Elliott Sadler had not raced a truck at Richmond Raceway in 25 years. Saturday night, he was back, less than an hour from his hometown of Emporia, Virginia, in front of a home crowd, with his kids watching from the stands. He finished 32nd and four laps down, and he was disappointed in himself for nothing performing well.
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“It’s a good feeling. Anytime you get in there and you buckle the window net up. But I definitely didn’t do my job today as a driver at all,” Sadler said after the race.
Only Sadler would say that. He came into the weekend with zero expectations, no contract on the line, no points to chase. He said himself it was “no worries, no stress” all week.
The whole purpose of being there was to give his teenage children a memory of seeing their dad in a helmet, climbing through a window net at a real NASCAR race. He did that. Truck came back in one piece too. But Elliott Sadler being Sadler, the finish still bothered him.
The race had a learning curve baked in. He had not driven a truck since 2011, and the modern version is a completely different animal. He struggled on restarts, held back intentionally to keep from wrecking. On the longer runs, the team’s adjustments gave him something to work with. It just was not enough to move up.
The whole thing started with a phone call. Kaulig Racing CEO Chris Rice rang Elliott Sadler in January and pitched the idea. Sadler was not immediately sold. Then he asked his family.
His kids “lit up like a Christmas tree.”
Done deal. Sadler had taken a backstep from full-time racing back in 2018 to coach his children’s youth sports teams. They were too young to remember his Cup and, what was then called Xfinity, days. This weekend was their chance to see it firsthand.
Hermie Sadler was on pit road the whole time, microphone in hand. The veteran broadcaster had been away from television for years and came back specifically for this event. He interviewed Elliott live before the race. When it ended, he was standing there again on pit road waiting. Two brothers, one with a truck and one with a mic, at the track they both grew up watching.
As for Elliott Sadler, he slotted into something Kaulig Racing has been building all season. The No. 25 truck runs a rotating “Free Agent Driver Program” in 2026, putting a different name behind the wheel at select events.
Sadler was the 13th driver this year. Before him came Tony Stewart, Ryan Newman, Clint Bowyer, Travis Pastrana, and Jamie McMurray, among others.
The truck itself has a story too. Kaulig Racing is the factory anchor team bringing Ram Trucks back to NASCAR for the first time since 2016.
Elliott Sadler’s career ran for over two decades, 438 Cup starts with three wins, 397 O’Reilly starts with 13 wins, and now 22 total Truck Series appearances with one win to his name. He raced at the highest level for a long time before walking away on his own terms.
Saturday was Elliott’s one last hurrah, but it didn’t pan out exactly the way he envisioned it.