During Saturday’s NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Chicagoland, ESPN played a clip of someone telling Austin Dillon: “You do not help the 2 car.”
Elliott Sadler, Richard Childress Racing Still On Good Terms Despite Curious Radio Chatter
To viewers, it sounded a bit suspicious. With Sadler – the aforementioned 2 car – leaving Richard Childress Racing at the end of the season, some fans jumped to conclusions that RCR was trying to make Sadler’s championship quest more difficult.
But after the race, all of the parties involved said that wasn’t the case at all.
Sadler seemed taken aback when told of the message to Dillon and said, “I don’t know what that means.” The driver said he did not feel like he was on an island at RCR.
“We share really good notes and we always have, so I don’t know,” Sadler said.
The one who radioed the message to Dillon turned out to be crew chief Danny Stockman – not Richard Childress – who also seemed surprised about the uproar.
Stockman said he’s committed to working with RCR’s other two teams and added, “We’re just one big happy family.”
The radio chatter apparently happened when Sadler was pushing another car down the frontstretch instead of Dillon. Stockman, a competitive type who tends to get fired up, then told his driver not to do anything to help Sadler because they’re both contending for the championship and it looked like it was every man for himself.
“It’s just racing hard for the championship right there,” Dillon said. “The 2 went with the other guy when we could have used a push. Everybody is worked up about it...we didn’t help each other at all today. It’s just racing hard. I don’t know what else to say. It’s just part of the game, I guess.”
As for Sadler, the driver lost the championship points lead when he finished eighth while now-leader Ricky Stenhouse Jr. won the race. Sadler trails Stenhouse Jr. by nine points (Dillon is 34 points back).
Sadler was done in by a tire he said came “de-laminated” during a run. The team made adjustments because it didn’t realize the tire was the problem and by the time Sadler’s crew figured it out, the changes had already been made.
"Then we were trying to play catch-up there at the end and we were just way too loose," he said. "It put us in a hole and you only get a few times to adjust on it. We definitely lost some valuable points today."
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