SCENEDAILY - 00:30AM ET SATURDAY MAY 5, 2007 -
NICK LAHAM / GETTY IMAGESRICHMOND, Va. - Evernham Motorsports driver Elliott Sadler says the team is frustrated with its poor start to the 2007 season, but no one is pointing fingers.
Sadler sits 15th in the Nextel Cup point standings as the series heads to Richmond International Raceway for this weekend's Crown Royal/Jim Stewart 400. That's the highest of any Evernham driver, as Kasey Kahne is 31st and Scott Riggs 36th.
"I think we're all a little frustrated that we didn't start off the season like we wanted to," Sadler said Friday. "We didn't have the [car of tomorrow] down like we thought we should, but I tell you, I'm so proud of my race team. No finger pointing, no blaming anybody.
"We just pretty much got together in a room a couple of weeks ago and decided nobody was going to fix it but us. I think it's made us all a little stronger and made us pull together a little more."
Sadler said he knows the team still has "some more work to do," especially at COT tracks. Riggs' eighth-place finish at Martinsville was Evernham's only top-10 in a race with NASCAR's new model, and all the other finishes were 19th or worse.
"We came up here to Richmond [for a test] with some new ideas and some new front ends on our COT cars," said Sadler, whose best COT finish was a 24th at Martinsville. "We've just got to try to keep working with it. We've got an important test coming up at Charlotte."
Despite the tough start, Sadler is encouraged by being only 64 points behind 12th-place Carl Edwards for the final spot in the Chase For The Nextel Cup. "We're still in pretty good shape, we think," Sadler said. "We've just got to keep improving and keep making our cars a little better and getting some communication going between [team director] Josh [Browne] and I, and we should be fine."
Sadler said he has been on other teams that have run into problems and subsequently disintegrated. That hasn't been the case at Evernham, he said. "I have been on race teams before when it's who blames who, and it's very bad when that happens," Sadler said. "That's one thing I can say about Ray and everybody at Evernham's. I have not seen that at all. One there's no egos here, and two, there's no finger-pointing.
"We know we've got a problem to fix, and we're going to fix it. Kasey and Scott and I are going to our jobs as drivers not only to help ourselves but help each other."
NICK LAHAM / GETTY IMAGESRICHMOND, Va. - Evernham Motorsports driver Elliott Sadler says the team is frustrated with its poor start to the 2007 season, but no one is pointing fingers.
Sadler sits 15th in the Nextel Cup point standings as the series heads to Richmond International Raceway for this weekend's Crown Royal/Jim Stewart 400. That's the highest of any Evernham driver, as Kasey Kahne is 31st and Scott Riggs 36th.
"I think we're all a little frustrated that we didn't start off the season like we wanted to," Sadler said Friday. "We didn't have the [car of tomorrow] down like we thought we should, but I tell you, I'm so proud of my race team. No finger pointing, no blaming anybody.
"We just pretty much got together in a room a couple of weeks ago and decided nobody was going to fix it but us. I think it's made us all a little stronger and made us pull together a little more."
Sadler said he knows the team still has "some more work to do," especially at COT tracks. Riggs' eighth-place finish at Martinsville was Evernham's only top-10 in a race with NASCAR's new model, and all the other finishes were 19th or worse.
"We came up here to Richmond [for a test] with some new ideas and some new front ends on our COT cars," said Sadler, whose best COT finish was a 24th at Martinsville. "We've just got to try to keep working with it. We've got an important test coming up at Charlotte."
Despite the tough start, Sadler is encouraged by being only 64 points behind 12th-place Carl Edwards for the final spot in the Chase For The Nextel Cup. "We're still in pretty good shape, we think," Sadler said. "We've just got to keep improving and keep making our cars a little better and getting some communication going between [team director] Josh [Browne] and I, and we should be fine."
Sadler said he has been on other teams that have run into problems and subsequently disintegrated. That hasn't been the case at Evernham, he said. "I have been on race teams before when it's who blames who, and it's very bad when that happens," Sadler said. "That's one thing I can say about Ray and everybody at Evernham's. I have not seen that at all. One there's no egos here, and two, there's no finger-pointing.
"We know we've got a problem to fix, and we're going to fix it. Kasey and Scott and I are going to our jobs as drivers not only to help ourselves but help each other."