OPINION: Elliott Sadler’s championship hopes are slipping away, once again

On Friday night, a familiar tune played and this wasn’t a happy tune. It was a tune that Elliott Sadler is getting sick of hearing. For the fourth straight year in a row, the Virginia native is watching his championship hopes slip away with each passing lap.

Sitting within striking distance of points leader Chase Elliott, Sadler was hoping to have a good finish on his hometrack, possibly revisiting victory lance once again. However, his whole night would be flipped upside down by an incident mid-race. On lap 184, Timmy Hill would spin on the backstretch, coming down the track, making contact with Sadler’s right front fender. The crew tried to make repairs so he could stay in contention, however a pair of flat tires would result in Sadler getting into the wall – twice – causing the next two cautions before heading to the garage. As a result, Sadler would post a 29th place finish and currently sits 42 points behind Dillon with 10 races to go.

With 48 points available each race for leading the most laps and winning the race, Sadler could get himself back into contention and possibly make a comeback. However, he will have to depend on the JR Motorsports Chase Elliott and Regan Smith having an ‘off’ day or two, and that has been rare this year with how JRM has stepped up their program.

Perhaps Sadler is cursed. Perhaps he isn’t meant to win a championship – a curse that is best known to have bitten Mark Martin, who scored five runner-up Sprint Cup Series standings finishes with no championship. Or perhaps the performance that is there isn’t there as in 23 races thus far this season, Sadler only has five top-five finishes.

The theory of Sadler being cursed sounds real, though, based on the recent history in the Nationwide Series.

Sadler had a solid season last year, posting 20 top 10 finishes in the 33 races, though fell short and finished fourth in points. A 36th place finish at Charlotte Motor Speedway, plus a 19th place finish in the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway are to blame for that.

Sadler placed runner-up in the standings in 2011 and 2012 – after having bad luck at Phoenix International Raceway in the second last race both years.

In 2011, Leftler would get into Sadler, causing him to back the car in the wall, after Sadler tried to take the short track across the dog leg on the backstretch. That’d result in a 27th place finish.

In 2012, it’d be almost the same scenario again as contact while racing hard for position resulted in Sadler backing the car in the wall again to finish 22nd.

If the championship hopes are lost once again for the fourth straight year, no doubt Sadler will reflect back on tonight at Bristol. Though beyond that, he may be searching for a new ride in the near future. Joe Gibbs Racing is continuing to develop young talent and has two real talented drivers that they will certainly be wanting to move into the Nationwide Series in the future – Darrell Wallace Jr. and Erik Jones. Both have won races in the Camping World Truck Series, while showing that they can post solid finishes in Nationwide.

Could Sadler be left out on the sidelines while JGR puts one of their young stars in the seat?