Insider's View: Elliott Sadler

I've been getting asked "What's wrong with you guys?" a lot lately.

Elliott Sadler  2003 Stats  Driver Page  Video Highlights  Article Archive  Merchandise

I don't necessarily think anything is wrong, per se, but personnel changes have provided us with some obstacles that weren't there at the beginning of the year.

Taking Shawn Parker off the 38 team has set us back some, I really believe that. We had a great communication deal going, and we kind of have to start that over a little bit now that Shawn's over there with DJ.

We lost one member out of the core group, and we have to get another person in there and haven't done that yet. We've been racing a while with no car chief. That just puts way too much pressure on Raymond (Fox). Way too much.

	Credit: Autostock

You can't be a crew chief and a car chief in this business anymore. You've got too many things to attend to. The margin of error is so small, man, if you overlook one little thing you're just not going to have a fast car on Sunday.

I think it was a difficult change and has set us back, but it's going to make our organization better. As a whole Robert Yates Racing will be better in the future, definitely, with Shawn being a crew chief.

He's a very smart individual who is very focused on racing and has a lot of dedication that race car.

I think he likes being DJ's crew chief. I think, as far as a competitor, he lives, eats, drinks racing 24 hours a day.

	Raymond Fox Credit: Autostock

You can call him any time of the day and he's 100 percent focused on what's going on with that race team. He'll do a good job with DJ.

They've got a great car chief over the with Jason Burdett. They're really good friends so that'll help. They're just going through some troubled times right now.

They're trying to fix a lot of things that were broken before he was ever put in place. He kind of got put in a wasp's nest but I think they're making the most of it.

If we can get a car chief in here to take some pressure off of Raymond, this team will get better. The car chief is responsible for making sure the car was setup right on the plate and getting all the notes ready for Raymond, like what all the changes are that are being made.

	Elliott Sadler (left) with Dale Jarrett (center) and Shawn Parker Credit: Autostock

Shawn was always right there, a great right-hand man to where Raymond could really organize everybody else at the shop while Shawn took care of the racecar. He had a lot of great ideas on how to fix it, in the shop and on Sunday, also.

He was definitely one of the major decision-makers on this team and took a lot of pressure off Raymond.

There's the old clich? that two heads are better than one, and he was a big part of our communication group. So to lose that was tough, but the sooner we get somebody in here, and teach him the way we do things, it's only going to make this team that much stronger.

Sometimes two people get in a rut, and all you think about is the same types of fixes all the time. Same tools, same adjustments. So if you get a third, fourth or fifth person involved in there it gives you some new avenues to look at and new ways to look at things.

	Sadler has just one top-10 run since Martinsville (seven races ago). Credit: Autostock

The more people you've got in your core group, the better. So we're a little shy on that right now, but it'll come to us.

I'm looking for someone to come in that Raymond can get along with, really more than I do.

Somebody who can give input, offer help, that's got some good ideas that we can trust 100 percent on that surface plate and at the racetrack, that if we're off doing something else and leave that racecar in his hands, we know it's going to be right. No worries, no checking behind.

Chemistry is what makes every team run. And it's weird. You feel like you've got good chemistry one month and the next month you don't. that's part of this business and it's always been like that. It's crucial. Without chemistry you won't succeed.

We had great chemistry the first half of the year, everybody on this team.

We've been struggling a little bit this past month, so searching or answers is a little harder than it was at the beginning of the year, but the second time we go back to the these tracks and work together and learn about each other, the better we're going to be.

I believe that. Heck, I expect it.