E. Sadler off to hot start again in 2004

DARLINGTON, S.C. -- Under the tutelage of crew chief Todd Parrott, Elliott Sadler has tweaked his competitive approach.

	Elliott Sadler has two career top-five finishes in the spring event at Darlington. He was second there in 2002 and fifth in 2004. Credit: Autostock

He's always known how to make speed, just didn't know the proper time and place to employ it.

He's obviously learning.

For the third time in the season's first five races, Sadler scored a top-10 in the No. 38 M&Ms Ford Sunday at Darlington Raceway. The first was a seventh-place run in the Daytona 500. The second a sixth-place effort at Las Vegas.

Sunday? Try fifth, his first top-five of the year.

"I think we learned so much at the end of last year working with Todd Parrott. He's made me a great conservative racecar driver," Sadler said. "I've always known how to go fast, but with (Parrott) and Raymond (Fox) and Robert (Yates) and everybody on the radio calming me down and keeping me focused on what I need to do, now I know when to run fast.

"That's the biggest difference between now and last year."

Last year started with a flourish, as well. After the season's eighth event, the Aaron's 499 at Talladega Superspeedway, Sadler entered the top-10 in the championship standings.

The following week, he finished fifth at Martinsville Speedway to maintain his rank. But after car chief Shawn Parker was sent to direct teammate Dale Jarrett's team, it all went south.

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Enter Parrott. The veteran crew chief joined the No. 38 team midway through the summer and began tutoring his young driver. In NASCAR, patience isn't just a virtue. It's vital.

As Parrott's words sink in, Sadler's consistency improves.

"That's a great outcome," said Sadler. "We were a little loose most of the day, but my pit crew, the best on pit road, gave me two or three spots every single time I come in the pits.

"I was looking forward to coming in and making adjustments, and these guys got me a top-five. It's great to get a top-five for M&Ms here at Darlington. It's one of my favorite tracks and this is definitely good for the point standings after what we went through last week."

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Well, sort of. Sadler left Vegas third in the standings, but last week's 29th-place effort at Atlanta dropped him to eighth. Sunday, he dropped to 10th despite the top-five run. Bobby Labonte's second-place effort and Ryan Newman's third-place run edged them ahead of Sadler in the standings.

That's deceiving, however. Sadler entered the weekend 192 points out of the lead, and leaves Darlington just 107 points behind leader Matt Kenseth.

"This is three (top-10s) out of the first five, and my guys deserve a great race after what happened last week," Sadler said. "They got beat up pretty good by everybody.

"To come back and finish in the top-five, great qualifying effort, great pit stops, just an all around great weekend. Car's in one piece, great weekend for everyone involved."