In the Field: Sadler (cont'd)

And the funniest thing is, you know I have more than 30 hunting dogs, beagles and such -- and she loves 'em. And they love her, too, because she spoils them. She wants to feed them all the time and make sure they're nice and warm.

You know, we've had some cold nights lately, like we did while we were in Daytona Beach for Speedweeks, and sometimes I think she worries about them more than she worries about me. She's been a great mom to the dogs, so far.

But anyway, I spent a lot of time at home in Emporia, Va., this past winter -- more than I've ever managed to spend there before in the past. We had a great hunting season and I'm coming back refreshed and ready to go!

I spent a lot of time with my brother and sister and my mom and dad, and all my nieces; which I think has been great, too, because I've surrounded myself with people that know and care about me and I think that's gotten me in a great mood to start off the 2007 season.

Nothing that happened during Speedweeks changed that a lick.

I think, overall, I've started thinking more about things and have matured, honestly. A lot of racecar drivers do different business ventures just to diversify themselves and to have something to fall back on, if they need to.

I've had several different business opportunities in my career and I've never taken advantage of them before. Maybe I wasn't mature enough, or I thought I didn't have the experience, or the time to devote to it.

But now, at 31 years old, I'm starting to seriously look at what I'm going to do after racing. You know, I'm going to race really hard for 10 or 11 more years and then after that I need to find something to do after racing.

So I've gone into business and bought into two of my brother, Hermie's dealerships that we're going to co-own. Elliott Sadler Dodge and Elliott Sadler Ford will be side-by-side in Franklin, Va.

That's no coincidence, because as you know I've driven Fords in the Cup Series and now I'm driving Dodges for Ray Evernham.

That's a big part of the reason to go with those two brands, because really, I know the most about the Dodge and Ford vehicles than I do anything else that's on the market. And my dad knows more about American-made products than anything else.

It's just what we've done for so long. My dad has been involved in car dealerships for 40 years in a big way, and pretty early on Hermie got involved with that business as well.

I always kinda maybe wanted to do it, but never really knew if I wanted to and maybe was never going to be focused enough to do it. But now I think I understand the business a little bit more and even more important than that, I understand what I want out of it.

So I've bought those two dealerships and they should be ready to go in two to three months. I think it'll be a lot of fun to work in the family business.

Even more than that, I'm looking forward to hiring somebody to run them for me, because I'm on the road so much. But all the same, I'm really looking forward to that part of my life, also. (Continued)