Allmendinger to replace Sadler at GEM
38 Comments Quote selected text Published December 28th, 2008 in NASCAR NewsAJ Allmendinger is set to replace Elliott Sadler in the No. 19 Dodge in 2009, multiple Gillett Evernham Motorsports team sources told ESPN.com on Saturday.
GEM CEO Tom Reddin told team employees and sponsors the news just before Christmas, causing some sponsors to consider leaving, according to team sources.
Reached for comment Saturday, GEM spokesman Drew Brown chose not to comment.
Sources also said Ray Evernham, who founded the team and sold majority ownership to George Gillett, cleared out all personal possessions from the team’s shop, including the 2002 Brickyard 400 trophy he won as owner of Bill Elliott’s No. 9 Dodge.
Calls placed to Evernham and Sadler’s representation were not immediately returned.
GEM announced earlier this month that it would scale back its Nationwide Series program next season by laying off about 65 employees and having the No. 9 Dodge run a partial schedule in the second-tier NASCAR series.
The team continues to field three Sprint Cup Series teams for Kasey Kahne, Reed Sorenson and now Allmendinger.
Geee, shocker here.
Sadler has hit everything but the damn pace car. He has done horrible Im surprised they kept him this long. The Dinger showed alot of improvement and Im glad to see he has a ride, maybe they can but Sadler in the 43 and keep the 43 streak of doing horrible alive. In my opinion and its just my opinion, but it appears Sadler has become complacent and this is the outcome of his actions. There is no denying Sadler can get it done, he has in the past .
It doesnt matter who is in the car Dodge cant get it done and as far as that merger goes it think it would be better not to do it and make it like the roush/yates deal
Well I sorda agree cause Dinger was getting it done in his last few races in a dodge, Khane has gotten it done in a Dodge. Shoot before Evernahm went on his quest for Crocker and was neglecting his team Mayfield was getting it done, he even got evernham into the chase 2 years in a row, and newman won the 500 in a dodge so, they may not be as good as other teams but they can do it. Sadler couldnt get it done.
And why is Evernham clearing out is personals in his own shop???? Do I sense a take over soon????
Ray is out of the organization. He has been out for a couple of weeks now. As far as this driver change, yes is is good for AJ but at this time of year it is bad for Elliott.
But then again there may be something going on behind the scenes that hasnt come out yet.
I think evernham has considered himself out as soon as he sold off majority ownership as for AJ he definatley stepped up, and sadler well hope he gets a ride
Sadler wants to sue because he got a contract extension and doesn’t want to be bought out. Kinda funny how at Wood Bros he begged for a contract extension and then a short time later begged to be let out of it, and he did the same thing at RYR, now the tables are turned and he doesn’t like it……? F’ Him, he deserves it after he’s done it to two legendary teams in the past.
Fisha695 wrote:
Just because their legendary dont make them good. you might want to get your head out of the sand George Gilette will screw over anyone to get what he wants. Btw i dont even like Sadler and never did. Look at it this way if Kasey cant get consistant runs in their equipment there is a big problem
I’m not saying that those teams were good, and I’m not saying Gilette is good, I’m simple pointing out the fact that Sadler is nothing but a hypocryte that has always thought he is better then he really is. Like I said In his mind it’s ok for him to break a contract with two teams, but it’s not ok for a team to break a contract with him? And then he wants to force GM (there is no E in the team anymore) to put him in the car for 2 more years…. Yeah that’ll work out well.
If Sadler was smart (well we know he isn’t but if his advisers were) he’d take the money and take best buy (they want to stay with him) and go start an ARCA team with Mayfield….. [rolls eyes]
Well looks like he’s back in, but I’m positive he’ll be blackballed by the sport.
Fisha695 wrote:
With most sports yeah that would happen but we know atleast 40% of nascar is about star power. Sadler has that and AJ dont although i think AJ is ok he’s not great. Anyhow what the fans think doesnt matter that much since the sponsors drive the sport. Rumors were that if they made the switch they would lose sponsors so in the end the sponsors get what they want.
