Philadelphia, PA – After taking this past weekend off, the Nationwide Series resumes its schedule on Friday night at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
A fourth-place finish for Elliott Sadler coupled with a ninth-place run for Ricky Stenhouse Jr. in the Sept. 29 race at Dover allowed Sadler to take a nine-point lead over Stenhouse. There are five races remaining.
In commemorating Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Nationwide teams and sponsors will "go pink" for the 300-mile event at Charlotte. Sadler will run a special pink paint scheme in honor of his mother, Bell Sadler, who is a breast cancer survivor. He will also wear a fire suit and shoes of the same color.
"The October race at Charlotte Motor Speedway always means so much to me and my family," Sadler said. "It is definitely my mom's favorite race, because of all the survivors that come out, and she just loves the pink paint scheme. This year, the trophy is pink, so it would be a storybook ending to be able to share that with her."
Danica Patrick's car will feature a pink paint scheme for this race as well.
Sadler has finished no worse than 10th in his last three races at Charlotte. He placed fifth there in May.
Even though Stenhouse had a disappointing 26th-place finish at Charlotte earlier this year, the defending series champion has done quite well on the 1.5-mile tracks this season. Four of his five wins have come on the mile and a halfs -- Las Vegas, Texas, Atlanta and Chicago.
Rookie Austin Dillon comes to Charlotte trailing Sadler, his Richard Childress Racing teammate, by 25 points. Dillon started second and finished 11th in his first start at Charlotte earlier in the season.
While Sadler, Stenhouse and Dillon continue their Nationwide title bout, Mike Wallace will celebrate a career milestone at Charlotte. Wallace, who drives the No. 01 Chevrolet for JD Motorsports, is expected to make his 750th start among NASCAR's top three series -- Sprint Cup, Nationwide and Camping World Truck. He currently has 444 Nationwide starts, 190 in Sprint Cup and 115 in Trucks.
"That is still baffling that I have been around this sport long enough to make 750 starts across the board," Wallace said. "I'm very fortunate to still be getting paid to do something I truly love to do week in and week out."
Forty-six teams are on the preliminary entry list for the Dollar General 300. Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin, Kevin Harvick, Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano are those Sprint Cup regulars competing in this race.
Series: NASCAR Nationwide. Date: Friday, Oct. 12. Race: Dollar General 300. Site: Charlotte Motor Speedway. Track: 1.5-mile oval. Start time: 7:30 p.m.(ET). Laps: 200. Miles: 300. 2011 Winner: Carl Edwards. Television: ESPN. Radio: Performance Racing Network (PRN)/SIRIUS NASCAR Radio.
Receive your weekly recap of all the happenings around the world of sports.