Hermie Sadler has six Nextel Cup starts in 2006, with a best finish of 40th. Credit: Autostock

10 Questions: H. Sadler

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- NASCAR racing over the last 15 years has been a real rollercoaster ride for Hermie Sadler, but a treasured family and successful business career have been anchors for the native Virginian.

Given an opening, Sadler can regale you with tales of growing up with his younger brother, Nextel Cup driver Elliott Sadler, or his Busch Series career, which included the 1993 rookie of the year award and two career victories.

	Stats at a Glance Hermie Sadler's Cup Career Year Starts Laps Earnings 1996 1 349 $13,055 2001 3 1206 $121,865 2002 10 3458 $473,290 2003 10 1790 $552,741 2004 16 2671 $945,549 2005 12 3311 $943,248 2006 6 729 $617,845

Hermie just as quickly turns serious and discusses the triumphs, including two starts this season at Daytona, and the challenges of fielding an independent team in NASCAR's premier league.

After he qualified his No. 00 Ford for the Pepsi 400 at Daytona International Speedway, Hermie took a break to answer 10 questions not necessarily connected to his racing career.

1. What's at the bottom of your "honey do" list?

Sadler: Cleaning the dog pen. I don't do it that often, so I don't exactly know how long it usually takes, but we have two dogs.

One is a chocolate Lab named M&M and a Boxer that my wife got me for our anniversary named Tar Heel, because I went to the University of North Carolina.

They're in the pen together. We didn't think they'd get along at first, but now they do. They eat a lot, and in racing terms, they drop a lot of debris.

2. What is your favorite outdoor activity?

Sadler: It's golf. I wish I could play every day, like a lot of people that enjoy playing golf do -- but with what's going on during the week and racing on the weekend, I usually try to slip in at least one day a week this time of the year.

But for me, it's got to be at least 70 degrees and not over 90, so in Emporia [Va.] that leaves a very small window in which to play. But I really enjoy playing, have a good time with it and it's pretty relaxing to me.

My handicap is about a 10, I think I could pretty safely say. And I'm not too hard on myself, as far as getting frustrated. I go out there to relax and have a good time.

Golf is a lot like racing -- it depends on what your agenda is -- and I go out there to have a good time and enjoy being with my buddies. I'm not as much into hunting and stuff as my brother and my dad are, so [golf] is a good outlet for me to go out and hang with my buddies and do something that I like to do.

3. If you could trade places with anyone for a day, who would it be and why?

Sadler: Boy, that's a tough one. I know it wouldn't be President Bush, right now. That's a toughie.

Actually, I don't think I'd like to trade places with anybody, but I'd like to trade in about 20 years and be that much younger, again. You know, start over.

I'd like to be me, but start over about 20 years ago. I'd do a lot of things differently, I think. I'd use what I know now and probably make a few different decisions, career-wise and business-wise.

Family-wise, I wouldn't trade anything because I've got a great wife and three great kids, so I wish I could keep them. But as far as racing-wise and career-wise I wish I could go back about 20 years and have some of the same opportunities that I had and make a little different decisions.

4. What's the most embarrassing moment you'll own up to, either in or out of racing?

Sadler: Boy, riding around in 35th every week is pretty embarrassing, but I don't know if I can come up with one particular moment because I've been pretty fortunate over the years to kind of keep my nose clean.

I've done a lot of embarrassing things, but I will 'fess up to one of them, back in the day. And of course, my brother [Elliott] knows about it, now, so that makes it better.

But the night of his first homecoming dance, the girl called the house and our voices sound a lot alike, so I answered the phone and she thought she was talking to my brother.

I'm sure I fixed him up for a great date, that night. Actually, I don't think it came off too well for him -- but I had a good time with that. And he already knows that I did it, so we're all OK with that.

5. Which athlete outside of racing do you most admire?

Hermie Sadler

Sadler: That's another tough one because there are so many great athletes that I know, but in relating it back to golf, again, I would have to say Tiger Woods.

And that's not just for his physical ability, but also for his mental strength -- because he's got a lot of mental toughness. He beats a lot of people with his brain, and I wish I could be more like that.

6. What is one thing that your fans don't know about you, that you'd like to tell them?

Sadler: Actually, it's that I'm pretty shy. When I get around the right group of people and I get around my friends, I open up and have a good time -- but I'm really a shy person.

I try my best to treat people the way I'd want to be treated and to be nice to people -- but I think most people know that about me.

As far as what they don't know, is that I'm involved in some other businesses. I've got three car dealerships and I own half of a professional wrestling promotion, TNA Wrestling, doing non-televised events.

So I have a lot of different interests that people maybe wouldn't know that I have, but in this day and time you need to be diverse, because you never know where things are heading.

So I've got my fingers in a couple different things.

7. If you could go back in time, what period in history would you like to live in?

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Sadler: I've said this before, but I'd like to live in the early '90s when I first started racing, when I was younger and things didn't bother me quite so much and racing was a little bit more fun.

It seems like a lot of things have changed -- a lot for the better, but some for the worse as far as I'm concerned -- but racing-wise, back then racing was fun on a Saturday night.

You'd go beating around on the racetrack on a Saturday night and go home and go to sleep in your own bed. It's just having a different outlook on things, but overall I've got to say I've been very fortunate and I wouldn't change a whole lot.

8. Do you have an iPod, and if you don't, what's in your CD player?

Sadler: I don't own an iPod. I've got this dude at home, his name is Shep Moss, who's a DJ and he burned me a CD for a party I had a couple weeks ago.

So I've got this aftermarket CD and it's got everything from Blake Shelton to Nellie to Bon Jovi. So diversity it is, for me.

9. What's your No. 1 guilty pleasure?

Sadler: We're all creatures of habit, I guess, and I have a bad habit of getting up every morning at four o'clock, eating two Rice Krispy treats and drinking about a half-gallon of milk.

I work out every day to kind of maintain where I'm at, but if I could find a way to sleep through the morning I'd lose about 10 pounds a week [laughing].

10. What have you learned about yourself in the last year?

Sadler: In doing a lot on the racetrack and off the racetrack, I've learned that, through a lot of ups and downs that I am a little more resilient to things than I maybe thought that I could be.

I thought that I might crumble earlier, when people maybe thought I should crumble -- but I decided to stick to my guns and do what I want to do and to do it the way I want to do it.

There have been times that I'm glad that I did that, and I'm happy because I've learned a lot of things through hardships and things not going right.

I've learned a lot more about things just because they didn't go well than I did when they went well, so I'd say that's the biggest thing I've learned.