E Sad and John Roberts Help Promote Safe Teen Driving in Texas

October 31, 2008

Elliott Sadler signs autographs at Colleyville Heritage High School

NASCAR driver Elliott Sadler took time before the Dickies 500 at Texas Motor Speedway to visit students and their parents at Colleyville Heritage High School outside Dallas on Thursday, October 30, to talk about the importance of teen safe driving. Sadler was joined by SPEED TV personality John Roberts.

Sadler, who won at Texas Motor Speedway in 2004, came to the school as part of the Allstate Teen Safe Driving Pit Stop. This program is a national partnership between Allstate and Gillett Evernham Motorsports that highlights the importance of teen safe driving to high school students and their parents in key race markets across the country. Sadler spoke to the crowd of more than 300 about how his racing experiences on the track have made him a better driver off of it.

“I’m a much more cautious motorist,” said Sadler, driver of the No. 19 Stanley Tools Dodge. “Having 42 other drivers going around the track at nearly 200 miles per hour makes you very aware of your surroundings - one mistake can cause a major accident, just like on the street.”

According to the Allstate America’s Teen Driving Hotspots study released in May, more than 5,000 teens die each year in car crashes. The study also ranked the 50 largest metro areas by their teen driving fatality score. The Dallas / Ft. Worth metro area ranked 17th worst in the country with a Teen Fatal Crash Rate of almost 27 per 100,000 teens.

Sadler and Roberts encouraged students and their parents to improve their communication as it relates to teen driving. To help make this possible, Allstate has created a Parent-Teen Driving Contract, a catalyst of conversation between the parents and their teens. The contract, available at www.allstate.com/teen, allows both parties to set rules and consequences if those rules are broken as it relates to a teen’s driving.

Roberts, who has three children, including a teenage son, is glad that Allstate came out with this contract.

“Sitting down with my son Jordan to fill out the contract was a great opportunity for us to discuss the dangers of driving,” Roberts said. “Safe driving is one of those topics that can be difficult to talk to your children about. The contract is a great vehicle to start the conversation.”

Although Sadler never had a physical contract with his parents when he began driving, there was a strong verbal agreement.

“I was told by my parents the day I got my license that driving is a privilege and can be taken away just as fast as it is granted,” Sadler recalled. “They told me speed on the race track is fine, but when I was on the street, I had to obey every traffic law and prove that I was responsible enough to have a driver’s license.”

Those who attended the event had the opportunity to visit the Allstate Safety Zone, an interactive safe driving mobile display that features various safety devices that help keep NASCAR drivers safe on the track. They also had the chance to complete the Parent-Teen Driving Contract at computer kiosks. Sadler and Roberts even tested the crowd’s racing knowledge with trivia questions, with autographed No. 19 hats going to those who answered the questions correctly.

For more information on the Parent-Teen Driving contract and any of Allstate’s teen driving initiatives, please visit www.allstate.com/teen.

Photo credit: Khampha Bouaphanh

Written by Charlie Turner · Filed Under Gillett-Evernham Motorsports, NASCAR, Texas Motor Speedway | Leave a Comment

Gentlemen, Roll Your Dice

October 2, 2008

Right. So Charlie says to Steve about 5 weeks ago, “We need a sucker to write up all the non-Chaser options for the 2008 Chase for the Sprint Cup.” So Steve says, “Well, I owe Luke one, so let’s talk him into it. He’ll write anything, you know.”

So here we are. Suckered, er, convinced, into covering the 31 other possibilities for cracking the Top-10, and knocking Chasers into the lower points-per-position bracket.

Before we dig into what went down at Kansas, in terms of the Top-10 party, how about that finish? Sure, it wasn’t so hot until the last 50 or so laps, but from there on it was hammer down aggressiveness. All completed by a “Cole Trickle” style move for the win. Of course, that’s not the only time Cousin Carl has showed us an impression of Cole Trickle either. Anyone want to recall Michigan, and a little bit of screaming out of the pits?

On to the non-Chasers from Kansas.

Luke’s score from Kansas: 1 for 5. Let’s recap.

At least we kept it in the top 20 this week.

It wasn’t all roses in the Top-10 however. It was only a 70% take for the Chasers.

Coming in with an 8th place showing was David Ragan, followed by A.J. Allmendinger in 9th, and the aforementioned Elliott Sadler closing out the Top-10.

If only Kasey Kahne had better studied Elliot’s setup, he wouldn’t have been 11 spots behind. Is it just me, or has the 9 team has been a bit behind the 8-ball since NASCAR reeled in the “crab walking” with the rear ends of the car? Maybe it’s just coincidence, but then again, maybe not.

So now we arrive at Talladega. Talk about a crapshoot. As we all know, anything can (and usually will) happen at Talladega. It’s the one track in the Chase that puts knots in Chasers stomachs, and boogeymen under their beds.

Here’s your three good options for ‘Dega, that not only have the chance of being in the Top-10 when the smoke clears, but also take an outside shot at the win:

Brian Vickers, David Ragan, and Kurt Busch.

OK, Vickers yet again. He’s performed pretty solid on the plate tracks, and his only win in the series came in this event in 2006.

David Ragan has surprisingly been a familiar face in the Top-10 for plate events as well this season, and the same goes for Kurt, despite an accident last July at Daytona.

When it comes to the plate tracks, just roll your dice. These tracks take more than stats into account, as one lone sneeze can kill a stat quicker than it takes to come out. That’s anywhere from 95 to 650 mph, according to Wikipedia, in case you were wondering.

That being the case, momentum on these types of tracks is important. Not just from recent weeks, but from recent plate races as well. And don’t let the qualifying results fool you. The chance of a Chaser hitting the pole is slim, as it’s an impound race and most teams in the Top-35 will be focusing solely on race runs. This is one place where you won’t hear teams talking about qualifying for track position, for once.

When the checkers fall, how will your dice roll have turned out? Will they be shaken up like the points could be?

Written by Luke · Filed Under NASCAR, Nascar Chase 2008, Talladega Superspeedway | Leave a Comment