Elliott Sadler and the No. 11 Sport Clips Toyota team secured the ninth starting position for the VFW Sport Clips Help A Hero 200 at Darlington Raceway on Friday night.
With the race underway for 147-scheduled laps, Sadler reported to the team early in the race that the handling of his Sport Clips Toyota was on the loose side. The team was given their first opportunity to adjust on the No. 11 Camry during the lap 17 caution. Sadler pitted from the 10th position for four tires, fuel and a round of adjustments. The race restarted on lap 23 with Sadler in the ninth spot.
Quickly realizing the adjustments did not help the handling of the No. 11 Sport Clips Toyota, the team opted to bring Sadler back down pit road on lap 58 under caution for four tires, fuel and another set of adjustments to help with the loose-handling condition. The race restarted on lap 64 with Sadler scored seventh.
Following several short cautions, Sadler continued to fight the handling of his Toyota Camry, slipping as low as 11th prior to the caution being displayed again on lap 87. Sadler pitted for four tires, fuel and adjustments.
Working his way into the eighth position, Sadler maintained his position until a late-race caution set up a green-white-checkered finish. Under the caution, Sadler pitted for the final time and took a gamble with right-side tires only and fuel. The race restarted on lap 145 with Sadler in first place. The gamble looked to be paying off for Sadler until the final lap when he got too loose while battling Chase Elliott for the lead. Elliott pulled off the pass and Sadler crossed the finish line second.
When asked about the teams gable for two tires, Sadler stated, “We had to take a chance to get track position. The pit crew on this Sport Clips Toyota was good all night and made the right call. I don’t know if he (Chase Elliott) got me loose or got in the back of me, but man I got really loose off of two and just tried to hold onto it. He had a lot of momentum on the outside. I have a lot of second-place finishes here in Nationwide and in Cup and I just can’t seem to pull it off. This is a great place and I used to come here as a kid and watch these races. I definitely want to win one here. Proud of my team tonight. We worked hard and persevered and got ourselves a second-place finish. Would have liked to have one more position.”
Sadler sits in third place in the NATIONWIDE Series Championship standings, only 20 points out of first place. The Nationwide Series heads to Sadler's hometown track Richmond International Raceway next Friday April 25th.