In the Field: Elliott Sadler (cont'd)

I know it was a tough day on Junior when he announced he was leaving. I think a lot of people forget how emotional that was for him to have to come out and do this.

It was a tough day and I can't imagine telling my father I was leaving to go and do something else, because when you're not given an opportunity to be a part of the company -- part of the family business -- and to have the ownership part with some decisions to make and focus on that, that's tough.

Junior leaving DEI

Dale Earnhardt Jr. announced he will leave Dale Earnhardt Inc. at the end of this season.

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You've got to give him a shot because the kid wants it. He's lived it and jumped through every hoop and done everything that company has ever asked him to do.

And so in return he just wanted a piece of the pie, just some controlling rights to make sure this team stays competitive and stays on top of its game and I just think that's his competitive nature.

In that respect he's just like his dad, because his dad wanted to be competitive and whatever it took to do that, to run up front, is what he wanted to do. Junior was in the same boat and this was a company he had worked for his whole life, had given 100 percent to and won races and a couple Busch championships for.

He wanted to make sure the company was staying on the right track, and when he was not given the opportunity to do that, then it's time to do something else.

I can tell you this: It has nothing to do with money, and it never has with Junior. I knew this kid before he raced in the Busch Series and he's the same guy now as he was then.

He's the most popular driver we have in NASCAR right now and he doesn't act a bit different than he did when we raced Late Models together at South Boston or Myrtle Beach.

It has nothing to do with money or having the power to just say, I can do this or do that. It has to do with being competitive and feeling like you have a chance to win when you get to the track every week.

And feeling like you can win the championship each and every year. And I feel like that's just the opportunity he wants.

He's 32 years old and probably in his prime as a racecar driver and he can't sit around and wait four or five more years hoping the company he's driving for will make things better or to give him in the future what he needs to be competitive.

It's my opinion that he wants to make this change now while he's in his prime, so he can go somewhere and be real competitive.

It's weird how it all came down. I'm happy for him and I think that he's making the decision based on having a great chance to win championships and to win races and that's why he made this decision to leave DEI and move on.

He wanted to make it happen at DEI, but he just could never get to where he needed to be. He wanted to have some say-so in where the company was going, because that's just the person he is.

I think his dad was like that. Even though his dad didn't own a part of Richard Childress Racing, I think his dad had a lot of say-so in the way things went over there -- and I think Junior wanted to have the same thing at DEI.

And that power, or that clout, was never given to him. And so he wanted to go somewhere that he not only has some say-so, but also a great chance of winning the championship and winning races.

What's the future going to bring, not only for the No. 8 team, but also in the ripple effect, if you will, throughout the garage area as DEI tries to fill that seat?

I think a lot of his guys are going to go with him. If you hang around that 8 car, on any given weekend, those guys love Junior. He treats them all like family and they're all good friends away from the racetrack. (Continued)