Elliott Sadler was on top of his world after qualifying fastest for the Sprint Showdown. The green flag fell, and 6 laps later, Sadler was out of the race. His demise came at the hands of 2nd year driver AJ Allmendinger.
Sadler's wreck was surprisingly similar to the way Tony Stewart was wrecked during the opening laps at the Darlington race by no less than Sadler himself.
How ironic that Sadler 'manned up' and admitted his 'rookie mistake' during his post-crash Darlington interview. He spent the week, when interviewed on Sirius, as saying he sure did not 'do the family name proud.' In the meantime, while Tony Stewart was broadcasting his TSLive show from Graceland, Tony loudly exclaimed that he harbored no ill will towards Elliott. They were pals, and Tony knew that Elliott had no intentions of causing that wreck. Tony was admired by many for his attitude towards Sadler.
Then, Sadler during his post-wreck interview at the All-star race decides he is going to display his anger by childishly commenting on 'what's his name?', and that there was a reason why AJ was 'in and out of that car.' Sadler apologists will claim he was angry and disappointed. Yes, he was, but his reaction was much less gracious than that of the volatile Stewart.
AJ did humble himself in his interview:
"I don't know if I can really defend myself. It was my fault -- I slid up in to him. I didn't mean to do it. We'd been loose throughout the whole race to start. I was tucked under Brian (Vickers) to try to get him by and get around Elliott (Sadler) clean. I basically passed him right as that yellow came out. I was so close to Brian that the nose just took off on me and I was out of throttle the whole time just trying to miss him. I don't want to race like that. I don't want to be known to race like that. There's no defense. I messed up. I'll apologize to him but I know right now that doesn't mean anything. I don't want to be known for that. We'll talk later. There's no defense there that was my fault."
Even more surprising, the internet and the radio commentators on Sirius are pointing out that there is a double standard when comparing these two incidents. Many feel that Sadler handled the Lowe's incident poorly.
More irony comes when one remembers that Sadler was fined several thousands of dollars for a helmet throw while he was driving the 21 car for the Wood Brothers. His post-wreck quotes come off as a verbal helmet toss!
The man dubbed as a Southern Gentleman came out of this looking like he should be re-named ... as the Southern Brat.
3 comments:
Sadler typically is a good guy, not sure he's an A+ racer though.
It's just frustration that makes Sadler speak that way. Too many things happening too often. His apology for what happened at Darlington was magmanimus, and Allmendinger's for the Showdown wasn't delivered matter of factly at all.
Face it, drivers will be angry with other drivers right after the wreck whether the blame is rightly placed or not.
Great blog, by the way. Found it on Ball Hype
In all fairness, Tony was not a happy camper on his radio after the Darlington incident. Chances are if they had put a microphone in his face right then he would've said worse than what Sadler did because he sure did on his radio. The fact that his car was drivable and still on the track gave him time to cool down and hear ESad's apology. I'm sure Sadler is not feeling the same way about AJ now as he did Saturday night.
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