Rodney Sawyers (born July 27, 1967) is a former

NASCAR The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC (NASCAR) is an American auto racing sanctioning and operating company that is best known for stock car racing. The privately owned company was founded by Bill France Sr. in 1948, and hi ...

driver. He competed limited schedules in the racing series in 2001 and 2002.

Busch Series career

Sawyers ran an

R & D Research and development (R&D or R+D), known in Europe as research and technological development (RTD), is the set of innovative activities undertaken by corporations or governments in developing new services or products, and improving existi ...

Ford Ford commonly refers to: * Ford Motor Company, an automobile manufacturer founded by Henry Ford * Ford (crossing), a shallow crossing on a river Ford may also refer to: Ford Motor Company * Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company * Ford F ...

for two races in

2001 NASCAR Busch Series The 2001 NASCAR Busch Series began February 17 and ended November 10. Kevin Harvick of Richard Childress Racing was champion. Teams and drivers Full schedule Limited schedule Notes: * If under "team", the owner's name is listed and in ' ...

, helping out

Hensley Racing Jeffrey S. Hensley (born November 11, 1962) is an American professional stock car racing driver and crew chief. He works as the crew chief for GMS Racing on their No. 23 Chevrolet Silverado in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, driven by Grant En ...

. He made his first career race at Gateway, qualifying 34th. However, he fell out of the race extremely early and finishing 43rd, last place on the field. Sawyers then had a solid qualifying effort of 20th at IRP, before finishing 39th in the event due to clutch problems. Those were his only career starts in that series.

Craftsman Truck Series career

Sawyers ran six races a piece in this series in 2001 and 2002 seasons of the

NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series is a pickup truck racing series owned and operated by the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, and is the only series in NASCAR to race production pickup truck based stock cars. The series is one of thr ...

. Sawyers drove his own #68 truck in 2001, making his series debut at

Darlington Darlington is a market town in the Borough of Darlington, County Durham, England. The River Skerne flows through the town; it is a tributary of the River Tees. The Tees itself flows south of the town. In the 19th century, Darlington underwen ...

. It was a good run for his team, as he started 26th, but managed an 18th-place run. In fact, all around it was a good year for Sawyers. He was in the top-20 five times in his six starts. Those were highlighted by a pair of 17ths at IRP and

Nazareth Nazareth ( ; ar, النَّاصِرَة, ''an-Nāṣira''; he, נָצְרַת, ''Nāṣəraṯ''; arc, ܢܨܪܬ, ''Naṣrath'') is the largest city in the Northern District of Israel. Nazareth is known as "the Arab capital of Israel". In ...

. Sawyers had another solid year in 2002, finishing no worse than 27th. His best career finish was set. He was 15th at Martinsville, one week before rolling to another solid run of 18th at Gateway. Sawyers other top-20 was a 19th at

Pikes Peak Pikes Peak is the List of mountain ranges of Colorado#Mountain ranges, highest summit of the southern Front Range of the Rocky Mountains, in North America. The Ultra-prominent peak, ultra-prominent fourteener is located in Pike National Forest ...

. Unfortunately, Sawyers team ran out of funding midway through 2002, and a promising career was axed. He has not raced in major NASCAR since a 27th-place finish at the

Milwaukee Mile The Milwaukee Mile is a oval race track in the central United States, located on the grounds of the Wisconsin State Fair Park in West Allis, Wisconsin, a suburb west of Milwaukee. Its grandstand and bleachers seats approximately 37,000 spectator ...

External links

* 1967 births Living people NASCAR drivers People from Ridgeway, Virginia Racing drivers from Virginia {{US-autoracing-bio-stub