Elliott Sadler will be leaving the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series come 2011, but he won’t be going far. Starting next year, Sadler will be driving for Kevin Harvick, Inc. in the NASCAR Nationwide Series, having signed a multi-year deal with the team, which was announced on Friday at the Texas Motor Speedway. Sadler will also run a number of Camping World Truck Series events for KHI. The team also announced that CitiFinancial, who had been sponsoring the No. 6 Roush Fenway entry driven by Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., will leave that team and sponsor Sadler’s No. 2 Chevrolet entry for 29 races next season. KHI’s sponsorship with CitiFinancial is also a multi-year deal. No word on who will sponsor the other six races on the Nationwide schedule. "I want to be competitive. I want to race to win. This is the best opportunity across the board,” Sadler said on Friday. Kevin Harvick said the signing of Sadler gave the team “a legitimate shot to make a run at the Nationwide Series championship” and called him “a very credible element to the program.”
In his 12 full years in the Sprint Cup Series, Sadler has three wins- his last coming at the Auto Club Speedway in 2004- 19 top fives and 69 top tens. Earlier this season Sadler won the Pocono Mountains 125, driving for his future team.
He also won the pole Friday for this weekend's AAA Texas 500.
Harvick will run the majority of the races in 2011 in his No. 33 Chevrolet, and the rest of the schedule will be divided between his Richard Childress Racing stable mates Paul Menard, Clint Bowyer and Austin Dillon.
Thanks to NNSRacing.com and Racing Reference for the quotes and information used in this piece.
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