“I Was Too Freaking Old” – Elliott Sadler Reveals How NASCAR Hindered His Popularity After Reaching Historic Milestone

Elliott Sadler and his achievements speak highly of his time in NASCAR. Being one of the 36 drivers to have won at least once in each of the sport’s top three series does make him special. While he continued racing until he was almost 44 years old, Sadler felt NASCAR didn’t treat him justly on multiple occasions.

Without a doubt, the Virginia-born driver attracted a lot of popularity having been in the industry for 24 years. Sadler competed in over 850 races across NASCAR’s top three competitions and went on to win the fans’ love and three consecutive Most Popular Driver awards in the Xfinity Series.

Elliott Sadler accuses NASCAR of unfair treatment despite being a popular figure

It is only unfortunate how Elliott Sadler failed to win a championship in any of NASCAR’s top-three competitions. In his memorable career, Sadler registered three wins in the Cup Series, 13 in the Xfinity Series, and one in the Truck Series.

Surprisingly, he finished runner-up in the Xfinity Series four times in his career (2011, ’12, ’16, and ’17). While that was unlucky, Sadler surely knew how to win the fans’ love. With his impressive performances in the Xfinity Series, he won the competition’s Most Popular Driver four times in his career.

While no other driver has been able to top that achievement, there’s a sad story behind it. Sadler made it to Kenny Wallace’s show “Kenny Conversation” on YouTube recently. It is then that he spoke elaborately about how he was mistreated despite winning the Most Popular Driver award for three consecutive years from 2016 to 2018.

Sadler said, “I’m leading up to this being a popular guy, being a part of a certain group. My last four years in the Xfinity series, the last three years I won most popular driver which gave me the record for voting most popular driver in Xfinity Series history.”

He then revealed how being older among other drivers hindered his stardom. Sadler said, “So the funniest part about that being a part of that age in my group, NASCAR and Xfinity hated it because I was too freaking old. They had these names made here. I was screwed the whole thing up, Kenny.”

Sadler then sequentially disclosed how NASCAR restricted him. Explaining their behavior, the 48-year-old said, “So look we go to the first banquet the first year I won it and they let me talk during the banquet. The second year I won it, don’t think we got time for you this year at the banquet Elliott. We might let you talk after the banquet but you won’t be on TV.”

It was indeed an annoying event for Sadler. After all, the sole purpose for him to attend the banquet was to speak. He even explained what NASCAR did during the third year of his Most Popular Driver award win. He said, “The last year I won it they’re like no we’re not even gonna bring it up this year at the award ceremony.”

While this was unexpected from NASCAR, even the fans looked unhappy about it.

NASCAR’s ageist treatment of Elliott Sadler leaves the fans fuming

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Clearly, this episode of “Kenny Conversation” turned out to be an eye-opener for the NASCAR fandom. With Elliott Sadler speaking so candidly about how his age resulted in mistreatment, the fans expressed their dissatisfaction with it on social media.

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One of the obvious rants saw one fan saying, “Shame on @NASCAR !” Another fan turned out to be an active voter of the awards then. He said, “Listening to Elliott talk about how @NASCAR shunned him from speaking at the awards ceremony pissed me off, I didn’t know this. I was one of those fans that voted him most popular driver, wasn’t his fault he was relatable with the fans.”

Some fans felt that this approach from NASCAR showed how the governing body isn’t valuing the fans’ emotions. A fan said, “This is one of many reasons no one watches anymore. Thanks”. At the same time, another fan added, “That’s BS on Nascars part. The fans had spoken, and voted Elliot MPD….but Nascar didn’t like it. Wow. Kinda sounded like Nascar could care less about what the fans wanted. When have I heard that before??”

While fans attacked NASCAR, one fan took the time and express how the sport has been missing characters like Sadler and Wallace. He said, “Characters and folks like you and Elliott are Missed. By life long fans.” All said and done, it is interesting what Sadler had to say. Surely, NASCAR has some answering to do here.

READ MORE – “It Does Still Hurt”- Elliott Sadler Reveals His Biggest Regret as Dale Earnhardt Jr’s Driver