Elliott Sadler celebrates after winning Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Darlington Raceway. Photo by Robert Laberge/NASCAR via Getty Images
Elliott Sadler scored his first-career Darlington victory with a win Saturday’s VFW Sport Clips Help A Hero 200 NASCAR Xfinity Series race.
But it didn’t come easy, and he nearly gave it away.
Sadler passed Denny Hamlin on a restart with 36 laps to go and led the rest of the way, but had to hold off one final challenge from Hamlin with two laps to go to preserve the victory for his second win of the season.
Hamlin, Daniel Suarez, Kyle Larson and Brennan Poole rounded out the top five.
In Victory Lane, Sadler immediately gave a shout-out to his car owner, Dale Earnhardt, Jr., who recently announced he would miss the rest of the 2016 Sprint Cup season due to concussion symptoms.
“This is for Dale Earnhardt, Jr. – my owner has given me one heck of an opportunity this year,” said Sadler. “I know he’s going through a lot this year – this is for you my man. I’ve been wanting to win here for a long time. I’ve thrown one away before, and almost threw this one away.
“I’ve been coming here since I was a kid, then as a crew member for my brother Hermie, and then years later as a driver and to finally get into Victory Lane at this place on a throwback weekend means more to me than anything. It’s such a drivers racetrack, and to race here and stay up front and beat somebody like a Denny Hamlin who has run so many races here…it’s just a great weekend.”
The 41-year old Sadler – the Xfinity Series points leader – has had 32-career Darlington starts in all three NASCAR series but had never finished better than second.
He credited Hall of Fame driver Dale Jarrett – his former Sprint Cup teammate at Robert Yates Racing – who took him under his wing as a young driver in 1996 and showed him how to get around Darlington.
Sadler honored his friend and mentor by adding Jarrett’s name above the right door on his No. 1 Chevrolet, which carried a throwback paint scheme to Sadler’s days driving for Yates.
“I met Dale Jarrett in 1996, and he was practicing for his Winston Million run, he took time to teach a little kid from Virginia to get around this race track,” said Sadler. “That’s why his name in on the other side of the car – he’s meant a lot to me and my career, not only as a race car but also as a man.”
Sadler took the lead on a restart following a caution flag on lap 104, ducking under Hamlin going through turns one and two and quickly pulling away.
Suarez worked over his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Hamlin for second and quickly reeled in Sadler, but later brushed the wall, killing his momentum and allowing Hamlin to regain the second spot.
Up front, Sadler had opened up a half-straightaway lead over Hamlin and looked to be on cruise control as the laps would down to under five to go.
Then, with two laps to go, Sadler nearly threw it all away.
Coming through turn two, Sadler carried a little too much speed through the corner and brushed the wall, slowing him enough to allow Hamlin to dive to the inside in turn three looking for the lead, but Sadler powered through the turn and pulled back out in front by the time the got to the frontstretch.
Hamlin stayed right in Sadler’s tire tracks and pulled even again in turns three and four, but again Sadler was able to power through to clear Hamlin and cross the stripe by four-car lengths over Hamlin.
“I knew his car was going to get really tight after he hit the wall there. I kind of beat up our right side a little bit on that run. Just probably my fault,” said Hamlin. “He (Sadler) made one mistake there and allowed me to get pretty close, but the only chance I had was to kind of slide job him into the corner. I wasn’t clear and I didn’t want to stuff him in the wall, so he won it and we finished second, but proud of the effort.
“I wish I was on the other end of it for sure, but just we had a really bad second gear in our car and I got terrible restarts all day. I knew it would be tough once we lost the lead and then lost second to try to get back up there.”
Erik Jones, Ryan Blaney, Jeremy Clements, Brandon Jones and Ryan Preece made up the rest of the top 10 finishers.
The top five in points remains unchanged, with Sadler holding the lead by 54 points over Suarez. Allgaier is third, followed by Ty Dillon and Brendan Gaughan.