AJ did better in his short time at GEM then their other drivers.
Face it Sadler won’t find another ride because no owner is going to take the gamble on being sued by somebody who really has only ever been a consistent mid-pack finisher. I mean the stats speak for themselves, his average finish in Cup is 22.5, in Nationwide it’s 19.1, and in the trucks it’s 29.7. He may have that Star Power for some unknown reason, but he has no results to back it up. I mean his Lead Lap Finish average is even only around 60% (good, but not great)
Fisha695 wrote:
I understand where your coming from but this is Nascar performance is only part of it and Sadler has done a good job of marketing himself. That is something that is a must when dealing with big name sponsors for example look at Waltrip. Performance wise there is no way i would put him in a car but the way he works the camera makes the sponsors happy.
Before AJ can make it to that kind of staus he has got to win over the camera and show some personality. Right now he’s just someone who can drive a car and he needs to bring more to the table. BTW i actually agree with your point but it just takes more then that in the world of Nascar.
God how bad are tensions at GEM going to be when Sadler has to go back to the team he was on then fired from and then rehired… LOL god what a trainwreck
“In the 86 starts in the No. 19 Dodge, a car that was in the Chase in 2004 and ‘05, Sadler has two top-fives and 12 top-10s. He’s had nearly as many finishes of 30th or worse (31) as top-20 finishes (33)”
That is from a NASCAR.com article.
As much as marketability is part of contracts, so are performance clauses, and those stats right there should do nothing but merit a release for Sadler.
Fisha695 wrote:
Fisha the thing is no other Dodge is performing well either and havent been for quite a while. First off they get very little engineering support from Dodge. Second the Charger nose sucks it’s nothing more then a vacuum cleaner for debris. Thirdly they have the least power of anyone in the series. I dont think Ernie Elliot could get them things to run better without redesigning whole freaking motor. You can quote stats all day long but stats dont win races.
The fact is their management approach doesnt work. You cant run a Nascar team like a F1 team it just doesnt mesh well. It didnt work when they went to it and it hasnt gotten any better. When you cant figure out how to fix a car that hasnt been wrecked then someone really screwed up the race setup.
Anyhow the subject is getting really boring and the fact is you never see anyones point of view except your own and frankly i’m getting tired of explaining it to you.
GEORGE,
To say Dodges havent performed is somewhat true, but The Dinger damn sure put Dodge on the map the last few races of last year, and Montoya did ok in a dodge his finishes didnt show it cause he would get caught up in some dumb accidents. You may be able to make an argument for the nose on the old cup car but not the COT cause they are all pretty much the same, all noses were a “vacuum cleaner for debris”. As for them having the least amount of horsepower how about the races where horsepower isnt an issue they didnt do good there either. Sadler in my opinion has become complacent, he has not done good. As for your statemnet that you cant fix a car that hasnt what are they waiting on, Sadler has wrecked more cars then anyone this last season, like smoke said a while back at dover he should have known better then to get to close to Elliot. As for your comment about managing a team like a f1 team, well thats what red bull did and they have made huge steps in the right direction, whether its right or wrong thats an argument for a team who did and made it work.
Didnt Newman win the 500 with Dodge being pushed by Kurt Busch while Smoke and Rowdy in the yotas who are cheating and have to much horsepower couldnt get by them???????????????????????
You can manage it as an F1 team, but only as an F1 team, not 50% F1 50% NASCAR team like GEM (and a few other teams) have been trying.
As far as how the other Dodges did. Out of 7 Dodges that made all 36 races, Sadler ranked 5th in average finishing position. Out of 9 Dodge drivers that made the final 5 races, Sadler ranked 8th, while AJ ranked 1st in average finishing position.
