(WOMR file photo)

The first short track race of the 2012 Nationwide Series has culminated with the second win of this season for the RCR #2 One Main Financial Chevy driven by Elliott Sadler.  Sadler took the lead by not pitting when a caution came out with 40 laps to go in . . . → Read More: Sadler Wins The Ford EcoBoost 300]]>

(WOMR file photo)

The first short track race of the 2012 Nationwide Series has culminated with the second win of this season for the RCR #2 One Main Financial Chevy driven by Elliott Sadler.  Sadler took the lead by not pitting when a caution came out with 40 laps to go in the race. He is now the first multi-race winner of the 2012 season!  This is the first time since 1995 that the first four races have been won by non-Sprint Cup/Nationwide only drivers!

Sadler wasn’t sure about the decisive call in Saturday’s Ford EcoBoost 300 at Bristol Motor Speedway, that is until crew chief Luke Lambert gave him a history lesson.

Lambert’s astute call to keep Sadler on the race track under the final caution gave Elliott Sadler the boost he needed to win his second Nationwide Series race of the season, two weeks after he broke a 14-year drought in the series at Phoenix.

“He reminded me that I won a race here in 2001 by doing the same thing,” said Sadler, who celebrated with his parents in Victory Lane, a special moment, because Sadler’s parents never before had been on hand for one of his NASCAR victories. “Luke made a great call to stay out.”

Though he was a high school senior at the time, Lambert, 28, remembers that 2001 race, because he watched it from the grandstands with his father.

“I was here, and I watched it, but I was definitely a spectator,” Lambert said. “I do study all the history of our driver and what track we’re going to and everything else — but I was here for that one. And I was pretty young.”

It would appear that the change of ownership of Sadler’s equipment, Kevin Harvick, Inc. sold out to Richard Childress Racing, has struck a chord within this team.  Their performance so far in 2012 has set the benchmark, winning two times in just four races.

As far as the bruised egos, the crumpled sheet metal, and lost tempers that is normally associated with racing at Bristol Motor Speedway, there wasn’t much evidence of that today in the Nationwide race.  With the newer progressive banking of the race track there is not as much of the “bump and run”, the punt, or the beatin’ and bangin’ normally associated with Bristol.  It was a much tamer Bristol today!

Check out the unofficial results of the Ford EcoBoost 300.

TIL NEXT TIME, I AM STILL WORKING ON MY REDNECK!

(photo courtesy Leon Hammack)

Greg Biffle used a two tire pit strategy on his final pit stop, parlaying that into winning the Sunoco Red Cross Pennsylvania 500. Entering the pits with 35 laps to go in fourth place, the team took only two tires, while Jeff Gordon, Juan Pablo Montoya, and Tony . . . → Read More: Biffle Wins At Pocono]]>

(photo courtesy Leon Hammack)

Greg Biffle used a two tire pit strategy on his final pit stop, parlaying that into winning the Sunoco Red Cross Pennsylvania 500. Entering the pits with 35 laps to go in fourth place, the team took only two tires, while Jeff Gordon, Juan Pablo Montoya, and Tony Stewart all took four tires.  That decision put Biffle out on the front row for the restart.  When the green waved, Biffle ran off and hid from the rest of the field!

Biffle was a on a rather lengthy winless streak, 64 races, his last victory came at Dover in 2008.  The Roush-Fenway Racing victory Sunday was also Ford’s first win of the 2010 race season.

Notwithstanding the significance of the win for both Roush-Fenway Racing and Ford, the race highlighted another important aspect of racing, safety or the lack thereof.  There was a nasty crash with just 35 laps to go in the race. The reigning and four-time Sprint Cup champion, Jimmie Johnson, precipitated a huge, and nearly catastrophic, melee on the back straight of Pocono.

Johnson ran into the back of Kurt Busch’s Penske Racing #2 Miller Lite Dodge, turned him into the outside retaining wall.  After careening off of the fence, Busch came back into the line of traffic, took a T-bone shot from Clint Bowyer’s car, sending Busch’s race car hurtling sideways  into the infield, ricocheting off the inside retaining wall, loosing the right front wheel assembly, and sliding to a stop on the apron of the track.

