January 17, 2009
By Brenda Benedict
Elliott Sadler’s life has been eventful since the end of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series in November.
This weekend Sadler will be getting married and even his honeymoon is causing him trouble. He is scheduled to fly out of the country for his honeymoon this Sunday and he does not yet have a passport. Sadler had a passport, that was sent in the government for renewal, but he received notification that his passport was red-flagged because it had either been lost or stolen. He has re-applied but he is wondering if the new passport will arrive in time.
Maybe his personal trouble will work out as well as his racing difficulty did.
In late December, it was reported that Sadler was going to be replaced in the number 19 car by Gillett-Evernham Racing (GEM). News sources stated that AJ Allmendinger was going to replace Sadler for the upcoming season.
Sadler’s racing career has been marked by change. He began his Cup Series in 1999 running the #21 for Woods Brothers. After four years, he moved to Robert Yates Racing in the #38 M & M’s car. Sadler joined GEM in August 2006 after 3 ˝ years with Yates Racing.
The Sadler name has long been associated with racing. Sadler’s father and uncles raced in the Virginia area for years. His brother Hermie is an announcer for SPEED-TV and a former NASCAR driver himself. And it looks as if the name of Elliott Sadler will continue to be part of NASCAR.
Sadler’s replacement at GEM was not to be.
Sadler appeared in a NASCAR teleconference on this Wednesday and seemed to step up to the plate and take responsibility for some of the upheaval.
Sadler stated, “I think we've all been a part of this business long enough to know that performance is the bottom line, and when you don't perform, you sit down in meetings and you try to hash through things, and some of the meetings are good and some of them are not. At the end of the day, everybody has to be held accountable for what you're trying to do on and off the racetrack.”
When the decision was made to make Sadler accountable by replacing him, Sadler reacted by threatening to file a breach of contract lawsuit.
Sadler described his emotions when faced with leaving the #19 as “gut-wrenching”.
He stated, “I have so many friends like family on the 19 car, and I know how hard we've worked and how much improvement we did make from 2007 to 2008 and how much improvement I think we can make again for the 2009 season.”
The lawsuit was never filed because GEM reversed its decision to place Allmendinger in the #19 car.
Sadler is confident this upheaval will not affect his team during the 2009 season and he is motivated to return to the track.
“We have a lot of motivation, we have a lot of things to prove, and that's why we're so eager to get this season started with.”
I’m looking forward to this NASCAR season but I will need a score card to keep track of the drivers and their teams. Several drivers are starting with new teams or sponsors. I cannot make any predictions yet about how I feel these changes will affect who is in Victory Circle each week.
Sadler’s difficulties on the track will probably remain this year after such a tremulous off-season. I am predicting that he will continue to struggle early in the season getting the team working together.
We wish Sadler best wishes on his wedding and we only hope the passport comes through for his honeymoon.
The thoughts and ideas expressed by this writer or any other writer on Insider Racing News, are not necessarily the views of the staff and/or management of IRN.
