Credit: Autostock

10 Questions: Hermie Sadler

In conjunction with its season-ending top 10 lists, NASCAR.COM asked a number of drivers to answer the same 10 questions. Friday: Todd Kluever

Emporia, Va., veteran Hermie Sadler says at one point in his career he was compared favorably to open-wheel phenomenon Jeff Gordon.

After a career in karts and Late Model Stock Cars, Sadler, at 35 the older brother of Nextel Cup regular Elliott Sadler won the 1993 Busch Series Rookie of the Year title.

In 2005, Hermie will run in both Nextel Cup, for Peak Performance Motorsports and in the Busch Series for his own SCORE Motorsports; but before he celebrated New Year's he sat down to answer 10 questions not specifically directed at his racing career.

1. What's your dream vehicle that you don't already own?

My dream vehicle would actually be a Daytona 500 winning Nextel Cup car coming up this February, and I'd be happy to let Daytona USA have it after that.

	Hermie Sadler
	AUDIO 10 Questions NASCAR.COM's Dave Rodman hits Hermie Sadler with 10 questions

That would be my real dream vehicle, but as far as street legal goes, I've always dreamed of owning like a mid-70's style Corvette, kind of like the one in the movie "Corvette Summer."

So maybe one day I'll be able to have something I like.

2. If time on the road weren't an issue, what would be your ideal pet?

I've never had a lot of experience with pets other than hunting dogs and lots of puppies and stuff like that, so I'd have to say a dog. They seem to be a good friend.

We have a chocolate Lab named "M&M." I named him M&M because the Mars people so far have been kind enough to let us have some Pedigree food for him and I don't want to run that out.

But he's pretty cool and fun. He'd be fun to travel with, but he's pretty wild and a real handful. He chews up everything in sight. He's just about already chewed my deck up.

But if I had to choose a pet, it'd definitely be him.

3. What's your biggest pet peeve while driving on the road?

I have lots of problems traveling, and I am usually pretty laid back, but driving on the road I hate for people to run 55 miles an hour in the passing lane.

But the two things that really get to me are when you've got a flight booked and you show up and the airlines always seem to overbook the flight and they want to give you 100 bucks -- a travel voucher -- to stay overnight; re-arranging your whole calendar.

Then, you get to the rental car place at your destination and they never have the type or size of the car I booked when I get there. Other than that issue, it's a breeze.

And they never want you to be overbooked and stay in Las Vegas, do they?

All my places where that happens is when I'm in the middle of Wyoming or somewhere in the middle of New Hampshire or something like that, they want me to stay a couple extra days.

Las Vegas? That never seems to happen in the right places.

4. You travel a lot, so what's your worst hotel experience?

I got my worst hotel experience very early on in life -- it actually happened a long time ago. Elliott and I had a go-kart race in Amelia, Virginia, which actually is not too far from here.

Elliott, myself and my dad had gone up there because there were some races on Saturday and some on Sunday. We checked into the hotel, which I will not call out although I remember it clearly and know exactly where it is.

We checked in there and there were fleas and cockroaches and bugs all over the room. So we decided to ride around with my dad for several hours trying to find somewhere else to stay, but there was nowhere else close by where we could stay for that night.

And it was too late to go back home, so we ended up going to the store and bought a bunch of flea collars, and put them on the bed and under the bed -- wrapped 'em around our necks and everything and just sat up and watched TV all night.

We couldn't even go to sleep. I was about 13 and Elliott was nine, I think, so I got a dose of that really early on.

5. What's your favorite food?

My favorite food is steak. I like Outback steaks and there's a place here in Emporia called Spivey's. They have some cool steaks.

My mom makes a sweet potato casserole, although I don't really eat the sweet potatoes -- I eat the brown sugar and stuff she puts on top of it. But those are probably my favorite foods.

6. If you had to choose, would it be being honest, or being nice?

Honest, no question. I just believe you've got to be honest. If you're honest with everybody you have a good chance of making it in life and feeling good about yourself.

If you always tell the truth you never have to worry about telling a lie and worry about what you told somebody, so I'd have to go with honest on that one.

7. What's your fondest childhood memory?

That is a tough one (because) I have so many memories, especially around racing (but) by far the funniest was in Martinsville about 20 years ago.

My uncle Bud used to take us up to Martinsville to the races when I was real little. I was there with my uncle Bud and we were staying at the Dutch Inn. My uncles Bud and O.B. were well known in our family as being two of the biggest, loudest snorers in the country.

On Saturday night, actually about two o'clock on Sunday morning, someone knocked on the door at the hotel, and it was Darrell Waltrip. He was asking us if there was anything we could do, get away from the wall or anything because their snoring was keeping (the Waltrips) up.

It had kept them up all night -- I'm serious. I thought that was a pretty cool thing to happen to me, because I was 15 years old and Darrell Waltrip's knocking on my door.

D.W. and I still talk about that sometime, and we get a good laugh out of it.

8. What would your dream date be? Where and with whom?

Someone is trying to get me in trouble by asking me that question! But the answer is my dream date would be with my wife, of course. And anywhere with no screaming kids would be suitable at this point.

9. What's your worst prank, either perpetrated by you, or done to you?

I've had a few pranks played on me and I've played a few. But I don't really remember anything I have done real bad, and if I did I'd really rather not mention 'em because I'd remind somebody of it and they're going to try to get me back.

And I certainly don't want to give anybody any ideas, so I'll just leave that one alone.

10. What would you consider your "Welcome to NASCAR" moment?

My welcome to NASCAR moment would be winning my first Busch Series race in 1993. Back in '93 when I won (Busch Series) rookie of the year I was everybody's fan favorite and at that time, I was supposed to be better than Jeff Gordon -- as we had come along about the same time.

I even got invited to Brian France's party in Daytona the following year, which he had every year during Speedweeks. I don't know why, but I haven't been invited since 1994.

I'm pretty sure Jeff Gordon has been invited back a couple times, so I'm hoping after this year, when we have a good season I'll get another invitation to come back.