In the Field: Elliott Sadler

It's been a tough week if you're Dale Earnhardt Jr., but if I'm walking in his shoes, the most interesting part is just beginning.

I've known Earnhardt for a long time. He and I have been friends, probably longer than any other competitor in the garage area.

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We go back to the days racing Late Model Stock Cars in Virginia and the Carolinas together, back before we started racing Busch cars.

We consider ourselves to be good, good friends on and off the track and I know what kind of person he is and I know how much DEI means to him -- and how much it meant to him to race for them from the very start of his career.

So I'm still just blown away that he's leaving. How do you let the biggest name in our sport just walk out the door?

I don't understand that. How does it happen?

It reminds me of Babe Ruth leaving the Boston Red Sox to go to the Yankees.

I can't believe some of the quotes I read, talking about people not believing he could leave the family business. Well, I'll tell you this: He is family.

If he's that much family, which we all know he is, why wasn't he given a share of the 'family business?'

It's just hard to understand. And being a fan of Dale Earnhardt's growing up, I can't imagine that when he sat down and drew his first plans out to build DEI, that Dale Jr. was not a part of it.

I don't have any kids but I do have a father and I see him work through his blood, sweat and tears all the time to build up his companies and his businesses and he always reminds us and lets us know, that he's doing that for us -- to leave to his kids: My brother, my sister and myself.

I don't think he would ever ask us to buy half of it from him, because we're all part of the family and we've all just grown in this deal together. We're all part of it and we're going to share in the family business together.

It's kind of what you do as a family. It's tough to see it any other way than when Dale Earnhardt was laying the first brick at DEI, that he wasn't envisioning it as part of Dale Jr.'s career; and that he was building it up for him to have one day, to race and probably to own.

So it's a tough situation over there, and I know, being friends with Junior, what he thought of his dad -- as a racer and as a father -- and how much he appreciated what his dad was doing for him through his Busch career and getting him his Cup ride, to get his feet wet in Cup racing. (Continued)