Background and career
Elliott William Barnes Sadler (born April 30, 1975) is an American semi-retired professional stock car racing driver. He currently competes part-time in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, driving the No. 25 Ram 1500 for Kaulig Racing, and part-time in the SMART Modified Tour. Sadler is one of 36 drivers who have at least one win in each of NASCAR's top three series. A native of Emporia, Virginia, he is the younger brother of former NASCAR driver Hermie Sadler.
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. His accomplishments include over 200 total wins, the 1983–84 Virginia State Karting Championship, and the North Carolina Gold Cup in 1991–92. When he turned eighteen, 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 thirteen races including a six-race winning streak. Despite finding success in late model racing, Sadler was having a hard time catching the eye of NASCAR team owners. He sold all of his racing equipment to buy a Busch Series car, and ran some races as an independent in 1995 and early 1996. A race at Hickory Motor Speedway in early 1996 formed a connection between Sadler and Diamond Ridge Motorsports, the team he would drive for in late 1996 and all of 1997 and 1998 in the Busch Series.
Sadler moved up to the Cup Series full-time in 1999, driving the No. 21 Ford Taurus for Wood Brothers Racing. His best finish that year was tenth at Texas Motor Speedway, and he finished 24th in points, runner-up to Tony Stewart for Rookie of the Year honors. He also returned to the Busch Series on a part-time basis, filling in for the injured Andy Santerre for Innovative Motorsports, his best finish being fifth at California Speedway. He also drove a handful of races for Lyndon Amick. Sadler's only top-ten finish in 2000 was seventh at Bristol, after failing to qualify at Talladega Superspeedway, and he dropped to 29th in points. The season also featured a chaotic crash at Michigan during practice that saw the car take flight after blowing a tire going into turn one, barrel rolling several times before coming to a rest on its wheels. Sadler recounted the story on The Dale Jr. Download in 2024, stating that the car flipped so high that it exceeded the height of the catchfence, which he attributed to a flare in the quarter panel created by the exploded tire that created lift as the car spun. He elaborated that the footage of the crash has only been seen sparingly since then because NASCAR has redacted the external camera video as to not fully reveal the nature of the incident. In 2001, Sadler won his first Cup race at Bristol, making this the first win for Wood Brothers in eight years. He had another top-ten run in Daytona later that year, finishing third. After a run riddled with inconsistent finishes, he ended the season twentieth in points. With seven top-tens and a fall to 23rd in points in 2002, Sadler left for Robert Yates Racing to drive the No. 38 M&M's Ford, replacing Ricky Rudd.
In 2003, his first season of competition with Robert Yates, Sadler won the pole at both Darlington Raceway and Talladega Superspeedway and finished 22nd in points. That fall, he had a vicious crash at Talladega after near-contact with Dale Earnhardt Jr. and touched the right-front fender of Kurt Busch. His car flew into the air, flipped twice, landed on his roof, spun towards the banking, and flipped six times. Sadler emerged uninjured (although he was airlifted to a local hospital for precautionary reasons). Sadler started the 2004 season with a top-ten finish in the Daytona 500 and six races later, he won at Texas Motor Speedway for his second career win. He stayed in the top-ten in points all season and won at California Speedway, beating Kasey Kahne and Mark Martin. He made the Chase and finished a career-high ninth in the championship points standings. He had another flip-crash at Talladega on the final lap after he spun out and blew over onto his roof and landed on all four wheels and crossed the finish line in 22nd just in front of his brother, Hermie. Sadler also was uninjured in that crash, and he was even able to drive his car back to the garage. Sadler failed to win a race again in the 2005 season; however, he did clinch four poles and finished thirteenth in the points standings. He also made 16 starts for Robert Yates in the Busch Series, driving the No. 90 Taurus, and had three top-five finishes. In 2006, Sadler won the pole at Talladega and finished 22nd in points. He made seven starts in the Busch Series and his best finish was second at Richmond. After a lack of results, he left RYR midway through 2006 for Gillett Evernham Motorsports. Sadler, was also the cover driver for EA Sports’ NASCAR 07.
Before the start of the 2007 Daytona 500, Sadler's team was among many others who faced disciplinary action for rule-infractions. Despite being docked 25 points, he still went on to score a season-best 6th-place finish. Sadler had many ups and downs throughout the season. In 2007, Sadler led 62 laps, posted two top-ten finishes and finished 25th in points. Sadler had the longest streak without a DNF than any other driver before failing to finish a race in 2007. Sadler struggled in 2008, garnering only two top-fives, eight top-tens, and sixteen top-twenties. He had four DNF's and twelve finishes of thirtieth or worse. Sadler led 21 laps in 2008, his fewest since the 2000 season. He ended the year 24th in the points standings. In December 2008, it was reported that A. J. Allmendinger would replace Sadler in the No. 19 Best Buy Dodge for Gillett Evernham Motorsports in 2009. Sadler threatened a lawsuit for breach of contract; however, the lawsuit was dropped after the GEM – Petty Enterprises merger and he returned to the ride for 2009. After all of the offseason issues, Sadler found himself in the No. 19 Stanley Tools Dodge for Richard Petty Motorsports in the 2009 Sprint Cup Series season. In the 2009 Daytona 500, Sadler took the lead on lap 123 and stayed in the lead for the final stages in the race. On the last green flag lap Sadler got passed by Matt Kenseth and seconds later the caution came out. Kenseth wound up winning while Sadler came up in fifth. Sadler ended the year 26th in points.
In 2010, Sadler returned to RPM to drive the No. 19 Ford with sponsorship from Stanley, Best Buy, and the United States Air Force. During the year, however, Sadler announced that he would be leaving the team after the 2010 season. He ran a part-time schedule in the Camping World Truck Series in the No. 2 Hunt Brothers Pizza Chevrolet Silverado for Kevin Harvick Incorporated. In this ride, Sadler won his first NASCAR race in six years at Pocono in the Pocono Mountains 125 in July. Sadler also made a one-off start for JR Motorsports in the No. 88 Chevrolet at the Dover 200 Nationwide Series event, finishing 31st after being involved in an accident during the early stages of the race. The next day, Sadler was involved in a wreck where he hit the inside fence (a blind spot on the track, not well-recorded by video cameras) after being hit from behind by A. J. Allmendinger. Kurt Busch was hit from behind by Jimmie Johnson causing him to spin into Clint Bowyer who received little damage but still finished twelfth. 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. There were several reports by fans that his car flew through the air. With a grimace on his face, he climbed out of the car and laid down on the track. 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. He was proud of his team back home that had built a safe car and of the pit crew and of all of the hard work they had put into the race thus far. On August 3, Sadler announced on NASCAR Now that NASCAR told him it was the hardest head-on crash ever recorded in NASCAR history. On November 5, 2010, Sadler won the pole for the AAA Texas 500 at Texas Motor Speedway qualifying at 195.397, the fastest qualifying speed since 1999.
