“We’re gone get in trouble with big brother here.”
Elliott Sadler made his NASCAR Cup Series debut in 1997. By 1999, he was signed as a full-time driver with Wood Brothers Racing. He retired from the Cup Series following the 2017 season.
Throughout the lengthy career, two incidents stand out, perhaps as controversial. He was involved in a crash at Pocono Raceway, which there’s very limited video of.
Then, there was another crash at Michigan International Speedway. In that one, video exists but it’s never surfaced.
Why is that? Apparently, for the latter, it’s because NASCAR literally shelved the video of the incident at Michigan.
This week, Elliott Sadler spoke on both incidents…
Elliott Sadler on the crash at Pocono Raceway
Dale Jr: “The crash at Pocono where it ripped the motor out. There’s this small cult group following or whatever that believe there’s something that happened in that wreck that NASCAR doesn’t want anybody to know about. What in the world is that?”
Elliott Sadler responds, “With the Pocono wreck, there is nothing that NASCAR is hiding.”
“The reason there’s not a good picture of the wreck, where I hit at is too far off the track. Like, there’s no camera angle for it.”
“There’s a wreck on the backstretch. I slow down. My teammate runs into me and pushes me across the grass.”
“I’m thinking, ‘I’m just going to nose off this wall here. It’s not going to hurt.’ “
“All the sudden, when it hits, it hurt. I had no idea, the fence made a V [shape] with the earth behind it, keeping it where it wouldn’t give any.”
“I got out, saw the engine. I just kinda laid on the track and just waited for somebody to come get me.”
NASCAR is hiding crash footage from Elliott Sadler’s Michigan crash
Dale Jr: “What is the wreck where there is some video evidence that NASCAR’s hiding? We’re gone get in trouble with big brother here.”
Elliott Sadler confirmed, “I’m not going to get in trouble. I don’t do anything anymore.”
“In 2000, I wrecked at Michigan in practice. In the Wood Brothers Citgo car.”
“They say a piece of exhaust pipe had fell off. I’m going down the front straight-away and all I heard was a boom.”
“We blew the right rear tire. And, when it blew, the right rear quarter panel blew straight out. So, it made it like a wing of an airplane.”
“So, when I went this way. It went straight up. And, I was actually higher than the catch fence.”
“NASCAR calls me to the trailer. And, they have a video of my wreck.”
“They show it to me and they say, ‘That’ll be the last time you ever see that video because you’re higher than the catch fence and we don’t really wanna just show that to everybody. Everybody don’t need to see that.’ “
“A whole car length. I was nose down and I was higher than the whole catch fence. That’s how high I was.”
Elliott Sadler talks the crash at Michigan International Speedway
Links
Elliott Sadler | Michigan International Speedway | Pocono Raceway | NASCAR
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