Childress Racing Back On Top

Richard Childress Racing Back On Top In More Ways Than One

Capitalizing on wins and consistency is the key to championships and Richard Childress Racing’s Elliott Sadler has done just that. Twelve races into the season and Sadler has regained the standings lead.
Leaving Iowa a few weeks ago, it looked as though Roush Fenway Racing’s Ricky Stenhouse Jr. was about to pull away from Sadler, but bad luck struck quickly and two consecutive finishes outside the top 25 later, Sadler has assumed the standings lead for the first time since Richmond. 
Sadler finished seventh this past weekend at Dover, posting a series-leading 10th top-10 finish. Now 12 points separate Sadler and Stenhouse, but Sadler isn’t blind to his competition’s resiliency and prowess.
"We know as a team that the No. 6 car (Stenhouse) is really going to run good week in and week out," Sadler said. "We just have to keep our performance up, but we know the No. 6 isn’t going to have problems every day."
Sadler is correct. Prior to a 26th at Charlotte and 32nd at Dover, Stenhouse had rallied off three wins and a series-leading seven top fives.
Thus far, Sadler e has a season-to-date Driver Rating of 110.0, two poles, two wins and six top fives.
Sadler’s RCR teammates, Ty and Austin Dillon, also have starring roles. Ty, younger brother of Sunoco Rookie of the Year candidate Austin, finished eighth in his series debut. Not to be outdone, Austin finished sixth and also moved into the championship picture. He sits third in the standings, 14 points behind Sadler and only two behind Stenhouse.

Dynamic Duo: Logano And Stevens Have Taken Off

Lately, it seems like all Joey Logano and Adam Stevens can do is win.
The Joe Gibbs Racing duo has been teamed together in the NASCAR Nationwide Series since Jason Ratcliff, former NNS crew chief, was promoted to the No. 20 Toyota team in the NSCS.  While most transitional periods have their rough times, this one has quickly gotten off the ground. 
"Working with Adam has been great; he is doing an awesome job." Logano said. "Our communication is right where it needs to be and a lot of that has to do with last year. We struggled a little bit and we were really able to diagnose some of the things we can do better as a team and make our cars better."
Dating back to Daytona in 2011, the pair has competed in 29 NNS races together, posting five wins, three poles and an average finish of 8.3.
Joe Gibbs is in search of his fourth owners’ championship, which would tie him for the most all-time with Richard Childress. Gibbs currently has three, second-most, tied with William Baumgardener.
Logano and Stevens have been keys in the JGR initiative of seeking an owners’ championship this season. The No. 18 team was sixth in the owner standings after Logano and Stevens’ first win of the year at Auto Club Speedway. It then moved up to third after a second win at Talladega. JGR teammate Denny Hamlin’s win at Charlotte in the No. 18 pushed the team past the No. 2 Richard Childress Racing team into first place, and Logano’s Dover win has increased the No. 18’s first-place advantage to 34 points.
Logano’s victory at Dover was his 13th career NNS win, tying him for 22nd on the all-time NNS wins list with NASCAR Hall of Famer Darrell Waltrip and two-time NNS champion Martin Truex Jr. Among drivers with more than 10 wins in the NNS, Logano has the 13th-best all-time winning percentage in the series with a 13.2%.  

NASCAR Nationwide Series, Etc.

In addition to presenting at the CMT Awards in Nashville this week, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. will take his sprint car to Eagle, Neb., for his first race of the year. … On June 7, Travis Pastrana takes some hot laps around Texas Motor Speedway with motorsports legend and 1967 Daytona 500 winner Mario Andretti. … Mike Wallace heads home to St. Louis to visit family and friends and watch his son Matt race Late Models at Lebanon I-44 Speedway, the same track on which Mike started his NASCAR career as track champion. … Jason Bowles plans on taking his No. 81 MacDonald Motorsports team out on the lake before the upcoming 16-week stretch that begins June 16 in Michigan. … Michael Annett has become an avid bowler in the last year and will work on his game this week. … Justin Allgaier (who celebrates his 26th birthday on June 6), Austin Dillon, Danica Patrick and Kenny Wallace are NNS drivers who will participate in Tony Stewart’s Prelude to the Dream dirt Late Model race at Eldora Speedway on Wednesday. The annual charity event this year benefits Feed the Children. … Corey LaJoie, son of two-time NNS champion Randy, picked up a popular win last Saturday night at historic Bowman Gray Stadium in Winston-Salem, N.C. – his first career win and the fifth different winner in five NASCAR K&N Pro Series East races. The series is right back at it this Saturday at Gresham Motorsports Park in Jefferson, Ga. Hendrick Motorsports’ Chase Elliott leads the points by 16 over LaJoie and 20 over Rev Racing rookie Kyle Larson, in his first year with the NASCAR Drive for Diversity initiative.