NASCAR Xfinity Series
Darlington Raceway – Darlington, SC
VFW Sport Clips Help A Hero 200 – September 3, 2016
1. (3) Elliott Sadler, Chevrolet, 147.
2. (2) Denny Hamlin(i), Toyota, 147.
3. (5) Daniel Suarez, Toyota, 147.
4. (13) Kyle Larson(i), Chevrolet, 147.
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6. (10) Erik Jones #, Toyota, 147.
7. (4) Ryan Blaney(i), Ford, 147.
8. (19) Jeremy Clements, Chevrolet, 147.
9. (12) Brandon Jones #, Chevrolet, 147.
10. (22) Ryan Preece #, Chevrolet, 147.
11. (7) Justin Allgaier, Chevrolet, 147.
12. (8) Ty Dillon, Chevrolet, 147.
13. (15) Ryan Reed, Ford, 147.
14. (21) J.J. Yeley, Toyota, 147.
15. (17) Ryan Sieg, Chevrolet, 147.
16. (9) Brendan Gaughan, Chevrolet, 146.
17. (14) Darrell Wallace, Jr., Ford, 145.
18. (18) Dakoda Armstrong, Toyota, 145.
19. (16) Blake Koch, Chevrolet, 145.
20. (1) Paul Menard(i), Chevrolet, 145.
21. (24) Ray Black, Jr. #, Chevrolet, 145.
22. (23) Garrett Smithley #, Chevrolet, 144.
23. (36) David Starr, Chevrolet, 143.
24. (27) Joey Gase, Chevrolet, 142.
25. (34) Derrike Cope, Chevrolet, 141.
26. (25) Mario Gosselin, Chevrolet, 140.
27. (31) Josh Berry, Chevrolet, 139.
28. (29) Todd Peck, Ford, 138.
29. (20) Ross Chastain, Chevrolet, Accident, 102.
30. (30) Jeff Green, Toyota, Vibration, 74.
31. (33) Mike Harmon, Dodge, Accident, 66.
32. (32) Carl Long, Chevrolet, Accident, 60.
33. (28) Ryan Ellis, Chevrolet, Transmission, 51.
34. (37) Morgan Shepherd, Chevrolet, Suspension, 45.
35. (6) Kevin Harvick(i), Chevrolet, Engine, 33.
36. (35) Timmy Hill(i), Toyota, Accident, 28.
37. (26) B.J. McLeod #, Ford, Accident, 20.
38. (39) Dexter Bean, Chevrolet, Electrical, 5.
39. (40) John Jackson, Chevrolet, Transmission, 4.
40. (38) Matt DiBenedetto(i), Toyota, Rear Gear, 3.
Average Speed of Race Winner: 128.719 mph.
Time of Race: 1 Hrs, 33 Mins, 36 Secs. Margin of Victory: 0.454 Seconds.
Caution Flags: 3 for 17 laps.
Lead Changes: 8 among 6 drivers.
Lap Leaders: P. Menard(i) 1-6; E. Sadler 7-24; R. Black Jr. # 25-26; E. Sadler 27-47; D. Hamlin(i) 48-90; K. Larson(i) 91-102; R. Blaney(i) 103-107; D. Hamlin(i) 108-111; E. Sadler 112-147.
Leaders Summary (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led): E. Sadler 3 times for 75 laps; D. Hamlin(i) 2 times for 47 laps; K. Larson(i) 1 time for 12 laps; P. Menard(i) 1 time for 6 laps; R. Blaney(i) 1 time for 5 laps; R. Black Jr. # 1 time for 2 laps.
Top 10 in Points: E. Sadler – 815; D. Suarez – 761; J. Allgaier – 750; T. Dillon – 742; B. Gaughan – 732; E. Jones # – 713; B. Poole # – 705; B. Jones # – 684; D. Wallace, Jr. – 630; R. Reed – 596.
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