In the Field: E. Sadler

I love Las Vegas.

There. I said it. Don't think for a minute I'm any less committed to my Dodge Dealers/UAW Charger and my Evernham Motorsports team -- because we do go out there to race and try to win.

But as a person, when I step away from racing and my racing responsibilities, Las Vegas is by far my favorite place to go.

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For a vacation, you can't beat it. Whether it's going there for the Super Bowl, or in the middle of the summer to split up a couple of the West Coast trips, it can't be beat.

It's definitely my 100 percent favorite vacation spot to go to. I've got some great friends there at The Mirage and The Bellagio that take care of me and take care of our teams when we're out there.

Bill, Dave, Tyler and Scott have been friends of mine for years and it's always a pleasure to visit with those guys. We always have a blast when we're all together.

They just really roll out the red carpet for us, and Las Vegas is the perfect place to take advantage of that. We go and see a lot of shows, we eat at the best restaurants and it's just a great, great atmosphere.

We usually go out there a few days early and take on the town, have a good time and make sure we see a lot of shows and stuff like that, before it's time to get down to business at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

After the race, I try to stay out for at least one day after, before I have to get back on the road. It's because you can't do everything you'd like in the typical short weekend, because it's just such a fun place and you only get to go there once or twice or year -- unless you're real lucky.

So we try to make the most of it. I like it. I enjoy going there and hanging out. I love to play golf and there isn't a nicer place in the country than Shadow Creek Golf Course in Las Vegas.

But when you talk Las Vegas, you're talking shows. And in my opinion, O, at The Bellagio is by far the best show in Vegas. It's got everything else killed.

O is just an amazing show. I saw it four or five years ago, but I'm actually taking 12 of my friends from home to see it this weekend, while we're in town.

I'm kind of going to be the host of the deal. We're doing that one night, and then I'm taking them to two of my favorite restaurants as well -- so that will definitely be a lot of fun.

To me, the top two restaurants in Vegas, where we're definitely planning to go eat, are Stack, which is in The Mirage and FIX, at The Bellagio.

At those two restaurants, the menu, the food and the atmosphere -- as well as the people who are there to work with you -- are the greatest.

When I've been there previously I've seen a lot of celebrities and movie stars at each one, so it just seems like that's where everyone wants to eat when they go to Vegas.

I've seen everyone from superstar quarterbacks to professional poker players. That's when you know you're in a hot spot of town!

Everyone knows some buddies of mine and I were out to Vegas last year and they hit a pretty big jackpot. I'm not going to say it has any kind of spillover effect, but it's a fact 12 of my friends from my hometown: Emporia, Va., are going to be out there this race weekend.

And that's what I like to do. I love to take people out there that might not ordinarily get the chance to do that.

It was cool last year, in 2006, when we went out for the Super Bowl and four of my best friends that I went to high school with hit a $100,000 jackpot.

To take $50 apiece, and on the eighth pull to win $100,000 was something that was absolutely amazing. These were guys I grew up with and went to high school with, so to be able to see them share that moment and to have fun together was an unbelievable thing.

And that's just one of the things that has definitely stood still for me, and that has stayed in my mind. I guess that might be part of the reason we've got a pile of people going to the race this year.

Everybody wants to go, and it's just pretty cool because I've got so many good friends at The Mirage and they've hooked us all up with villas and nice rooms and suites and stuff.

Everybody tries to take their vacations and to get away from their jobs for this week and so that's neat for me -- because I'm in the middle of what I do, but to be able to do it with all of them is something that's really special about what I do in my profession.

They're going to get to enjoy a really beautiful city, with all it has to offer, but I also think there's going to be a great race, because I think the new track out there is going to have some great racing at it.

It showed a lot of different grooves during the test [in January] so it should be a lot of fun for the fans during the race -- and for us, too, for that matter.

Come Sunday, we'll buckle down and try to have a good, hard race.

Elliott Sadler, now in his ninth full season in the Cup Series, sharing weekly with NASCAR.COM readers life on the road through staff writer Dave Rodman.