Elliott Sadler finished 39th at New Hampshire after a scrape with MArk Martin put him into the wall. Credit: AP

Sadler makes peace with Martin after Loudon tiff

LONG POND, Pa. -- The last person Elliott Sadler ever expected would wreck him is veteran Mark Martin, who is one of the hardest, but most respectful racers in the garage area.

But that's exactly what occurred last weekend at New Hampshire International Speedway, when Martin's No. 6 Ford ran into the back of Sadler's No. 38 Taurus, propelling it into the Turn 3 wall.

Sadler crashes at Pocono In the opening moments of Happy Hour practice for Sunday's Pennsylvania 500, Elliott Sadler spun and stuffed the back of his car into the Turn 3 wall, forcing the team to go to its back-up car for Saturday's Bud Pole Qualifying.  NASCAR officials said Sadler would be able to maintain his starting position if he starts the same car he qualifies. Read more

The result was a demolished racecar parked at Robert Yates Racing's shop -- but even worse, a drop from fifth to ninth in the Nextel Cup standings for Sadler.

Sadler, who finds his status for making the Chase for the Nextel Cup shaky heading into Sunday's Pennsylvania 500 at Pocono Raceway, said Friday he and Martin had come to an immediate understanding, thanks to a phone call last Monday morning.

"Mark and I have usually had great success racing each other and he's a great competitor," Sadler said. "I know he didn't do it on purpose, but some guys you give a little bit more room than others in case a mistake happens, and that's what Mark and I talked about Monday morning.

"I would give him more room than I would maybe give other people because I don't want an accident to happen around him and we really want the same in return."

Sadler gets turned by Martin, hits the wall hard Sign up for TrackPass now BUY YOUR NEXTEL DRIVER PHONE

Martin, who comes to Pocono only two spots and 44 points ahead of Sadler in the standings, understandably was upset at what he had done and addressed it after the New England 300.

"They were banging off each other down the backstretch and then going into (Turn) 3 my car had been pretty good going into the corners and (Sadler) got out of it early, that caught me off guard and I slammed the brakes on.

"I just hate it. They know I wouldn't race anything like that. I ran square into the back of him. It wasn't even like I was trying to pass him -- it just caught me off guard and I really hate it for those guys.

"They didn't deserve that, and I feel bad about it."

	Elliott Sadler Credit: Chris Stanford/Getty Images
	Inside the Numbers Elliott Sadler in 2005 Event Start Finish Pos. Daytona 39 11 11 California 41 8 6 Las Vegas 2 29 13 Atlanta 11 10 8 Bristol 1 2 5 Martinsville 25 9 3 Texas 8 28 8 Phoenix 33 11 5 Talldega 3 6 5 Darlington 4 20 5 Richmond 5 7 4 Lowe's 10 13 3 Dover 3 10 3 Pocono 25 21 3 Michigan 18 8 3 Infineon 42 6 3 Pepsi 400 6 21 4 Chicagoland 23 37 5 Loudon 3 39 9

Sadler appreciated Martin's concern, but it didn't change the fact that, in the space of one race he had fallen to within a scant 22 points of falling out of the Chase with only seven races remaining until it begins.

Coming into Pocono, the good news is that Sadler has no DNFs in his 13 career starts. Tempering that is the fact that he has only two top-10 finishes, though both of them have come in the last five races.

"We definitely need to bounce back," Sadler said. "We've fallen way too far back in the points. We've got too good of a race team to be ninth in points, but a lot of it has not been our doing.

"We had a rocket last week at New Hampshire and had some certain circumstances hurt us. It's a shame (because) that was a brand new car that we had and we really wanted to run that car back there for the Chase and now it's destroyed.

"Now we kind of have to start over at square one. It's been a tough couple of weeks. We want to try to bounce back -- we want to run good and we need to start doing it this weekend."

Sadler agreed that any issues with Martin would probably be the farthest from his expectations, but that was also the case last weekend.

"Yeah, and that's what I explained to him," Sadler said. "We were talking about giving more room to each other. Some people you know are gonna race you close and you don't really have to give them a lot of room because they don't respect you and you don't really respect them.

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"But there are some guys that you want to give room to because you do respect them and Mark Martin is one of those guys. He's usually a great example of how you race people and, again, I know he didn't do it on purpose."

Sadler and crew chief Todd Parrott feel they have their next three weeks lined up to best facilitate moving back up in the points.

"We brought a really good car here to Pocono," Sadler said. "We've got a really good car lined up for Indy. We're going to test Watkins Glen for two days.

"We're trying to prepare ourselves as much as we can for the next couple of races and make sure we'll be OK."