Sadler Cleans Out His Locker At Yates
Tuesday, August 15th, 2006 9:47am CDT
By Luke, Thunder Lounge
Published on Thunder Lounge.
[thumb:185:r:s=1:l=x]According to the Sporting News, Elliot Sadler “cleaned out his locker” yesterday and has departed Robert Yates Racing. The entry list for Michigan is out, which still had Sadler listed in the 38, and Bill Elliot in the 19.
Reports have David Gilliland testing at Kentucky today in the #38, with his name painted on and everything. If this is indeed the case, then the cat is going to be officially out of the bag about this whole driver switch before the day is out. Worst case scenario is we’ll wake up to tomorrow with it plastered everywhere.
In light of that, who is David actually driving for?
Here’s the situation that is shaping up fast and coming out of nowhere as what would be THE shocking story of the year.
As written previously here on Thunder Lounge, LTN Radio is reporting that Robby Gordon has purchased Robert Yates Racing, excluding the Yates-Roush engine development firm.
This being the case, it would explain why Robert Yates put off the announcement of David Gilliland at the last minutes, after he had already flown David’s wife and kids to Indy. Yates said they had to be sure they dotted all the “i” ’s, and crossed all the “t” ’s.
We’re not dumb, Robert. You wouldn’t fly David’s family out to Indy if the contract wasn’t done. Something else much bigger had to be in the picture that wasn’t the day before. Here at the Lounge, we speculated that it could be a potential sponsor issue concerning which of Yates’ sponsors would actually be on the car. Either that or which number would be on the car.
However, neither of those would seem to be a show stopper as far as making the announcement that Gilliland had been signed. Heck, it’s August and we still don’t know what Dale Jarrett’s number is going to be next season. With the delay in that particular announcement, it is highly possible that UPS is trying to bring the number with them from Yates. Sure, why not? That leaves 28 and 38 for Yates. Sure, why not? It would take less changing in terms of merchandise. Not to mention they could still use some of their commercials that have already been shot.
The question in hand is what stopped the press conference at Indy. We’ll find out soon, and waiting will be the toughest part.
Filed Under: Nascar, Nextel Cup
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