Insider's View: E. Sadler

It's amazing what you learn when you join an organization like Robert Yates Racing. I'm telling you, it's like going back to college all over again.

I've been overwhelmed with the information they have from an engineering standpoint. That's something I was lacking a little bit with the Wood Brothers. I wasn't up on the engineering side of racing. We never really had an engineer on the team, and it made it tough on me.

Being a single car team made it even tougher, and my age didn't help any, either. There was just a lot of stuff working against us that made my learning curve very steep, and that put us in some bad situations sometimes.

	The No. 38 Ford has been good to Elliott Sadler so far this season. Credit: Autostock

So when I came over to Yates, I was like a kid in a candy store -- no pun intended with my sponsor M&Ms. To be involved in what's going on on the technology side of the cars and motors and what goes into each and every race car is very exciting for me. I'm taking mental notes all the time. That'll make me a better race car driver, and continue to shorten my learning curve.

Things have started off great with my new team. I couldn't be any happier with the situation, especially when you consider that so many people are working together for the first time.

We have a lot of people in new positions. Doug Yates is in his first year of being general manager and he's got everybody on the same page with the same focus. Raymond Fox is a first-time crew chief and Shawn Parker has come over. They're very young and eager and I'm very young and eager, so our relationship is great.

The success we've had so far has been great. We're testing very well. We had a very fast car at Daytona, but unfortunately I got in a wreck and had to go to a backup car the Tuesday before the 500. We were behind the 8-ball early, but I was so impressed with my team.

As new as this team is and as young as it is, for them to not get down on each other and put a good backup car in the 500 -- one that ran very well until we had ignition box problems -- says a lot for how good these guys are.

	Elliott Sadler says he's learned a lot from teammate Dale Jarrett already this season. Credit: Autostock

It makes racing so fun. I'm really looking forward to going to every track with them. I've been very impressed by how they can change a car to fit my needs. They're starting to understand what I like in a race car and it's working great.

Doug's done a great job of putting a great core group around such young guys on our race team, and we've got Todd Parrott kind of overseeing the team. He's been there, done that. He won a Winston Cup championship, a couple of Daytona 500s and a Brickyard 400. They've built great infrastructure.

One big key was putting both the 88 and the 38 in the same shop. That's made a big difference for both teams. DJ is as pleased with the results as I am. Man, I'm really looking forward to working with him.

It's my first time with a Winston Cup teammate, and I couldn't pick a better person than Dale Jarrett. He's a guy I've always looked up to. Everybody knows that. Our driving styles are very much alike.

His determination and drive amaze me. Just sitting around talking to him -- hearing the ideas he comes up with to make the car better -- is awesome. I scratch my head, man, wondering where those ideas come from.

I learn more about the car every time I talk to him, and he's really on top of his game as far as that car should feel. He knows how to describe it well, and I'm trying hard to learn that from him.

With all the resources I now have at my disposal and with a teammate like DJ, I think I should be lumped in there with the young drivers that are championship contenders now.

The biggest difference between me and the other guys is that every Young Gun that's come in and made an impact in NASCAR Winston Cup racing has had a teammate or has been part of a team that has had a championship run or won races.

VIDEO CLIPS Elliott Sadler talks about the pressure to win at Robert Yates Racing Play video    ALSO  •  Sadler's Driver Page  •  Sadler finds going easier with Robert Yates

Jimmie Johnson with Jeff Gordon. Ryan Newman with Rusty Wallace. Kurt Busch with Mark Martin and Jeff Burton. All these guys have come in and had somebody to lean on in times where they felt they were out to lunch. You've got to have people to lean on every once in a while.

Coming in and being a single car team was tough for me. When I'd struggle, I had nobody to turn to for information. I couldn't compare apples to apples. Sure, I could go ask other drivers for help, but they weren't driving the same stuff I was, so you really can't use what they're telling you anyway. It made it hard.

Therefore we were more inconsistent than we should've been in a lot of places. I think now, with the teammate I have in DJ who has the same determination I do, I am a championship contender. I'm a contender to win races.

I've never felt like this. But from what I've seen and as intelligent as Raymond and Shawn are about race cars, I'm going to be in great shape.

We've got a lot of changes going on. New color, new number, new attitude. We want those Robert Yates fans to have something to brag about and be proud of when we show up to the racetrack every week.

We want them to come to the track and be cheering for a championship contender.