In the Field: E Sadler (Talladega)
In the Field: Elliott SadlerVirginia Tech tragedy hits home to all Virginian drivers
By Elliott Sadler, Special to NASCAR.COM
April 25, 2007
10:53 AM EDT
Virginians take care of their own, and after what happened at Virginia Tech last week, some of the Virginia natives in the Nextel Cup garage, including myself, Jeff Burton and Denny Hamlin have put our heads together to do something for the school and the families that were affected.
For me, being from Virginia, a part of the Hokie Club for the last eight years, a supporter of the school, having kinfolk that go to the school, having family and friends that are part of the school and have graduated there and went there, it's just been a tough situation.
For people who have been to Blacksburg, Va., you just don't realize how something like this can happen at a place like that. It's a great area, and it's not in the middle of any kind of a city or anything like that.
It's kind of out there, sitting on its own in the country, and it's just a beautiful, peaceful place.
I've been very proud of the students, the faculty and the Virginia Tech family who have shown their unity as far as fighting through this and getting through this because it's been a tough situation for a lot of people.
It's hit us all very hard and being from Virginia, it's been pretty hard for me, especially.
I drove the Virginia Tech car back in 2000 at Richmond and I feel like I'm a big part of the "Hokie Nation." So it hit us pretty hard. All last week, even though my Dodge Dealers/UAW Charger team was out in Phoenix at the Nextel Cup race, it was pretty tough.
If you had to picture the perfect, peaceful place where you would want to be, Blacksburg would be it -- and that's why what happened there, it just doesn't fit.
You could never imagine anything like that happening there. It's a place where everyone looks out for one another. It would seem like, if you were a mother or a dad going to visit, it would be a great, safe place to send your kid.
It definitely gives you that perception when you go there. It's just that kind of place, where everybody is so friendly and so down to earth.
Being as how it's that way, it's tough -- and being a Virginian it really hits close to home, when it involves people that you personally know and care about -- or are real close to your family members. It really makes it hard.
That's why Jeff Burton, Denny Hamlin and myself have talked, and we're going to try to do something -- we don't know what yet; for the school and for the students that are involved, and their families.
I've had conversations with some of the people in the academic department up at Virginia Tech and we're going to try to figure out what would be a good thing that we could do -- because we want to do something.
I was so proud of NASCAR for letting us put Virginia Tech stickers on our racecars last weekend at Phoenix and for the next couple weeks.
And so the three of us, Jeff, Denny and I are going to sit down and try to figure out what's the best thing that we can do to give back to the school and make something good come out of this.
We're thinking we're going to try to do something around the Richmond race weekend, because Richmond is also in Virginia and that means we'll have a lot of Virginia fans who will be there, and can get involved.
As I say, we don't know what -- but we're going to do something. We want to make sure we do it the right way. Richmond's close, but it gives us enough time to do something the right way, which is important to all of us.
The fact that we'll be in Richmond, means a lot to all three of us. It means a lot that it will be in Virginia, because all of us have friends that went to that school.
Denny and I were talking and he still has a lot of friends who are at Tech. That's just the way it is, in Virginia.
With me being from an agricultural part of the state, and Tech being an agricultural school -- everybody went there. I have a lot of family and friends who went there, a lot of friends at home right now that went to Virginia Tech.
My best friend played football there and my girlfriend just got her diploma from Tech. A lot of people I know are involved in that school in a lot of different ways, so it's been tough -- but it makes us want to have a part in the healing process.
We want to do something.
We all know we're Virginians. When we got out to Phoenix last week, as soon as Jeff Burton and I saw each other -- all the way from across the garage area -- we just started walking to each other.
We didn't have to talk, we didn't have to give a signal -- we pretty much walked up to each other and the first thing we said was that we needed to do something as a group, as the Virginians in Nextel Cup racing.
Then we got Denny involved. So we hope to have something in place that we can talk about, soon; because we just want to be a part of whatever's going on.
Again, I can't say enough to send my condolences out to the families involved in this tragedy. It's such a shocking event to have happen, and where it happened -- in Blacksburg, of all places.
It's hard for me to put into words, what those families are going through. Nobody can possibly imagine it, and so we want to send our regards and hope that everything comes out OK.
And we'll have more to say about what we're planning when we can do that more completely.