CHARLOTTE, N.C. — 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 Wednesday that 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.
He signed a multiyear contract extension last summer. Because of all the contracts in place, Sadler said he was prepared to sue to keep his ride.
“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 in a national conference call. “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.”
Sadler said talk to replace him in the car stemmed from offseason meetings about the rocky 2008 season. Sadler had two top-10 finishes last season and finished 24th in the points. Teammate Kasey Kahne finished 14th with two victories and narrowly missed claiming a spot in the championship chase.
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.”
Instead, the team changed the crew chief, and Sadler will be reunited this season with Kevin Buskirk, his engineer when he drove for Robert Yates Racing.
Allmendinger, meanwhile, likely will drive the fourth car created by the Petty merger. That car has a very limited schedule, but team officials said it could enter more races depending on sponsorship.
His job secure, Sadler can now turn his attention to his impending nuptials: He’s marrying Amanda Prince on Saturday and has major passport issues to resolve before the couple leave for their honeymoon in St. Lucia on Sunday.
Sadler learned his passport had been reported stolen and red-flagged when he recently applied for a new one, and he’s been racing to take care of it.
“The questions you’re giving me are pretty easy compared to the questions my wife will give me Sunday if I have to tell her we can’t go on the honeymoon,” Sadler joked to reporters. “I guess I’m a threat to national security.”
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