Sadler Makes Interesting Comment
Friday, August 11th, 2006 3:34pm CDT
By Luke, Thunder Lounge
Published on Thunder Lounge.
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[thumb:185:r:s=1:l=x]As interviewed this afternoon on SPEED during Nextel Cup qualifying at Watkins Glen, Elliot Sadler made some comments. These wouldn’t necessarily be extremely interesting, unless we hadn’t already heard the announcement from Evernham about Mayfield being “terminated”. However…
Since Evernham has already announced that Mayfield was in fact “terminated”, this does make Elliot Sadler’s more interesting if you read between the lines.
Sadler continues to deny that he knows where he’s actually going. Also, if you’ve studied your Floyd properly, you’d know that pigs can fly.
Personally, I’m with the rumors on the fact that Sadler is heading to Yates. It was a topic not too far after he made his announcement. However, I do suppose that it is theoretically possible that there is another ride to be filled that isn’t known about (officially) yet. I don’t think that’s the case, as you’ll see in a second.
If Sadler was moving into a seat other than Evernham’s, his comments are really out in left field to an extent. Let’s get to what he said, then we’ll dissect it.
According to Sadler, he is dedicated to Robert Yates and making sure they get turned around. If that means he needs to step aside so that they can get a jump with their new driver, then that’s what he will do. He also went on to say that once you knew you weren’t going to make the Chase, that it was a perfect time to begin preparing for the next season. He then said again that if it meant that Yates needed to move on, before the end of the season, then he would step aside and let them do what they needed to do.
Well now, a driver wouldn’t just move over early to allow another guy that is his replacement to just sit out the remainder of the season and wait for the next. This is why I’m leaning real hard to the idea that Sadler is going to Evernham. If, for example, he had been recruited by Roush and Ford to take over for Mark Martin, I don’t think he would be so willing to say that he was ok with moving over. He’d want to ensure, as much as possible, that he was finishing the season on the track instead of off it. In such an example like Mark Martin, if Sadler wasn’t in the seat at Yates, he’d be finishing the season most likely watching from the top of a hauler. So, Elliot being so “willing” to move over if it was in Robert Yates’ best interest and what he needed Elliot to do, should be a signal that if Elliot makes the move out of the #38 anytime soon, he’s going straight into a ride he can run throughout the remainder of the season.
That’s doesn’t lock Evernham into being the deal, but it makes it harder to dispute. It could be possible that there is another team, that could put another car on the track for the remainder of the season if needed. While possible, I doubt it.
Let’s not forget that Bill Elliot could fill in for Evernham further than this weekend, but he is still committed to Michael Waltrip and Red Bull for a total of 5 races (2, and 3, respectively). That leaves a big hole for the #19 to fill, and someone is going to have to drive it. By Evernham terminating Mayfield now, it shows that he either has it covered, or all but covered. It also shows that he has no trust left in Mayfield to keep performing his best if he were to keep him around until Homestead.
Further adding speculation is Bill Elliot’s interview. He was asked point blank if he was going to be in the car at Michigan, or any other track where he wasn’t committed to another team. He said that he honestly didn’t know what was going to be happening, and that they were going to take it a weekend at a time.
Well, I’m sure Ray has a plan. He learned a lesson this weekend that if he’s to make use of Bill Elliot’s Championship provisional (if he were to need it), he needs to get the entry blank changed a little earlier. The deadline for Watkins Glen was July 31st. Then again, Mayfield hadn’t fallen out of the top 35 at that point either.
Regardless of what goes on, Evernham has at least 5 races to figure out with Bill being committed elsewhere. Exactly who would fill the seat is anyone’s guess. However, it won’t be long before something is known as the first weekend Bill will not be available to Evernham is the Upcoming race at California. Michigan, Bristol, they’ll be ok.
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Full Throttle said this on August 11th, 2006 at 6:50 pm
As an addendum to the Sadler/Mayfield saga, Mayfield is seeking legal redress and an injunction over his termination.
It takes one very large set of gonads to go the legal route after walking out on Penske Racing with 8 events left in a season as he did a few years ago.
Guess contractual obligations are more important to Jeremy when the shoe is on the other foot.
As I noted in my post if any team owner gets close to Mayfield with a contract to be signed they need their head examined.
marc said this on August 11th, 2006 at 7:23 pm
I did read that over at scene daily, but I had to get back to it, so I left it.
I think there is more to this than we are seeing, hearing, or imagining.
There was at Penske, as well. In fact, new things about how it “used to be” over there still pop up from time to time. This season is the first where Penske’s teams are actually going to do some good not only for themselves, but for each other as well.
Mayfield found himself in a similar situation, where he had time left (at least another year) but was being forced out. His comments at Chicago played right into Ray’s trap.
The first visible sign of what’s going on over there was taking a team that had made the Chase (ok, they weren’t exactly rock solid into it, but they still made it) both runnings of it, and moving it to Kahne. Then, giving Scott Riggs Kahne’s team, and giving the part time team to Jeremy.
I’m not saying either party has handled this well, but there’s more than just Jeremy to blame in this.
Instead of laying there and taking a raping, he fought back. Sure, he could have just kept quiet and rode out his time and collected a paycheck. Instead, he stood up for himself. Not saying, again, that I agree with exactly how it was done, but it’s that fire to be competitive that fueled it. It’s that same fire that will land him in a ride.
Ray pretty much castrated him during the offseason, competitively speaking. It should have been handled in private, but from some reports over the past months it sounds like that was at least attempted. Sometimes, there’s only one way to get someones attention. Not that I agree with it.
In the end, who knows. This could be something that they staged, to garner media attention and get the sponsor’s a little more bang for their buck. Not likely, but after they decided to make the switch and it didn’t work, sponsor’s need attention. Like I said, not likely, but it’s pointing out that we don’t know the real situation going on. Sometime down the road, we might.
Luke said this on August 11th, 2006 at 7:57 pm
Jeremy has made his mistakes, no doubt. Ray Evernham has handled this very unprofessionally from the beginning. I have lost a lot of respect for him. I think anyone who signs a contract withhim is nutz…
Clance McClannahan said this on August 12th, 2006 at 10:34 am
It’s definitely a mess Clance.
But, while I personally think Ray should have called Jeremy direct, he did work out the initial replacement for Jeremy at Watkins Glen with Jeremy’s agent on Monday. I’ve dug and dug but have yet to see anything to contradict that this was anything other than true.
That being the case, Jeremy’s agent should have consulted with him about the changes immediately. Instead, Jeremy finds out when asked for an interview on it. Whoops.
It could be possible that Jeremy has a standing order with his agent that says don’t call me for anything from the end of the race until Tuesday afternoon, which could possibly explain the delay in notification, but even still with something of this nature I’d still be calling the boss immediately regardless.
Either way, Ray should have talked to Jeremy directly, and to have his agent deliver the decision is kind of childish.
However, that’s from the outside looking in. Perhaps it’s a sign of just how bad the relationship between the two has been (or become), or for all we know it could be standard operating procedure.
However, from the way it’s being portrayed throughout the media, it doesn’t shed a very good light on Ray.
Luke said this on August 12th, 2006 at 12:13 pm