In the Field: Elliott Sadler (cont'd)

So I feel like it's definitely going to make our team stronger to have him back in the shop, keeping all those guys pointed in the right direction.

And what's even better is that I think we'll see Ray out on the road more getting involved in our test sessions. I know that he wants to do some testing stuff because he misses that and I believe he feels that's one of the reasons the company is down a little bit, is because he hasn't been able to do as much of that as he wants to, with his schedule being so busy.

So he's definitely planning on being more involved in our test program and doing some trips to Kentucky, for example -- and Nashville and Lakeland -- especially with this Car of Tomorrow that we're working so hard to develop, with it coming on full-time for next year.

Ray wants to get going real hard on that, so that when we show up in Daytona for the start of the 2008 season, we'll be in good shape.

We hope getting Ray more involved with the racecars will help not only us with our COT development program, but all the Dodge teams.

That's what we need to do. We've been to meet with the folks from Dodge Motorsports and we've talked to them, to stress that's what we need to do, as much as we can with this COT program because it's new to all of us.

We've got a little way to go before we catch up to the Chevrolets, so we're going to be working hard on that part of it.

But the bottom line is, Ray's just a good leader, and he leads by example. Like I said, his strength, for our company is in doing all this testing and all this car and technological development -- especially with this COT because we're a little bit behind. And right now is when we really need to dig deep and put in some extra resources to get this Car of Tomorrow running like it needs to.

And Ray's a good leader for that. I can see him doing that, because they've already been talking about some new test things and some new cars we're looking at building for 2008 and he's heading that up.

So I'm already starting to see a change, as far as him getting more involved on the car side of it, and we should be able to benefit from that.

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.