In the Field: Elliott Sadler

No fooling, we know last weekend was a big one at Martinsville Speedway -- the second race for the Car of Tomorrow.

But just to the south, down in the Greensboro and High Point, N.C., area, there's an event that goes on at the same time as the races at Martinsville that's just huge in the furniture industry, the High Point Furniture Market.

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Since I'm in the middle of building a new house, I went to the furniture show to pick out all the new furniture that I need for the house.

I went through with eyes wide open and not knowing what to expect, but I saw Kurt and Eva Busch there, and also Katie Kenseth -- so I know they were picking out stuff for their houses.

I also saw Nicole Lunders, Greg Biffle's fiancée, there so it was a great time to go to the furniture mart. I picked out a lot of cool furniture -- a lot of stuff that I would have never seen looking through magazines or just trying to envision it myself.

What the High Point Market is, to me, is every manufacturer of furniture in one spot, showing the best, latest great stuff that they've got. Everybody brings their best stuff to the market because there are a lot of buyers there from furniture stores, and a lot of customers.

It's a special event held every six months where every furniture manufacturer in the United States and even a lot of international companies come in to show off their latest and greatest. So that was a lot of fun.

You can go through all the buildings and showrooms they have there and pick out what you want and order it. Now, I'll be waiting on them to send it to us.

I'll tell you what. I did things I had never done in my life at this show. I went shopping for paintings -- and I can tell you I've never done that before.

We don't have an art gallery in Emporia, Va.

I've walked into people's houses and seen cool paintings and gone, 'Wow! I never would have picked that out, but that looks cool.'

So I got to go through a lot of different things. I picked out paintings, picked out carpet, rugs -- stuff that I never, ever in a million years would have thought I'd have to get for a house -- but I had to pick 'em out last week.

This is actually my second house, but for the first one my sister and mom did a lot of the decorating and my builder did the rest. I said 'just throw something in there. As long as it has a big TV and a cool surround sound, I'm good.'

But I'm putting a lot more effort into this, because this is my dream house and I want everything to be right. I feel like this is one of the last houses I'm ever gonna build so I want everything in there to match and to look nice.

The neatest thing we've done so far is put a 50-inch flat screen TV on the outside of the house that I can watch when I'm in the pool, in the Jacuzzi or out on the deck.

It's built on a slide so when I'm not there it slides back inside the house and locks up. You can't even tell it's there, when it's closed up. So that's the coolest thing we've done so far.

I got an awesome security system, too. Plus, I got my guard dogs.

The funniest thing, to me about shopping was going after those paintings. It reminded me of Beverly Hills Cop, when Eddie Murphy walks in the art gallery to see his old friend and some of the weird art they had hanging on the wall, and Eddie's looking at them like they're crazy.

I looked at some of that last week, but thought 'You know what? Never in a million years would I have thought I would buy anything like this.'

Usually I put deer heads, or deerskin or something like that up on the wall -- something that looks like a log cabin.

But I actually picked out some weird looking art that was like something you'd see in that gallery in Beverly Hills Cop. I'm actually gonna put it up on the wall and I think it's gonna be cool looking.

At least it's something different, and something contemporary.

At this point, the biggest thing we need to get done is my cabinets. They're late on them, and I'm starting to get impatient -- even though I'm managing to stay pretty busy.

Inside the house we're using a lot of blacks and browns. It's going to be kind of a dark-finished house. But it's pretty cool.

It's got a lot of tile in it. No wood, because I'm not a hardwood guy. So it's got a lot of tile, granite and some marble -- and a lot of carpet. I hate cold floors so I like as much carpet as I can get.

It's all pretty cool. It's a stucco house and I'm real, real happy with it so far.

But I'll tell you one thing. The biggest surprise so far has been how much it cost to put furniture in it. You make a budget and you figure out how you can build it and what your monthly payments are going to be.

And then they come break the news to you that this is how much it's going to be for a TV and a radio and a sofa and a bed and whatever else you need. The cost of furnishing a house nowadays is amazing -- especially when you're trying to match it up and to be neat.

You can't put old stuff in a new house. I can't take all the stuff out of my apartment that I've been living in for the last four years and put it in my new house.

It just won't fit. You don't come in on a pit stop and put old tires on -- you put on new ones for better performance. So for a new house, you've got to put new stuff in it. And that costs.

I'm beginning to find that out, so I need to start running a little better on Sundays to start getting some money put aside for all that.

Last weekend, I got to do something cool. When I left Martinsville after Happy Hour practice I went back to South Boston Speedway to watch my cousin, Owen Miller, race his No. 2 Dodge Late Model stock car.

I don't get many chances to watch him race at South Boston so I really wanted to do that. I sponsor him with my Elliott Sadler Dodge dealership.

He's kind of following in my footsteps. He finished second in the points last year and we're trying to give him what he needs to win a championship. His last two races have been a little rocky so after the Richmond test I'm going to his shop to help him get better for the rest of the season.

He lives right across the street from me, so I try to go over there and help him as much as I can when I'm home. And being at Martinsville was one of the great weekends when I got to go and watch him.

Also, after we test at Richmond this week, for the first time in my life I'm going to Walt Disney World -- as a 31-year-old kid. I'm going with my girlfriend's family, and I can't wait.

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