Elliott Sadler greets Jeff Gordon in victory lane at Indy. Sadler's run in the Brickyard 400 continued a season that has seen the Virginian become one of the most consistent drivers in the Nextel Cup Series. Credit: Autostock

Strong Indy showing has RYR on Chase bubble

After horrible 2003, RYR on verge of two top-10 cars

SPEEDWAY, Ind. -- If not for "one little car" ...

That's all that stood between Robert Yates Racing and Victory Lane. That's all that stood between Dale Jarrett and a third Brickyard 400 victory. That's all that stood between Elliott Sadler and a strong runner-up finish.

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That's all that stood between a Yates 1-2 sweep. That's all that stood between RYR and one of the more historic days at the Brickyard.

Of course, that "one little car" wasn't so insignificant. The car was Jeff Gordon's No. 24 Chevrolet, who dominated Sunday's race to win for the fourth time.

But behind Gordon were the two Yates cars of Jarrett and Sadler, both of which ran up front all day and were ready to win - had that "one little car" made a mistake.

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"That shows you how hard Robert Yates Racing has been working," Sadler said. "We only got beat by one little car. ... For us two to run as good as we did, we've come along way in the last 12 months. Our race teams are poised, and both of us want to be in the top 10."

So forget about the "what ifs." Robert Yates Racing is looking at Sunday's positives, and there were lots of them.

"Two and three, and we had one of the best cars here - both of them were great cars," Yates said. "It's some sort of year we're having. We love this place. It's been good to us.

Dale Jarrett has two top-five runs in the last four events. Credit: AP

"It's where we need to be. They're doing a great job. I'm having a lot of fun right now."

He should be, for Yates hasn't had this kind of success for three years. Jarrett and Sadler finished in the top five at Michigan earlier this year, but before that, you have to go back to September 2001 to find two RYR cars in the top five.

Yet, here they are again, leading laps, running up front and contending for victories.

Jarrett's struggles have been particularly striking. He's a former NASCAR champion and has 31 victories in his career but finished 26th in the points standings last year and was as low as 22nd earlier in 2004.

But his No. 88 team has turned things around. Jarrett has posted four top-10 finishes in the last seven races and has climbed to 13th in points, 55 out of the all-important 10th place.

"The last two months have been really good for us," Jarrett said. "This year has been much better. We've been much more competitive.

"At the beginning of the year we were just kind of an average team - from 12th to 20th basically is where we've been running. Now, we're a solid top-10 team week-in and week-out. We're able to compete."

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Crew chief Mike Ford has certainly added stability and organization to the team, but Jarrett also acknowledges Sadler.

"A lot of that credit goes to Elliott and his team because there are a lot of things that they have done that have helped us tremendously," Jarrett said. "This is solid team effort making this happen, so there's a lot of gratification to come to a place like this and finish well."

Sadler led twice for 32 laps Sunday and appeared to have one of the few cars able to compete with Gordon.

But during one green-flag stretch, his car got wicked loose after the team changed only right-side tires.

"That probably ended up being the turning point of our race, where we probably didn't have a shot at the win, but I wanted to make sure the car was in one piece at the end of the race," Sadler said.

"I could have maybe tried to stay in front of (them), but I also could be windshield deep right now and finished 30th, so I didn't want to do that either.

Quick pit work kept Sadler in the top 10 all day at Indianapolis. Credit: Autostock

"I was on the edge of talent level. I was about to run out of talent right there."

Sadler's humor masked his competitive drive.

"Yeah, I want to be up there celebrating a win, but this is by far the best I've ever run here," Sadler said. "I've had more fun today in a racecar than I've ever had in my entire life, and it gives me something to look forward to.

"This is a new style of racecar that we're building now in-house, and we're building a couple more for these final 10 races.

"If we can run like this every week, doggone it, you all are going to have to talk about us before the end of this year is over with."

Plenty of folks already are talking about Robert Yates Racing. Sadler is right, though, if he and Jarrett keep running like they did at Indy, look out.

"It's great just to race," Sadler said. "We do have a lot of fun together on the racetrack and off the racetrack, so I'm just as happy for his team and my team.

"I know when we go into the shop Monday there are guys who will be smiling ear to ear, so that's what makes us feel the best."