Elliott Sadler; open mouth, insert foot

One of my pet peeves is when Nascar fans will knee jerk with their reactions to something that has happened in the sport. This usually consists of passing judgment without actually waiting for all the information to come to the surface. This past weekend, I read and saw a press conference with Elliott Sadler in which he fell victim to such a knee jerk reaction. I waited a couple of days for the “Southern Gentleman” to at the very least, make an honest retraction, but to date no such attempt has been made.

Sadler’s original answer to this question:

DO YOU THINK THAT ROUSH WAS TRYING TO CHEAT WITH THE 99 CAR LAST WEEK IN VEGAS?
“I think that it insults my intelligence as a race car driver when you try and tell me that you accidentally left the oil tank lid off. If you go to any owner, any engineer, any driver any crew chief and ask them is that an advantage, ‘heck yeah it’s an advantage’. I’ve been doing that half of my career. When driving the 21 and 38 car, we pulled the shifter boot off and the oil tank lid off until NASCAR started to tech it. It’s 100 lbs of downforce. “Let me try and put this in perspective for you. We spend three to four million dollars a year going to the wind tunnel trying to change body shapes, trying to do underneath the car, changing crush panels and doing stuff like that all the time – trying to get a gain and trying to get and advantage - when all you have to do is take the oil tank lid off and you get 100 counts of downforce. There’s a beautiful picture of Carl Edwards doing a back-flip – I’m not taking anything away from Carl Edwards, he’s an amazing race car driver. But someone took a picture of him doing a black-flip in the right side of the car and the oil tank lid is eight inches off the top of the tank. That’s not just one bolt. And the right side safety window latches were loose – that’s were the hot air was going. They did a good job and figured it out and made it work. I’m impressed on how they did it – it was smart and it worked out for them – they won the race.”

DID THEY LEAVE IT OFF BY MISTAKE?
“One bolt isn’t going to raise it up seven inches off the top of the lid.”

SHOULD THERE BE A DISTINCTION WHEN A RULES INFRATCTION IS OBVIOUSLY UNINTENTIONAL?
“Yeah, I think there should be differences between pre-race and post-race. If they’re pretty happy with 100 points and 100,000 pre-race, make it 200 points and 200,000 after the race being the one you got to race that way. “When you present a car for inspection I understand slapping you on the wrist and saying ‘look, let’s make sure this doesn’t happy again’. I think that it should be more. If my team cheats this weekend on Sunday and I get a competitive advantage – and I get caught with it – I think that it should be more than what it is when somebody gets caught before the race. I just think that it keeps it all in line and keeps it all fair because you actually didn’t get to race with a competitive advantage.”

When the initial post race inspection failure reports started coming out, and after doing some quick research of just what an oil tank cooler lid truly was, I too was skeptical of Jack Roush’s explanation that ‘one bolt failed causing the cooler lid to become loose’. The reason for this skepticism was due to the fact that most teams attach the oil cooler lid with multiple bolts and the failure of just one bolt should not have the same results as the 99 car. But after seeing and hearing Roush’s more detailed explanation it became very clear that the configuration of the 99 (and all Roush team’s) oil cooler lids truly did only have one bolt (really it was more like a ‘fastener’) holding this lid down. I agree with Nascar and the 99 team’s penalties and the fact that there was not doubt that a rules infraction had occurred. However, I have none (zero, nada) belief that this was done intentionally. Even Lee White from Toyota has backed off his original statement of Roush’s intent that the infraction was done on purpose with this comment.

"I want to recant that. I will tell you categorically, I have been friends with Jack Roush for almost 25 years and he doesn't cheat. He never has. He certainly never did when I was with him. In my opinion, he never will."

So White understands he was wrong and is man enough to admit it, however I have yet to see anything from Sadler. And Sadler took plenty of jabs.

Lets dive in a little deeper to what Sadler was saying.

“I think that it insults my intelligence as a race car driver when you try and tell me that you accidentally left the oil tank lid off.”
First mistake for Sadler, he is speculating that the infraction was controlled by the driver and or race team member, and no where did Jack Roush say it was ‘accidentally left off’.

“If you go to any owner, any engineer, any driver any crew chief and ask them is that an advantage, ‘heck yeah it’s an advantage’. I’ve been doing that half of my career. When driving the 21 and 38 car, we pulled the shifter boot off and the oil tank lid off until NASCAR started to tech it. It’s 100 lbs of downforce.”
Now the ‘Southern Gentleman’ has just ADMITTED to being a cheater, as long as he was confident he would not get caught. Maybe Nascar should put an asterisk beside those 3 wins with the Wood Brothers and Robert Yates Racing, since Sadler has been ‘doing this half his career’. While Nascar is at it, they may as well asterisk the handful of Nationwide (then Busch) Series wins with Diamond Ridge Motorsports as well. With that statement, Sadler has in one moment, tarnished his whole racing career.

“But someone took a picture of him doing a black-flip in the right side of the car and the oil tank lid is eight inches off the top of the tank. That’s not just one bolt.”
Before making such a pointed statement, Sadler might want to do a little for due diligence. Had he done so, he would have known that there truly was only one fastener, and that fastener did fail at some point.


“When you present a car for inspection I understand slapping you on the wrist and saying ‘look, let’s make sure this doesn’t happy again’.”
That’s an interesting twist, especially when one considers the 19’s penalties are Daytona last year for using hollowed out rear wing bolts that allowed air to pass through the trunk of the car, thus creating an aero advantage. The ‘excuse’ was that the 19 had used those same bolts the season before. The irony is that they knew it was illegal, but it was just another example of Sadler cheating, thinking he would not get caught. Or put it another way, Nascar decided to ‘tech’ those bolts so Sadler had to stop using that particular ‘cheat’.

“If my team cheats this weekend on Sunday and I get a competitive advantage – and I get caught with it….”
Since Sadler has already admitted to cheating half his career, it appears in his eyes that the act of cheating is not the issue, it is getting caught. The duality of his statement is simply amazing.

Elliott Sadler (and a handful of other drivers who I really don’t follow) should take the high road, just as Lee White did. He should also apologize for his comments and frankly, that apology should be a public one. His original statement was not some pit reporter cramming a microphone in Sadler’s face and getting an emotional reaction, this was a planned, sit down press conference. But I would not hold my breath waiting for such an apology. Elliott, you maybe 'insulted', but you may want to use up a mulligan and use up a do-over. Your 'intelligence' in this matter does not seem to have a complete comprehension.