Speedway starting 31st on that day.

While Matt Kenseth's #17 team can take solace in statistics which allows winners to come from deep in the pack, this data will also be a relieve to the top-3 Chase contenders after Friday qualifying. Points leader Jimmie Johnson starts 19th in a race track where the #48 Hendrick Motorsports team have enjoyed mixed results. After crashing during the early laps of last year's fall event on the Texas oval, Johnson rebounded in the spring by finishing 2nd place. Second place in Chase points Denny Hamlin (the driver who won the spring 2010 Texas Motor Speedway race) starts in 30th place as he looks to outperform Jimmie Johnson who is just 14 points in front after the Talladega AMP Energy 500. Within the middle, Kevin Harvick starts from 26th place on Sunday only 38 markers away from taking the points lead. 

The AAA Texas 500 is set to receive the command to start engines at 2 P.M. local time or 3 P.M. for Eastern time zone residents.



2010 NASCAR Sprint Cup
Texas Motor Speedway
AAA Texas 500
Starting Lineup

1. 19 Elliott Sadler Stanley Ford
2. 16 Greg Biffle American Red Cross Ford
3. 99 Carl Edwards Aflac Ford
4. 42 Juan Pablo Montoya Lysol Chevrolet
5. 6 David Ragan UPS Ford
6. 2 Kurt Busch Operation Home Front / Miller Lite Dodge
7. 33 Clint Bowyer Cheerios / Hamburger Helper Chevrolet
8. 78 Regan Smith Furniture Row Racing Chevrolet
9. 5 Mark Martin CARQUEST / GoDaddy.com Chevrolet
10. 43 A J Allmendinger Valvoline Ford
11. 14 Tony Stewart Office Depot / Old Spice Chevrolet
12. 98 Paul Menard Quaker State / Menards Ford
13. 9 Aric Almirola Budweiser Ford
14. 39 Ryan Newman Tornados Chevrolet
15. 24 Jeff Gordon DuPont Chevrolet
16. 31 Jeff Burton Caterpillar Chevrolet
17. 48 Jimmie Johnson Lowe's Chevrolet
18. 00 David Reutimann Aaron's Outdoors Toyota
19. 17 Matt Kenseth Crown Royal Black Ford
20. 20 Joey Logano Home Depot Toyota
21. 56 Martin Truex Jr. NAPA Auto Parts / Susan G. Komen Toyota
22. 88 Dale Earnhardt Jr. National Guard / AMP Energy Chevrolet
23. 82 Scott Speed Red Bull Toyota
24. 83 Kasey Kahne Red Bull Toyota 
25. 25 1 Jamie McMurray Bass Pro Shops / Arctic Cat Chevrolet
26. 29 Kevin Harvick Shell / Pennzoil Chevrolet
27. 77 Sam Hornish Jr. AAA Dodge
28. 21 Trevor Bayne Motorcraft / Quick Lane Ford
29. 18 Kyle Busch M&M's Toyota
30. 11 Denny Hamlin FedEx Office Toyota
31. 10 Bobby Labonte Gander Mountain Outdoors Chevrolet
32. 47 Marcos Ambrose Tom Thumb Toyota
33. 38 David Gilliland Taco Bell Ford
34. 87 Joe Nemechek HostGator.com Toyota
35. 13 Casey Mears GEICO Toyota
36. 12 Brad Keselowski No. 12 Penske Dodge
37. 26 Patrick Carpentier Air Guard Ford
38. 66 Mike Bliss PRISM Motorsports Toyota
39. 7 Robby Gordon MAPEI / Menards Toyota
40. 71 Andy Lally TaxSlayer.com Chevrolet
41. 34 Travis Kvapil Long John Silver's Ford
42. 37 Dave Blaney A&W All American Food Ford
43. 09 Landon Cassill Phoenix Racing Chevrolet

Elliott Sadler Scores Confidence-Building Pocono Truck Series Win

Photo Credit: Drew Hallowell/Getty Images for NASCAR

By Reid Spencer
Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service

LONG POND, Pa.—Elliott Sadler isn't ready to be written off.

On Saturday at Pocono Raceway, he showed why. Pulling away on the second attempt at a green-white-checkered-flag finish, Sadler won the Pocono Mountains 125 Camping World Truck Series race from the pole, his first victory since 2004 in any of NASCAR's top three touring series.

Sadler, 35, beat Kasey Kahne to the finish line by .445 seconds in a race that went five laps past its scheduled distance of 50 laps at the 2.5-mile triangular track. With his first truck series victory, Sadler is the 21st driver to win at least one race in each of NASCAR's top three divisions. Matt Crafton finished third, followed by Aric Almirola and rookie Justin Lofton in the truck series' first visit to Pocono.

Sadler's win vindicated the faith of team owner Kevin Harvick and provided a welcome highlight in a two-year stretch that has seen Sadler struggle in a Sprint Cup car at Richard Petty Motorsports. Sadler announced July 9 that he will leave the No. 19 RPM Ford at the end of the season.

"It's hard to put in words what this means to me," said Sadler, whose last NASCAR win was Sept. 5, 2004 in a Cup car at Fontana, Calif. "To have a tough couple years like we've had in the Cup series, and things not go like we want to, as far as running up front, and winning races and leading laps and things like that. …

"You sit at home a lot, wondering if you're ever going to make it back to victory lane. Are you ever going to have that situation again? Are you ever going to be in that position again? This, to me—I know it's recent, and it's today—but this is the biggest win in my career.

"There's a lot of naysayers out there, and there's a lot of people that write me off, not giving me a chance to make a comeback and be a strong presence again in this sport. To be able to come here and sit on the pole and win the race and race against people like Kasey Kahne and Denny Hamlin (who finished ninth), who I think are two of the best racecar drivers we have in our sport, means a great deal to me."

Notes: Sadler drove Harvick's No. 2 Chevrolet to the lead in the series owners' standings. The No. 2 truck leads the No. 18 of Kyle Busch, driven by Kahne on Saturday, by two points. … Todd Bodine, who tops the drivers' standings, rallied from a spin on Lap 41 to finish 12th. Bodine leaves Pocono 149 points ahead of Almirola in second.