The No. 38 team's gamble to use four tires late at Loudon paid off. Credit: Autostock

Pit Move of the Week: Loudon

It's tough being a Nextel Cup crew chief.

At Richmond, running on old tires was an attractive option. Loudon is similar in banking, but this time, four tires was the preferred choice.

At least for Elliott Sadler.

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Crew chief Todd Parrott gave Sadler four tires, and the move gave Sadler five additional spots for his third top-10 in the last four races.

Sadler said that it was Parrott's call to put on four sticker tires.

"Yeah, that gained us at least four spots. It was a great call by Todd again to get us a top 10," said Sadler. "An eighth-place finish is great for us at New Hampshire.

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"I'm not really that great here, so that was a good finish. The car is in one piece. We'll take it to Kansas City now and if we can just do this every week - make all the laps and finish in the top 10 -- we'll keep giving ourselves a chance to be there at the end and that's all we want to have."

Not everyone enjoyed success on four tires. Rusty Wallace, Mark Martin and Ken Schrader all pitted with Sadler, and none of them were able gain any more spots on the track.

"It just wouldn't run on new tires, so it wasn't going to be good no matter what we did," Martin said.