Elliott Sadler wins Nationwide race despite stomach ailment

Elliott Sadler wins Nationwide race despite stomach ailment

By Benjamin Miraski / Chicago Tribune
Monday, July 23, 2012
JOLIET, Ill. — Elliott Sadler might have to make his favorite color yellow after Sunday’s NASCAR Nationwide series race at Chicagoland Speedway, even though he was a little green.

Sadler took advantage of two late cautions in the race and fought through a stomach virus that had bugged him all weekend to earn his third win of the season. "I kind of dug myself a hole yesterday. Richard (Childress) came to me and asked me, ’Should I think of a backup driver?"’ Sadler said. "I kind of put my foot in my mouth and told Richard I wasn’t going to need one. I knew I had to back that up."

He took over the lead following a caution flag, which came out when Brad Sweet spun with race leader Ricky Stenhouse Jr. in the pits. A crash with five laps remaining brought out another caution, and
Sadler had the best restart thanks to a push from behind by Justin Allgaier.
The win extended Sadler’s Nationwide series lead to 11 points over his teammate Austin Dillon. Stenhouse remains third in the points, 19 points behind.

"We needed it to get some momentum back on our side," Sadler said. "We were just able to hold on."

The caution that gave Sadler the lead pushed Stenhouse a lap down, but he was able to take a wave-around, placing him at the back of the pack on the restart.

Stenhouse’s car, which had been the fastest all day, looked to still be the best as he ran through traffic to the front. As other teams battled the changing weather conditions at the track, Stenhouse kept his setup steady.

He was within a second of Sadler when the final caution of the day flew.

"We definitely had the car to beat," Stenhouse said. "Cautions just kept falling everyone else’s way."

Sam Hornish Jr. had tapped the back end of Kyle Busch, forcing him up into Brendan Gaughan and putting both cars into the outside wall. It took more than five laps to clear the debris, forcing the race into extra laps and a green-white-checkered finish.

"I was wanting them to red flag it so that we would have a few more laps at the end there," Stenhouse said.

Before relinquishing the lead, Stenhouse had been in front for 135 laps, and he was certain that had the last crash not happened, he would have made the trip to the winner’s circle.

"(Allgaier) just pushed (Sadler) so far out there, there just wasn’t anything I could do," he said.

Childress said he never thought about pulling Sadler despite feeling under the weather.

"I was going to leave it up to him," he said. "Sometimes it is good to just have an insurance policy. That’s worse than giving your wife away, I think, giving your car away."