Elliott Sadler called almost losing his job at Gillett Evernham Motorsports “gut-wrenching,” but said the two sides have moved past the near-split.
Sadler said he learned through a sponsor late last month that GEM planned to replace him with AJ Allmendinger. Last week, a day after agreeing to merge with Petty Enterprises, GEM officials announced Sadler will be in his No. 19 Dodge this coming season.
“You know, it was an eye-opener for me as far as how fast things can happen in this sport, how you can’t take anything for granted,” Sadler said. “There’s a lot of different ways you can look at this.
“You can be negative or you can be positive about it. We got our differences resolved. We got our team headed in the right direction, so I’m being positive about it.”
Although Sadler said team officials never told him he was out, being replaced was discussed and he was given permission to look for a new job.
“We wanted to try to make the 19 team better,” he said. “We came up with a whole list of things to change.”
“One of those was a driver change.”
By Jan. 9, GEM executives announced that Sadler would remain in the No. 19 this season and said they have set aside their differences with Sadler.
“We’ve all been a part of this business long enough to know that performance is the bottom line,” Sadler said. “We sat down in meetings, some good and some bad, but at the end of the day someone has to be held accountable for what we put on the track each and every Sunday.”
Moving forward, Sadler said the experience has given him an opportunity to grow and he admits that he needs to step up his performance.
“It was definitely tough, but it made me better and made us a stronger family having this fight,” he said. “Man, now we feel like our back is against the wall. We have a lot of motivation and a lot to prove. That is why we are so eager to get this season started.”
“We have resolved all differences,” team chief executive officer Tom Reddin said. “We are moving on and excited about heading to Daytona.”
Sadler said much the same thing this week.
“It’s in the past,” he said.
And so deeply in the past, he insisted, that there will be zero effect on team performance this year.
“We’re professionals,” Sadler said, “and when we show up to play, we should be ready to play. When we’re on the field, we should give it our all — 100 percent, whether it’s me and the race car or the guys doing the pit stops or the guys bolting the shocks on.”
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