In the Field: Elliott Sadler

There were some big changes recently on the landscape of the Nextel Cup Series and some of them hit pretty close to home, here at Gillett Evernham Motorsports.

My teammate Kasey Kahne announced his Budweiser sponsorship for next season, while my good friend Dale Earnhardt Jr. announced that he would have a totally new look at Hendrick Motorsports after eight full years with Bud on his cars.

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I think it's great for our company, and it's great for Kasey to get the Budweiser deal. Budweiser uses a lot of advertising and markets all over the United States, and spends a lot of different dollars in the sporting world. They're going to market Kasey big-time -- and we all know he's a marketable guy. So I think he's hit a home run with Budweiser.

The car looks good and the presentation they did the week before Dover was awesome, with bringing in the Budweiser Clydesdales -- I think that's just a touch of class that Anheuser-Busch has.

I just think it's great for his career, to have somebody that's going to activate that sponsorship the way it needs to be done and to take him to the next level -- as a superstar in this sport.

And we're all glad to have Budweiser as part of Gillett Evernham Motorsports, because I think it's going to be big for all of us.

Speaking of big, Kasey didn't have too much to say about working those horses, and driving them into the presentation. The only thing he's had to say is how nice everyone's been to him and how open-armed they've been in welcoming him to their team and how much they're looking forward to him being a part of it.

I think that's pretty cool and he's just been really, really happy with that so far.

But I'll tell you one thing. I got on him last week because he flew up to Dover with me, and he walked onto the plane without any beer or anything. I was on him, saying that now that he has the Budweiser deal, he at least could have brought a couple beers for the ride up there.

It was a bumpy ride and the weather wasn't that great, so he could have at least brought a case of Budweiser to put on the plane. Not sure how long that would last us -- how many trips -- but I got on him about that.

Heck, there were six of us on the plane so picking a designated driver wouldn't have been hard. But he didn't bring any -- so we all ended up as designated drivers.

I told him that everybody's going to be after him now all the time and he's going to have to keep a couple cases in his car with him so he'll be able to give them out.

But I guess that doesn't start until 2008, so starting on Jan. 1, we're going to be getting on him. We'll give him until then, and then it's over with -- and he better start showing up with some product.

Kasey does feel a little more pressure, looking ahead, because they're really a big player in this sport, as far as sponsorship is concerned; and Kasey feels like we've got to get our stuff together and to run better -- to make sure that when we show up every week we've got our stuff ready to go, so I think he's feeling that right now.

When it comes time for 2008 and the Daytona 500, we all have to have our stuff ready to roll.

As far as Dale Jr. goes, I was at his house last week and he was just so happy. We talked about the deal that was ready to come down and he was so glad the announcement was going to be done and over with -- to get it out in the open and off his shoulders as far as having to conceal what they were doing.

He felt like a whole load had been lifted off him because everyone knows what the sponsors are and what the cars will look like, they know what the number's going to be so there are no more questions and now he can just go racing.

And that's all he's ever wanted to do. I haven't seen him this happy in a long, long time so I'm happy for him and I think he's going to a great race team, and that will be a great thing for him.

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One thing about him that I think some people forget sometimes is that he honestly just wants to win races. That's all he ever talks about, is winning races and winning championships and I think he's just trying to get himself in what he feels is the best possible position that he can to do that.

But that's all that kid cares about, I'm telling you. We've been friends since we raced Late Models together -- heck, back in 1994 or 1995. I've known him, I believe, longer than just about anybody in the garage and all he's ever talked about is winning races.

And he still has that same mentality today.

We've pretty much put the whole weight of this NASCAR thing on his shoulders -- to be the face of our sport -- and he doesn't really care about that. He just wants to win races.

That's all he's ever wanted to do, and that's what his whole life is about. So I think he feels like he's in a great situation right now, and I think he's going to enjoy racing with his teammates.

He's already been talking about how much he can learn from Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson -- with all their different driving styles. If they can make him have to bring his A game every single week, to run with those guys, I think that's going to be good for him.

He's very ecstatic and happier than I've seen him in a long time. He's definitely much more looking forward to being there than he's feeling any pressure of being in that kind of equipment.

Like most of us are, I think he's very sure of his talent as a driver. I think his mentality is, you give me the same equipment that y'all have got and I'm going to outrun you with it. But you have to have that kind of attitude, as a driver. You have to be sure of your talents and what you can do on the racetrack. So I think he's not nervous at all -- I think he's going to go over there and fit right in, and be fine.

As far as my program for next season, with the Dodge Dealers and UAW or whatever -- we're still in negotiations and I have nothing I can say about it right now. But the bottom line is, we've got a couple more different paint schemes to be looking at next season, but I can't really say it affects me that much as a driver.

When I'm racing with other drivers, I just use the number of the car to identify who's in it. You know who you're racing with. Some teams have been changing out here a lot lately, depending if they're on a road course or whatever. But you usually know who's in what car. You just go by the numbers, because everybody's got special paint schemes more often now. I remember when there used to be one special paint scheme a year -- now they're 20 a year, it seems like.

But I just go by the numbers. And I don't forget who's in a car -- like at a road course, for instance. I do my homework, because I want to know who I'm racing every week.

If you have to, you look online somewhere and find it, like on NASCAR.COM. You pretty much know, and it's no big deal. I know what's going on and I try to pretty much keep up with everything.

I'm a fan of the sport, so I always try to keep up with who's doing what, and what's going on.