RICHMOND, Va. — For the first time since 2019, Elliott Sadler competed in a NASCAR national series race.
The Emporia, Va., native drove the Kaulig Racing No. 25 all-star truck on Saturday (Aug. 15) at his home track, Richmond Raceway, for his first NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series start since 2011. He finished 32nd on the day, four laps down, but the 51-year-old managed to finish the race with a clean truck.
“I gotta get used to shifting gears,” Sadler said. “The car, they made it better on long runs. They did a good job on adjustments. I just was not good on restarts, and that was me just trying not to tear the truck up, trying not to hit anything solid. And I probably gave up too many positions on that, but the truck’s in one piece.
“Thanks to Matt Kaulig, everybody at RAM Trucks for giving me this opportunity. It was fun to be back in there for one last ride at home.”
The start almost didn’t happen for the three-time NASCAR Cup Series winner and four-time NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series championship runner-up. The Black’s Tire 250 was scheduled for Friday night (Aug. 14), but rain interfered, postponing it to Saturday. The issue for Sadler was he had a big go-kart race with his son, Wyatt, set for Saturday, and he was prepared to skip the Truck race to go to that. But Wyatt wanted to watch his dad race at Richmond one final time, so the Sadlers skipped Wyatt’s race and stayed at Richmond Raceway.
“I had to make it interesting, right?,” Sadler joked. “We had to rain it out last night so I could race in the heat of the day.”
The Virginia heat was no joke on Saturday afternoon, but it didn’t impact Sadler’s performance one bit.
“I made it and didn’t fall out the seat, and the truck’s in one piece,” Sadler said. “So we’ll go from there.”
With Sadler referring to Saturday’s race multiple times as “one last ride,” it’s hard to imagine the 13-time NOAPS winner will be back in a NASCAR national series race. He retired from full-time driving after the 2018 NOAPS season before making two starts for Kaulig in that series the following year. He hadn’t been back until Saturday’s Truck race, serving as one of Kaulig’s all-star drivers. With his attention now more on his son’s driving, Saturday may very well have been the last time Sadler climbed into the cockpit at a national level. He was reflective of the opportunity afterward, but the competitor in him was still disappointed with the result.
“I mean, just one last ride, man, right?” Sadler said. “Just haven’t done it in seven years and just wanted to try it one last time and see what it was like. It was a good feeling. Any time you can get in there and you can buckle the window net up, but I definitely didn’t do my job today as a driver at all.”
Michael Massie joined Frontstretch in 2017 and has served as the Content Director since 2020.
Massie, a Richmond, Va., native, has covered NASCAR, IndyCar, SRX and the CARS Tour. Outside of motorsports, the Virginia Tech grad and Green Bay Packers minority owner can be seen cheering on his beloved Hokies and Packers.
It was good to see him behind the wheel again. Considering it had been 15 years since he drove a truck, I would say he did a good job. Brought it home in one piece and gave his family a good memory.
Saw Elliott win his first at SOBO and at Ace Speedway. Hard to believe that was over 30 years ago now. Became a fan then until he retired. Was nice having a “local” guy for me to pull for almost 25 years in NASCAR plus one of my coworkers grew up with Chris Rice and Bootie Barker.