Elliott Sadler wants to win a Bud Pole before the season is up. Credit: Autostock

Sadler in title hunt, but feeling no pressure

Elliott Sadler's crew has started calling him "Shaggy" because their driver seems to have forgotten to cut or comb his hair on a daily basis.

But Sadler's latest hairdo seems to have done wonders.

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"I like it. It's different," Sadler said. "I don't even have to comb it when I get out of bed. Just let it go wherever it wants to go. All the guys on the team call my Shaggy. I don't care. It's cool.

"Also I'm a little superstitious, too. I haven't had a DNF. We made it in the top 10. We won at California. A lot of good things have happened to me since I've gone on this streak as far as not cutting my hair. So I'm just kind of going to let it all play out right now."

If Sadler has his way, the hair will be past his shoulders when he celebrates winning the 2004 Nextel Cup championship. Of course, there is a lot of work to be done before that happens.

Sadler's tumble at Talladega sent him to a 22nd-place finish. Credit: Autostock

Sadler sits fourth in the points standings after four races into the Chase for the Nextel Cup, 143 points behind leader Kurt Busch.

"It's just been fun," Sadler said. "I just can't tell you how relaxed we are when we get to the racetrack.

"We aren't feeling any pressure whatever. We're eighth in the points last week. We're fourth this week. We're just going to go to Lowe's, win the race, sit on the pole first, because I haven't got a pole yet this year.

"That's our main goal this weekend. If we do that, we're just going to have fun for 500 miles and go from there.

Sadler had slipped to eighth in the points after finishes of 20th and 22nd but rallied with a solid fourth-place effort last weekend at Kansas Speedway.

That was his best finish in the four Chase races.

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"I tell you, I've been through every rung on the ladder it seems like in the first four races, from good to bad to thinking we got a break to we got a big hole to dig out of," Sadler said.

"We've still got a big hole to dig out of. ... The best way to dig ourselves out of the hole is to just keep going to the racetrack and keep doing the same things we've done all year, and that is to run every single lap we possibly can."

Sadler cited last weekend's Banquet 400 as an example. Late in the race, several drivers came to pit road under caution to top off their fuel tanks. Sadler wanted to do the same, but after he and crew chief Todd Parrott talked about it, they decided to stay on the track.

They came to win the race, Sadler said, so who cares if they ran out of gas with two or three laps left?

"It ended up giving us a fourth-place finish, which is almost like a win to us because we outran everybody else that was in the points race with us," Sadler said. "That's the attitude we have. I was frustrated after Talladega because I just made one little mistake that cost us 20 or 30 points, and they're hard to come by nowadays.

"You know what, we're going to take what it gives us. These final 10 races are a bonus to us anyway and a bonus to our sponsors. We know we're going to New York. I'm very happy about that.

I just hope I get to talk later in the show instead of the first one to have to come on stage. That's kind of the way I'm looking at it right now."

So in this weekend's UAW-GM Quality 500 at Lowe's Motor Speedway, Sadler will be gunning for the victory and won't worry about the Nextel Cup points standings.

"I think Lowe's Motor Speedway is one of the tracks that I excel at as a driver," Sadler said. "I usually qualify good there and usually have a good racecar. We led a bunch of laps there in the spring, were running third or fourth there last year in the fall when we got caught up in somebody else's stuff.

"So I've got a lot of confidence going to that track. The guys have built me a brand-new racecar. It's a great piece. I can't wait to sit down in it Thursday and go and just try to keep some of this momentum we got on our side, carry it through this whole weekend."

And keep that hair growing.