SPEED™ ANALYST STILL CAMPS OUT WITH FAMILY AT MARTINSVILLE

Sadler: "At 2 a.m., someone knocked on the (hotel) door and I opened it to find Darrell Waltrip standing there."

It's been a year since NASCAR driver and SPEED analyst Hermie Sadler last sat behind the wheel at Martinsville Speedway.  He now spends his weekends helping television viewers better understand what it's like in the cockpit of a race car.

When the Emporia, Va. native addresses the idiosyncrasies of Martinsville this weekend for SPEED viewers, he will be discussing a track he knows like the back of his hand.  Sadler, who serves as an analyst for NASCAR RaceDay and NASCAR Live on SPEED, grew up going to Martinsville with his family to watch his uncle and other heroes compete on the .526-mile track, long before he ever raced at the famed speedway.

Sadler's fondest memory from Martinsville is when one of those childhood heroes paid him a visit in the middle of the night years ago.  Sadler awakened to a man beating on his hotel room door at two o'clock in the morning demanding to know what the ruckus inside was all about.  That man was Darrell Waltrip.

"When I was 12 years old, my two uncles, two cousins and I were sharing a room at the Dutch Inn in Martinsville the night before the Cup race," Sadler recalled.  "At 2 a.m., someone knocked on the door and I opened it to find Darrell Waltrip standing there.  Both of my uncles and one cousin were snoring so loudly they woke up Darrell who was in the room next door to us. That was the first time I met DW and we still laugh about it to this day."

That wasn't Sadler's first trip to Martinsville Speedway.  His uncle Bud Elliott drove a car owned by Hermie's father and the Sadler family spent many a weekend at Martinsville, Richmond International Raceway and other Virginia tracks.

"I started going to the track to watch my uncle when I was three years old," Sadler said.  "He raced at Richmond at the old fairgrounds and raced at Martinsville in the Late Model Sportsman races back when they ran in conjunction with the Modifieds.  We'd also go to Bristol and Daytona as a family."

One of the favorite pastimes at any race track is camping out in the infield.  The Sadler clan is no different.

"We camped out at Martinsville and Richmond quite a bit," Sadler related.  "We still do it now but it's a different type of camping.  We take our motor homes and have a family reunion on those weekends, especially at the Virginia tracks, because it's really the only time everyone can get together.  We pile my kids, my brother, my sister, aunts and friends into our motor homes and have a blast."

Sadler's racing career began as a ten year old in go-karts and he won the World Karting Association National championship in 1988. While his younger brother, Elliott Sadler, currently competes in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, and the two grew up racing together, they never competed against each other until they got to the NASCAR Nationwide Series. 

"When we were growing up, Elliott and I raced go-karts together," Sadler, the father of three girls, said.  "We raced at the same tracks but in different divisions.  We also worked on each other's cars and helped out whenever we could."

In 1990, while attending the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, he ventured into Late Model Stock cars under the tutelage of his uncle and went on to compete in the NASCAR Nationwide Series and Sprint Cup Series, at one point owning his own team. 

Since the 38-year-old Sadler hasn't competed in a race since the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series event last spring at Martinsville, he has been freed up to enjoy an expanded role as a SPEED analyst and reporter.  He says his on-track experience allows him to better relate the drivers' perspectives to the viewers at home.

"I try to talk to the SPEED viewers as if I was sitting on the couch talking to my friends about the race," Sadler explained.  "Being a driver doesn't make for a better TV analyst but there is no substitute for having been in a car in the heat of battle, experiencing what the drivers are going through.  On the other hand, you could have driven your whole life and if you can't put those experiences into layman's terms for the viewer, you're not doing your job.  I just try to call it like I see it."

Sadler adds FOX/SPEED analyst Darrell Waltrip has set the benchmark for a driver-turned-broadcaster.

"Darrell does a great job of explaining the driver's point of view to the folks at home," Sadler said.  "He knows how to break down and relate his experiences to the everyday viewer and to people who have never driven a race car.  DW is great."

In addition to NASCAR, Sadler works the Cup races for DirecTV HotPass and is actively involved in the wrestling world.  In 2005, he started the United Wrestling Federation, which promotes about 20 live wrestling events throughout the Southeast each year.  Sadler has even climbed into the ring to wrestle, something he and Elliott always dreamed of doing as children, and serves as an analyst for TNA Wrestling.

"I'm very fortunate with the opportunities I've had not only to be a race car driver, but now to tell the fans who love NASCAR so much what driving is all about and what it feels like in the car," Sadler said.  "And who wouldn't have a blast cutting up with John Roberts, Jimmy Spencer and Kenny Wallace? For me, nothing beats being behind the wheel of a race car but talking about it on SPEED takes a close second."

SPEED, now in nearly 78 million homes in North America, is the exclusive home of the NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race, Gatorade Duel at Daytona, NASCAR Sprint Pit Crew Challenge and the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. The only network delivering  live, at-track programming all season long, SPEED offers the definitive pre- and post-race NASCAR Sprint Cup Series programs - NASCAR RaceDay and NASCAR Victory Lane, as well as other popular NASCAR programs including Trackside Live, Tradin' Paint, NASCAR Performance, NASCAR Live!, This Week in NASCAR, NCTS Setup,  Go or Go Home and The Chase is On.