While witnessing the impending Busch crash out of his front windshield, Elliott Sadler checked up and started grabbing a brake to avoid what he was watching happening front of him.  Unfortunately, the car that was directly behind Sadler was not able to slow his race car down and “punted” Sadler.  The force from the “rear-ender” was all that was needed to send Sadler into the infield grass  totally out of control.  The wet grass at race tracks acts just like “black ice” on blacktop, and in fact, will accelerate the speed of the car!

The force of the Sadler crash with the infield guard rail was horrendous!  The impact of the crash ripped the radiator, engine, transmission, and the right front wheel assembly completely off the race car.  All that equipment ended many feet from where the rest of the race car came to a stop.  There was very little left of the front end from the firewall forward!  Quite remarkably Elliott Sadler climbed out of his race car, albeit, stunned and extremely sore, no doubt!

Had this wreck happened just a few short years ago, there could quite possibly have been a couple of fatalities in likes of Elliott Sadler and Kurt Busch!

Fortunately, the new CoT was build with safety foremost in mind!  Additionally, the advent of the HANS device and the “cocoon” type racing seats are life savers!

Furthermore, it would appear the the Matiolli family has much work to do to get Pocono Raceway up to the current safety standards that the rest of the venues have attained!  Pocono’s inside guard rails appear to be sub-par and in dire need of upgrading for the safety of the drivers.

What is your view on these subjects?

Here is the unofficial results of the Sunoco Red Cross Pennsylvania 500.

TIL NEXT TIME, I AM STILL WORKING ON MY REDNECK!

The Camping World Truck Series visited the Pocono Raceway for the very first time in series history.  The truck race was The Pocono Mountains 125, a 50 laps shootout, a mad dash for the cash!

In the past few years Elliott Sadler has been hit and miss, unfortunately he . . . → Read More: Sadler Wins The Pocono Truck Race]]>

(photo courtesy Getty Images)

The Camping World Truck Series visited the Pocono Raceway for the very first time in series history.  The truck race was The Pocono Mountains 125, a 50 laps shootout, a mad dash for the cash!

In the past few years Elliott Sadler has been hit and miss, unfortunately he has been unable to close the deal at the end of the race.  Some of the pundits have sort of written off Sadler.  However on Saturday Elliott Sadler, driving the Kevin Harvick, Inc. #2 Gran Touring Vodka Chevy Silverado, showed those pundits just why he is not ready to be written off!  Sadler piloted the KHI truck to his first victory in the Camping World Truck Series, and completing the trifecta!  This victory gave Sadler a victory in all three of the elite NASCAR touring series, Sprint Cup, Nationwide, and Trucks!

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.

“It’s hard to put in words what this means to me,” said Sadler, whose last NASCAR victory was Sept. 5, 2004 in a Cup car at Fontana. “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 [Saturday] — 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 race car drivers we have in our sport, means a great deal to me.”

Sadler’s truck was the class of the field in both practice sessions, as well as in the race!

What did you think of the trucks at Pocono?

TIL NEXT TIME, I AM STILL WORKING ON MY REDNECK!

Additionally, Camping World . . . → Read More: Sadler’s Truck Takes The Pole At Pocono]]>

Elliott Sadler showed the rest of the trucks Saturday morning the fastest way around “The Tricky Triangle”, better known as Pocono Raceway.  Sadler is piloting the #2 Kevin Harvick, Inc.’s Gran Touring Vodka Chevy in Saturday’s inaugural Camping World Truck Series race, The Pocono Mountains 125, at the Pocono Raceway.

Additionally, Camping World Truck Series director Wayne Auton, instituted a new and innovative qualifying process in Pocono.  Instead of putting one truck at a time out on the track for qualifying, the trucks were released from pit road at approximately 25 seconds intervals.  The order for the trucks to be released from pit road was qualifying was based on the practice speeds of the trucks and then inverted.  The truck with the slowest practice speed went first and then progressed to the truck with the fastest practice speed going out last.

Here is the starting lineup for the Pocono Mountains 125.

For some who do not know the history of this racing facility, here is the shortened version of the history of Pocono Raceway.

TIL NEXT TIME, I AM STILL WORKING ON MY REDNECK!