BRISTOL, Tenn. – Former Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway winner Elliott Sadler reiterated Friday afternoon that his 2016 NASCAR XFINITY Series plans are not set, despite reports that he’s heading to JR Motorsports next season.
“I saw the reports come out just like you did and the report was about 50/50 – 50 percent true and 50 percent not true,” said Sadler. “The true part was I had not signed and have not signed with anybody, so that part of the report was definitely true. The rest of it, I have no idea about. I don’t have anything to announce here today. We’re still working through some things for next year.”
Sadler left Joe Gibbs Racing at the end of the 2014 season to become a fourth car at Roush Fenway Racing. Bringing friend and former crew chief Phil Gould with him, the Emporia, Virginia native struggled to find his footing early this season.
The 10-time XFINITY Series winner contributed the slow start to the team being behind, but in the last seven races, Sadler has finished a season-best second at Daytona and mounted six top-10 finishes, giving some much needed momentum to his No. 1 OneMain Financial team as they hunt the championship battle in the midst of a grueling 15-race stretch.
And while silly season is in full swing among NASCAR’s choired garages, Sadler remains focused at the job at hand, including tonight’s Food City 300, where Sadler is gunning for a $100,000 bonus, as a candidate for the XFINITY Series staggering Dash4Cash incentive.
“Anytime you’re lucky enough and fortunate enough to be a part of the Dash 4 Cash, I’ve been very fortunate the last four or five years to go for a couple of them and win a couple,” offered Sadler. “I think we’ve won three or four of them, so it’s always a lot of fun and I can’t think of a better place to race for it than here at Bristol, where there’s always so much action and you don’t know who is gonna win until the last lap.
“We even saw that in the truck race the other night, so I appreciate XFINITY putting the Dash 4 Cash on. It’s great for our series; it’s great for our sport; it’s great for our team, sponsors, drivers; it’s always a lot of fun when you’re racing for that extra $100,000.”
Sadler also reflected on the opportunity to race with his older brother, Hermie, who will be making his first XFINITY Series start of the season in a car fielded by JGL Racing.
While it’s rare occurrence that both Sadler brothers will be racing at the same time, Sadler says even today, while Hermie’s primary path has taken him to television in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, any opportunity he’s given to still race him is one that he endorses.
“My brother loves this sport and I think he does a really good job,” added Sadler. “I’m biased, but I think he does a really good job covering it for the Truck Series. He puts a lot of heart and effort into it and knows what he’s talking about when he’s covering all the truck races from the pits, so when he gets a chance and an opportunity to race in these things it’s special to him.
“He loves it. He’s like a kid in the candy store this week. 
My parent get to come now because they get to watch us both race at the same time, so I know he’s gonna do the best job he possibly can for that team and I think he might have another one on the docket coming up later on in the year, but I know Bristol is special to him and I’m proud of him and happy for him and hopefully he’ll have a good night.”
Tomorrow will come and Sadler could be a $100,000 richer, but the speculation surrounding his future won’t cash in. Whether he returns to Roush Fenway for another season remains to be seen and Sadler charmingly refused to give in to reporters repeated attempts to break him.
“There’s a lot of moving parts right now,” Sadler said. “There’s a lot of stuff going on right now in our sport. Just when you think something is gonna happen something else happens over in the corner. There’s a lot of stuff going on, so we’ll see.”
As for a timeline for when the 40-year-old veteran will announce his plans, he gave no indication, but stood firm he’s nowhere need to hanging up the helmet.
”I want to be a part of this sport,” he said. “I want to be competitive. I still think to this day that last five years there’s no other XFINITY regular that has more poles and more wins than I do and I want to keep that going. I want to stay competitive and stay up front.
“OneMain Financial is the longest running primary sponsor in the XFINITY Series, so they support this series a bunch, they support the NASCAR fans, they support these programs. They want to be in this sport for a long time and hopefully we’ll be able to do that.”
In all truth, Sadler may be the only one that knows exactly where his future lies, and while others are left to speculate and gossip, Sadler staying focused on his job behind the wheel continues to make him a viable investment with one of most sacred and long-lasting sponsorship relationship in XFINITY Series history.
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
