Sadler: team still needs work

Sadler dominated the latter stages of the first Gatorade Duel qualifying race for this Sunday's Daytona 500, guaranteeing him third on the grid this weekend.

It was his first victory in more than a year, but although Sadler is happy with the team's ambition, he still believes his team has much work to do if they are to improve on last year's result of 13th in the Nextel Cup championship standings.

"We had a great test at Vegas. We know we got a little left to do at California to be strong. We know the same cars are going to be strong that were strong last year," Sadler said.

"From a mental standpoint, not from a nuts and bolts thing with the race car, this team is more focused and more ready to go week-to-week racing.

"We just got a new attitude. We feel like we're all going into war together. I feel like I'm the quarterback of this race team. It's time for me to act like it. It's not time for me to just sit back and let everything else happen. It's time for me to step in and make sure I'm ready to go.

"When I'm ready to go, those guys can follow me to the racetrack each and every week ready to fight a war, ready to do whatever we got to do.

"From an attitude standpoint, I think we're light years ahead from where we've ever been, me as a driver, us as a team. Nut and bolt wise, race car wise, we still got work to do. We know that. We understand that."