Seven years ago, when Elliott Sadler walked away from racing, he thought his days in NASCAR were over, but now he’s returning for one Craftsman Truck Series event at Richmond Raceway without any expectations resting on his Kaulig Racing ride.
“No worries. No stress,” Sadler said about Friday night’s Black’s Tire 250 at the three-quarter-mile Richmond track.
The opportunity presented itself to Elliott in January when Kaulig Racing CEO Chris Rice contacted him about driving the team’s “free agent” RAM truck at Richmond. His family was ecstatic at the offer. In fact, he said his children “lit up like a Christmas tree.”
“I retired from racing for one reason, and that’s to spend more time at home with my kids,” says the 51-year-old Sadler, who lives in Emporia, Virginia. “The more I’m at home with my kids, the more they’re like, ‘Dad, we really miss the race track. Can we go back to the race track?’ When I asked them if they thought I should do this, they both screamed at the top of their lungs, especially my daughter. She thought this was a great idea.”
Before the season started, Kaulig Racing announced that one of its five entries in each event would be designated a “free agent.” Tony Stewart drove the truck in the season opener at Daytona. Since then, other drivers who have competed in the truck are Clint Bowyer, Jamie McMurray, Ryan Newman, Travis Pastrana, Parker Kligerman, Carson Ferguson, Corey LaJoie, A.J. Allmendinger, Ty Dillon, and Colin Braun.
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Travis Pastrana drove as a Kaulig Racing “free agent” at Charlotte Motor Speedway in May.
“I have talked to a couple of the guys… and I think some of them were frustrated by maybe the finish that they had,” Sadler said. “But some of them I talked to were just happy to be in the seat… I say scratch that itch again.”
Sadler isn’t focusing on his race result, choosing instead to focus on the feeling he’ll have in the truck.
“I lived that life for 25 years, where the finish dictated how my next week was going to go as a person,” Sadler said. “Was I going to be in a bad mood all week, or was I going to be in a good mood because you’re judged on your last finish.”
Since Sadler competed in his last NASCAR race in September 2019 at Las Vegas, he admitted there were a few tracks where he would like to race again, but others he preferred watching on TV.
“It’d be cool to go race at Iowa again, or Darlington or Bristol,” Sadler said. “I flipped enough at Talladega. That weekend, I’ll sit on my couch and drink a beer and watch those guys do what they do.”
In preparation for Friday night’s Truck race, Sadler has undergone NASCAR’s impact or baseline concussion test. About a month ago, he and his 16-year-old son, who is leading the points in all of his go-kart classes, began lifting weights. Sadler notes he works daily in a non-air-conditioned shop eight to 10 hours in addition to coaching various sports.
“It’s not like I just sit on the couch and don’t do anything,” said Sadler, who competed in a Modified race at South Boston (Virginia) Speedway earlier this year. “I’m very active. I feel like I’m prepared as good as I can be. I don’t do the sim stuff. I have been on iRacing, running a bunch of laps, just getting my groove down. It’s my job just to get hydrated as much as I can before the race Friday night, and then we’ll go from there.
A North Carolina native, Deb Williams is an award-winning motorsports journalist who is in her fourth decade covering auto racing. In addition to covering the sport for United Press International, she has written motorsports articles for several newspapers, magazines and websites including espnW.com, USA Today, and The Charlotte Observer. Her awards include the American Motorsports Media Award of Excellence, two-time National Motorsports Press Association writer of the year, and two-time recipient of the Russ Catlin award. She also has won an award in the North Carolina Press Association’s sports feature category. During her career, Deb has been managing editor of GT Motorsports magazine and was with Winston Cup Scene and NASCAR Winston Cup Scene for 18 years, serving as the publication’s editor for 10 years. In 2024 she was inducted into the NMPA Hall of Fame.