1on1: Elliott Sadler (cont'd)

Q: What's the state of Deer Camp 2008?

Sadler: Can't wait.

Q: I know you have good guys there.

Sadler: I have great guys around there. We have guys there that that's all they do, make sure the deer are fed, make sure the dogs are happy, all the grass is cut, all the soybeans are planted and the corn is planted and all the paths are cut back so when hunting season starts we can go at it. Everything is going great in southern Virginia right now, and everyone is getting eager, getting ready, and it's getting about that time. About the time September gets here -- I think once the Barn Party is over and we get that done and celebrate that great day -- then we're going to turn a lot of attention over to the hunting and do our final little wrap-up to get ready for the hunting season.

Q: You and Dale Jarrett are on [pro golfer] Mark Calcavecchia's dream foursome. What do you think about that?

Sadler: Isn't that cool? I think that's awesome. I like watching him on TV all the time. I'm playing pretty good golf now, so I wouldn't mind going to play with him now. I've gotten to meet him a couple of times, and he seems like a great guy. I think Dale Jarrett probably made a lot of people's dream foursome. If you ever play with him, it's just a great 18 holes of experience. Not only the way he plays golf -- you know that old wives' tale about you can tell what kind of gentleman a person is by the way they play golf? It's always a great experience playing 18 holes with him. It's cool to be part of somebody's dream foursome, because I get asked that question all the time because I'm a golfer. It's pretty cool to be part of somebody else's dream foursome. That's pretty neat.

Q: What's the best golf shot you've hit lately?

Sadler: That's a good question. I almost hit a hole-in-one at the Old Farm in Abingdon, Va., and one of the best golf courses in the United States. I was like 2-over-par, and I needed to just get a par on this little short downhill par-3 with water all the way to an island green. I almost hit a hole-in-one, got a birdie and kind of got my momentum going back again. It was a real pressure shot on a hole with water on all sides, because my ball doesn't do well in the water. They don't float very well. It was only like 170 yards downhill with a 7-iron.

Q: How was your Nag's Head experience, when you're looking at 17 consecutive weeks after that? Does that recharge your batteries?

Sadler: Yes. Nag's Head is awesome. That's where we got engaged, so naturally that's pretty special to Amanda and me. Nag's Head is awesome, because I've been going there since I was a kid. It's not far from home and that's where all my high-school friends hang out. We all go hang out at the beach. When I leave Watkins Glen, I'm going to Nag's Head and fishing in a huge fishing tournament, go out in the Gulf Stream for two days and fish until I have to go to Detroit. We're doing that this week and I'm fired up about that. My parents have had a house down there since before I was born, so it's a cool place to go.

Q: What's the target on that fishing trip?

Sadler: Catch the biggest billfish. That's the deal. It's a big tournament, and we want to catch the biggest billfish. If you do that, it's a pretty good day.

Q: The car's been going pretty good. How does that pump you up, and the rest of the race team?

Sadler: We've got some good racer's tracks coming up for us. I think our team, from Atlanta to now, has made the biggest improvement. If you look at the way we ran Texas and Atlanta, to now, we have probably taken the biggest steps as an organization and especially the 19 team as a race team. I'm very proud of my guys and it's definitely getting better. We're starting to understand what this car wants. When you have something so brand new, you don't know what it wants. You have to hit it from all sides. Last year, we were just hitting it from the wrong side. This winter we were hitting it from the wrong side. We have finally figured out what this car wants. We know how to plug into the systems, the computer systems we have and all the simulation programs that all teams have, and we know what this car wants before this car ever gets to the racetrack.

Now we have a lot of optimism. We understand that we're going to be good, we understand how to fix it. Now it's all about fine-tuning, getting the driver used to driving it a particular way at a track, get my communication down with my crew chief, Rodney Childers, and then move on from there. We are light-years ahead of where we were six months ago.

Q: Do you have to adjust your driving style to what these computers are telling you?

Sadler: Yeah. That's something I didn't do very well last year, was adjust what I was doing inside the car. I've gotten better at it, learned a lot from Kasey by watching his computers when we have them hooked up. I think that's helped our whole team.