ELLIOTT WILLIAM BARNES SADLER - 04/30/1975
an American stock car racing driver. Sadler began racing in go-karts at the age of seven, and moved up to the Late Model stock car division at the local race track. When he turned 18, he moved to the Winston Racing Series and ran full-time beginning in 1993. That same year, he achieved his first victory. In 1995, he was crowned track champion at South Boston Speedway, winning 13 races including a 6-race winning streak. Sadler moved up to the Cup Series full-time in 1999, driving the #21 Citgo Ford Taurus for Wood Brothers Racing. He finished 24th in points, and was runner-up to Tony Stewart for Rookie of the Year honors. In 2001, Motorcraft became Sadler's new sponsor and he won his first career Cup race at Bristol. After 2002, Sadler left for Robert Yates Racing to drive the #38 M&M's Ford. In his first season of competition with Yates, Sadler won the pole at Darlington Raceway and Talladega Superspeedway, and finished 22nd in points. In 2003, Sadler had a vicious crash at Talladega after near-contact with Dale Earnhardt Jr. and touched the right-front fender of Kurt Busch. Sadler's car flew into the air, flipped twice, landed on his roof, spun towards the banking, and flipped six times. Sadler emerged uninjured. Sadler started 2004 with a Top-10 finish inthe Daytona 500,and six races later won at Texas Motor
Speedway for his 2nd career win,and also won at California Speedway, beating Kasey Kahne and Mark Martin. After failing to win in 2005 and 2006, Sadler left RYR midway through 2006 for Gillett Evernham Motorsports. Sadler had many ups and downs throughout the 2007 season. He struggled in 2008, garnering only 2 top fives, 8 top tens, and 16 top twenties. He had 4 DNFs and 12 finishes of 30th or worse. On December 27, 2008, it was reported that A.J. Allmendinger would replace Sadler in the #19 Best Buy Dodge for Gillett Evernham Motorsports in 2009. Elliott threatened a lawsuit for breach of contract;
First Cup win - Bristol 2001
2013 Cup Kansas
however, the lawsuit was dropped after the GEM – Petty Enterprises merger and he returned to the ride for 2009. In 2010 Sadler returned to RPM and run the #19 Ford with Stanley Tools sponsorship. During the year however, Sadler announced that he will be leaving the #19 Ford after the 2010 season. Sadler quit running full time in the CUP series in 2011 and started racing full time in the Xfinity series. He has only made five CUP starts since the end of 2010. One start was at Kansas in this great looking #81 Toyota. Sadler also drove part-time for Kevin Harvick in the Camping World Truck series in 2010 and 2011. Sadler won his first NASCAR race in 6 years at Pocono in the Pocono Mountains 125 in July. He was driving the Grand Touring
Vodka truck series vehicle for Harvick. The next day Sadler was involved in a wreck where he hit the inside fence. The wreck was so horrific it threw the engine away from the car and caused the race to be red flagged for 25 minutes to clean up the wreck. He was taken to the medical facility where he later emerged and gave an interview to on hand media personnel. He said he was fine & was a little sore, but had the breath knocked out of him and had taken "the hardest hit of his career" at Pocono. On August 3,
2010 Pocono Truck win
2016 Xfinity series
Elliott Sadler announced on NASCAR Now that NASCAR told him it was the hardest head-on crash ever recorded in NASCAR history. At the end of the 2010 season, Sadler lost his full time CUP ride. He was hired by Kevin Harvick Inc to drive full time in the Nationwide series. He finished second in the Xfinity series points in 2001 to Ricky Stenhouse. Again in 2012 he finished second to Stenhouse in the Xfinity series points chase. Starting in 2013, Sadler moved over to the Joe Gibbs race team for take another run at the Xfinity Championship; he stayed there two seasons before moving over to a Jack Roush ride in 2015. Sadler did manage to win one race for Gibbs; a race at Talladega in 2014. Sadler left Roush Fenway racing in 2016
and went to drive for JR Motorsports in the #1 One Main Financial Chevy. The pairing showed much success as Sadler went to victory lane on three occasions; qualified for NASCAR's new Chase format in the Xfinity series. Sadler finished third in the season ending race at Homestead and lost the points Championship to Daniel Suarez who won the race. In 2017 things were in place for Sadler to return to JR Motorsports, and he had a fine season. He didn't win a race this season; but he had great runs (12 Top 5's) easily putting him in the Chase. He advanced all the way to the final race. Cole Custer was the class of the field all day leading 182 of the 200 laps. But he wasn't eligible to win the Championship. William Byron finished third to claim
2018 Daytona Xfinity Finish
Last Cup start - 2017 Daytona
the Championship leaving Sadler second. The second year is a row he finished runner up, and the fourth time in his career. Sadler returned to JR Motorsports in 2018 to try and claim that elusive first title. 2018 saw Sadler back behind the wheel of the #1 Camaro driving for JR Motorsports. Team mate Tyler Reddick just edged out Sadler by .004 second (above) to claim the season opening Daytona race. It would be the closest he came to winning a race all season. It wasn't for lack of performance however. Sadler was in the hunt the first twelve races of
the season; with nine Top 5 finishes and twelve Top 10's. He run into a road bump the next two races finishing 30th and 28th. Then all the way to the final race at Homestead he only had one finish outside the Top 12. At Daytona he once again finished second. Mid-way through the season he announced that this would be his final season of full time racing. The team worked hard to get him a win and send him out on a high note. But it wasn't to be. He finished 14th in his final race at Homestead and ended the season fifth in the points. He added two starts in the Xfinity Series in 2019. Both came when he drove for Kaulig Racing running a third car. He finished 12th at Richmond and added a tenth at Las Vegas. The paint scheme at Las Vegas was a scheme he had been wanting to run in 2018 but his sponsor wouldn't it. It was a throw back paint scheme from his Late Model day when he used to race
Last Xfinity Start - 2019 Las Vegas
Virginia short tracks. Sadler wasn’t aware that he’d be able torun the scheme that weekend. The team surprised him with the design on Monday. As of the end of 2019, his career stats show he ran 438 Cup races and captured three wins while adding 19 Top 5 finishes. In the Xfinity series he had 397 starts while visiting victory lane 13 times. He had 106 Top 5's and finished second in the points four times. He only ran 20 events in the Truck series but did post one win. Some info from Wikipedia.
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