Elliott Sadler 2010 Fantasy NASCAR Preview

[picapp align=”left” wrap=”true” link=”term=elliott+sadler&iid=6943243″ src=”1/4/f/5/AMP_Energy_500_7ff6.jpg?adImageId=8319145&imageId=6943243″ width=”234″ height=”156″ /]Elliott Sadler

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2009 Stats: Points finish 26th, 0 Wins, 1 Top Five, 5 Top Tens, Average finish 23.9, Average position 26.5, Laps led 49, Driver rating 55.5

You know your off to a bad start in the season when you have to sue to get your job back, and Elliott Sadler did just that last season. His whole season wasn’t rough though. In the season opening Daytona 500 Sadler was just seconds away from snapping his long winless streak. OK I guess that is rough also. Other then that Sadler really wasn’t noticed throughout the season because he only raced 10.6% of the percent of the laps in the top 15. In 2010 Sadler will once again be in a Ford where he found the majority of success in his career.

Strengths- Elliott Sadler frequently has good runs at the restrictotar plate tracks where he is always viewed as a solid sleeper.

Weaknesses- The 19 team is awful at the intermediate tracks which make up the core of the NASCAR season.

Intermediate Track Grade- D+, Elliott Sadler didn’t have a single top 10 on this track type at all last season. His best intermediate finish in 2009 was 12th at Michigan. Besides this Sadler only had one other top 15 finish on intermediate tracks last year (Darlington 14th)

Flat Track Grade- D+, The Sprint Cup Series has 7 flat track dates on the schedule (Phoenix-2, New Hampshire-2, Pocono-2, Indianapolis-1). In those races Sadler’s best finish is 8th which occured at New Hampshire. Other then that it’s pretty ugly. Sadler didn’t have any other flat track top 20 finishes in 2009. His other finishes were 32nd, 25th, 26th, 40th, 24th & 28th.

Restrictor Plate Track Grade- A-, Sadler is unlikely to duplicate his 2009 performances on the restrictor plate tracks but he has always had a knack for these tracks. Sadler had 3 top tens on these tracks last season and his lone top five happened in the season opening Daytona 500.

Short Track Grade- C-, Sadler really struggled on the short tracks last season. Sadler only had one top 20 finish last season on the short tracks and that happened at Bristol the first short track race of the year. His average finish on this type of track last season was 26.1.

Road Course Track Grade- B-, Sadler is actually a pretty good road course racer. At Infineon last season Sadler finished in 10th. In 2008 Sadler had a top 10 day going for him at Infineon but he had a late flat tire ruin his day. I personally wouldn’t recommend him for Watkins Glen.

How to use him from a fantasy racing perspective in 2010?

Sadler is a frequent front runner at the restrictor plate tracks and many times he is also solid on some of the skill tracks (road courses & short tracks).

Click HERE for more Elliott Sadler stats

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