Out of 36 races
Kasey Kahne – 18.1
Ryan Newman – 20.3
Kurt Busch – 21.9
Bobby Labonte – 22.6
Elliott Sadler – 23.7
Juan Pablo Montoya – 23.9
Robby Gordon – 29.0
Reed Sorenson – 28.0 (missed 1 race)
Sam Hornish Jr – 29.6 (missed 2 races)
Last 5 races.
Allmendinger – 16.4
Kahne – 21.8
Newman – 24.4
Busch – 25.6
Montoya – 26.2
Gordon – 29.8
Labonte – 30.8
Sadler – 31.8
Sorenson – 34.6
ok every has had their say but we need is something else to discuss Kenneth needs give us some more topics or atleast make it possible to start our own “there is news out there just not here”
http://WWW.RACEMYSPACE.COM
Personally I love this site, but you should check out racemyspace.com build a profile to support your driver and chat live with other fans in the live chat box.
” Elliott Sadler said Wednesday that he knew losing his ride in the No. 19 Dodge this season was a possibility and that Gillett Evernham Motorsports gave him permission to talk to other organizations.
“They were looking to see what their options were … they were very up front with me, they gave me a lot of information to work with,” Sadler said.
Still, Sadler said he sought legal action for his own protection and the protection of his sponsors when it was rumored he was being replaced”
http://www.nascar.com/2009/news/headlines/cup/01/14/esadler.speaks.on.gem.discussions/index.html
Hmm so he knew he was on his way out, had plenty of time and permission to talk to other teams but refused to, and then sued the company he worked for becasue some 3rd party site posted a rumor from some anonymous source?
Sadler is staying at gem!
Fisha please drop it already i already saw that on nascar.com and imagine so has everyone else
I dropped it 2 (well 3 now) days ago… l0l
But either way he’s still an idiot, he had plenty of time and permission to look for another ride but he didn’t. Heck somebody needs to post an article saying that I was never considered for a driver at McLaren F1, and then I’ll sue McLaren F1 so they have to at least give me a test…. lmfa0
Maybe we should sue Kenneth for not posting any new articles for us to go on about. Come on KENNETH we need more.
George Thompson wrote:
George Thompson wrote:
Yeah, I agree George! I would luv to discuss several issues in Nascar. For example: DEI OR TEI IS BASICALLY DEFUNCT AND GANASSI IS RUNNING THE SHOW! and i would like to say that “I TOLD YOU SO”. To everyone who said that teresa was this great business person and the brains behind the operation..what say you now? Without JR they have fallen to the bottom of the barrel. If she had let JR take over she would still have 49% of something
Your right but it wasnt just the loss of Jr but then you add Steve Hmiel,The Eury’s, and several other key members you are basicly doomed to fail. I think the hardest hit financially was Jr leaving and then to lose both Steve Hmiel and Tony Eury Sr that would be like a knockout punch.
Now in comes Ganassi with Steve Hmiel and Felix in tow the only trouble you have now is sponsorship. You have two drivers mostly sponsored and you have a driver without a sponsor and then you have a fourth car with a sponsor but no driver. my guess they have a driver picked out but contract issues are preventing him from being named at this time. Another option would be to let Kerry drive the car on a temperary basis and atleast you would have an Earnhart in the stable.
Scott Riggs is going to end up and EGRwFS or whatever it’s called, and he has two sponsors that will follow him where ever he goes.
Fisha695 wrote:
Scott Riggs will be at Tommy Baldwin Racing they better grab somebody fast the choices are getting slimmer by the day.
I believe if it was me i would go after Front Row Joe atleast the car would qualify well.
DEI IS NOW A MUSEUM!
I would say get over it after how many years.
DEI IS A MUSEUM! NOTHING TO GET OVER!
Sam wrote:
Actually your right since everything was moved to Ganassi
I think I saw Teresa waiting tables at cracker barrell. LMAO!!!!
Justin 99 wrote:
lol good one
Ну и после этого, как говорится, хотелось бы заслушать начальника транспортного цеха