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Driver of the Month - August

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Elliott Sadler
» Learn how Valvoline gives race teams the competitive edge they can trust

Elliott Sadler settles into new home but refuses to settle for recent race results.

Elliott Sadler recently signed a contract to remain with Gillett Evernham Motorsports as driver of the No. 19 Dodge Charger. Sadler has been competitive most weekends in his Best Buy/Stanley Tools/McDonalds Dodge, but if it were not for bad luck he would have no luck at all. Still, Sadler has run up front enough to convince his team and his teammates that he has a victory or two in him as the season enters the stretch run.

Sadler, 33, is a native of Emporia, Va. and is in his 10th season of NASCAR Sprint Cup racing. He answered some questions put to him by Valvoline.com recently.

Q: You’ve had some great runs turn into less-than-great
finishes. How do you keep your spirits up?
ES: When those types of things happen you have to take the positives with you and forget the negatives. I take comfort in how fast the cars have been. If we can keep building cars that fast every weekend we are going to be fine because I know our luck is going to turn.

Q: You designed and then moved into a new home this past year. Give us some insight into a bachelor driver’s home.
ES: Well, I am getting married in January so the days of bachelorhood are numbered. Our home is in my hometown of Emporia, Va. Amanda is from Emporia as well. Sure we are going to have some Best Buy flat screen televisions throughout the house, Stanley Tools in the garage, and Valvoline in my cars. (How’s that for working in some of my sponsors?) But what we really want is to make our house a home. It isn’t what you have in your house so much as what goes on in the house. Yes, we will use it to entertain friends, but I hope some day our kids and our grandkids will think of what went on there not what is in there.

Q: What is a ‘guilty pleasure’ for you? What’s on your iPod?
ES: I love all kinds of music and have everything from Nickelback to Bon Jovi to Blake Shelton to Eminem on my iPod. I’m a huge Seinfeld fan. I’ve seen every episode many times. I watch it at home, on the bus and on the airplane.

Q: What do people in your hometown of Emporia, Va., know about you that perhaps race fans do not?
ES: I’m a small town, down home guy. I live a pretty simple life and am fortunate I get to enjoy racing, playing golf and deer hunting. Chances are if I’m not out doing commercials, photoshoots or appearances I’m doing one of those three things.

Q: What was your first car? What cars are in your garage?
ES: My first car was a Ford Mustang GT. Now, I have a Dodge Durango and a few hunting trucks that are all jacked up with mud tires on them.

Driver of the Month»



Update on next- generation Dodge Cup engine

Tommy Wheeler, Engineering Services Director – Gillett Evernham Motorsports

Q: What is the the status of the new Dodge R6P8 cup engine?

TW: Everything is progressing as much on schedule as any new development program ever is. We are in the middle of running durability trials and performance tests as we speak. For the most part, we remain on schedule, hopefully getting it on-line near the end of this calendar year and full implementation in the 2009 season...well ahead of the 2010 mandate from NASCAR.

Q: What have been some of the hurdles to get over in the development of this new sprint cup engine?

TW: As racers, we are eternal optimists. Every week, 43 teams show up to the race tracks and all 43 think they’re going to win the race. Only one actually achieves that goal. I think that it’s inherent in all of us, especially engineers, our eyes are bigger than our stomachs. If you would have asked me a year ago, I would have told you we would have won our first race with it by now.

Q: Where do you see the most improvement on this new engine?

TW: I feel that we’re very competitive with horsepower. We hope that it opens doors that we don’t even know that are there. I have always hoped that it is going to have performance capability. I think the biggest areas where it’s going to be improved is in the water flow and mass – overall weight of the engine. Dodge engineers working with all the Dodge teams have done a great job understanding that it’s very important to have improved coolant flow because of trying to run these engines so hot these days. With track position being so important, we’re finding ourselves not wanting to keep the grill as clean we used to because you’re too afraid to lose track position. It’s very resilient. It can handle a variety of operating conditions. I really think that this engine is going to help us with that.
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