In the Field: Elliott Sadler

I can't say being a media personality was ever near the top of my wish list, but I've gotten a new appreciation for what the media does, by joining the club last season, so to speak.

I'm part of the weekly lineup for Trackside, which plays each Friday night on the SPEED Channel. I'm set to do it for the rest of the year.

Jerry Rice

I have a great time and I get to work with Jeff Hammond, Larry McReynolds and Steve Byrnes and it's just been an awesome experience. Citifinancial is a great partner of mine and for the past two seasons I've worn their brand on the show.

It's a cool deal and always something different -- but last weekend put a new twist on it. I can't tell you what it meant to interview Jerry Rice, a three-time Super Bowl champion.

You all know what a sports fan I am, so of all the people I've interviewed so far on the show, it meant a lot to talk to a guy who represents everything being a person in the NFL should be -- someone you can look up to and a hero to kids, whose work ethic is second to none.

We've all been in a situation where we meet people, whether they're movie stars, athletes or what have you. It really gives you a breath of fresh air when you meet somebody and they're as down to earth as you think they should be, or that you'd want them to be.

He definitely was. He was a very personable guy and he acted like he was living it up and having fun with it, and it was neat to meet somebody with the credentials that he has, the sports ability and athletic ability -- the real superstar status.

And to find out how funny and down to earth he really is.

I think he was a little upset that he didn't win Dancing with the Stars. He brought that up a couple pf times. He was real upset and felt like he'd been robbed on that one.

It was a neat interview for me, so for all the people we've been able to interview on that TV show, to talk to Jerry Rice was probably the coolest thrill I've had in a long time.

You want to know one of the neatest things? I didn't know that not only is he a golfer, but he's a scratch golfer. I've talked about my dream foursome including Tiger Woods and Michael Jordan, so I think you can throw Jerry Rice in there if he's a scratch [handicap].

We talked about it some on Sunday, before the race -- when he was the grand marshal -- and I thanked him for being on Trackside, and for supporting NASCAR and our sport.

We got to talking about golfing and found out we both played the same course on Saturday, the Sonoma Country Club. He played it while I was practicing in the morning, and I went there after practice was over.

I was talking to him about how hard the golf course was, and how windy it was out on the golf course. Dale Jarrett and I were talking to him about it, and how he'd need to give us some strokes if we ever get out there together.

So we'll see how that works out, maybe on one of our West Coast trips, because in talking to him it's obvious he has a pretty busy schedule.

He really enjoyed himself at the track. He talked to us about how nice everyone was to him and all the great team folks he had gotten to meet.

He said it was a great experience for him -- but we told him it definitely was a great experience for us, also. To have somebody like Jerry Rice come to a NASCAR race to be the grand marshal -- that doesn't happen every week.

I'm still pinching myself because I'm a huge fan of a lot of other sports than racing, and I can remember watching him and Joe Montana make the magic they did -- and also Steve Young was second to none.

To see him come to a race and meet him in person ... and he signed a football for me, so that's a cool thing to have, as far as my collection is concerned. Proves you never get over being a kid, either, so it's all good.

To be able to meet him, shake hands and interview him -- to be able to sit there and ask him questions about football on Trackside, I mean, we all were like kids. The whole mood of that show just changed, the minute he stepped on stage.

We slipped out of the mode of having a show about racing; we all slipped to the edge of our chairs and were acting like kids. We have a production meeting on Tuesday mornings for Trackside, and Steve Byrnes said it all.

He said he had the time of his life. He got to throw a pass to Jerry Rice, and now you tell me: Other than an NFL quarterback, how many people get to do that in their lifetime?

So it was pretty neat, we definitely enjoyed it and we love seeing people like that coming in and being a part of our sport.

Having said that, I have to talk about my Evernham Motorsports team and what we were able to do last weekend at Sonoma with our Dodge Dealers/UAW Avenger.

I think we had a great weekend and I'm disappointed with the 14th-place finish, for the way we ran all weekend. My guys deserved better than that.

We just did not get the gas mileage that some of the other teams did, for whatever reason. For all the teams that had to pit and couldn't make it, I think we finished sixth or seventh out of those guys.

We just could not go the whole way, like some of the other teams could. But as far as being fast and being competitive, we were pretty good all weekend long. I had a great weekend and I enjoyed myself.

It got to the point that we were really good in Happy Hour, and maybe a couple tenths off Tony Stewart and Kevin Harvick, so I was like, "Look, guys, with my limited driving talent on road courses, I think this is as good as it's going to get."

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What I meant by that, was that we had been in the top five in Happy Hour the whole time, and I didn't want us to take what was a top-10 car and mess it up trying to make me a top-two car, trying to win the race.

The car was really good, it was fast and it was stable, so I thought we should just work on it on Sunday and do the best we could.

Now that we look ahead to our next road course, Watkins Glen in August, it's going to be gas mileage, 100 percent -- because that's what won the race for Juan [Montoya] on Sunday.

It was [Chip] Ganassi and [Richard] Childress, who finished second, third and fourth, getting great gas mileage. My guys worked their butts off, too -- every team did -- but a few teams did it just a little better.

They went six laps further than we were able to go, so knowing how long that racetrack is and how many shifts you have to make, those guys did their homework. So we need to work on that as a company.

We know, going to Watkins Glen, our car is going to be fast, because it was fast at Sonoma; and we should be competitive. We just have to figure out a way we can do it on two stops -- just like the other guys did.

And hopefully we'll have a chance at winning, that way.

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.