No. 1 driver caught up in multi-car pile-up during final laps
It’s difficult to be too disappointed with second-place when second is your best result of the season.
It’s difficult to be too disappointed with second when only a handful of laps earlier, your car was pinched hard against the outside wall and thoughts of seeing the checkered flag were quickly fading.
But Elliott Sadler finished second in Saturday night’s Subway Firecracker 250 at Daytona International Speedway. And he was disappointed.
“Tonight was really a ‘what could have been race,’” the Roush Fenway Racing driver said after trailing Austin Dillon (Richard Childress Racing) across the finish line at DIS.
Sadler’s No. 1 Ford Mustang managed only two top 10s through this year’s first eight races. But Saturday night’s was Sadler’s fifth in his last seven starts.
After avoiding trouble in a 12-car crash with 10 laps remaining, Sadler was running second, outside of leader Brian Scott, three laps from the finish when Scott move up the track in an attempt to halt Sadler’s progress.
Contact sent both cars into the outside wall. Ten more cars were swept up in the incident on the 2.5-mile track.
“We were definitely in the catbird seat there going down the back straightaway there; we had Joey Logano pushing us and had a lot of momentum coming off Turn 2 and were making our way to the front,” Sadler said.
“I think either Brian or his spotter made the block too late; I was already up to his right rear tire. He made the block to late and wrecked us. It was nothing intentional, it’s just racing. It just stinks that it’s it happened to us. Two restrictor-plate races in a row we were in really good shape with less than four laps to go and couldn’t pull it off.
“But tonight really stinks because we were fast all night. In the top-four or five all night and then the wreck happened.
“Second place is a good finish; it’s our best finish of the year. But it’s not what we came to Daytona to do but we’ll have to take it and move on.”
Defending XFINITY Series champion Chase Elliott (JR Motorsports) finished third while teammate Kasey Kahne was fourth. Benny Gordon completed the top five.
Points leader Chris Buescher, involved in the first of the two multi-car incidents, managed a 12th-place finish. More importantly, he managed to retain his hold on the points lead as well. He now leads Elliott by 34 points. Ty Dillon (26th) fell from second to third.
Buescher said he nearly avoided the wreck, “but then got trunked from behind and at that point you are just along for the ride.
“The guys did a nice job fixing it and it was a good recovery considering where we were. To come home P12 isn’t bad.”
Scott led the most laps (84) but wound up 23rd.