“There’s this small cult group following”: Dale Earnhardt Jr. voices his curiosity to Elliott Sadler about NASCAR hiding unreleased footage

This week, Dale Earnhardt Jr., with the Sadler brothers (Elliott and Hermie) on his “The Dale Jr. Download,” podcast, talked about their racing memories, life-changing moments and more.

Dale Jr. brought up an intriguing topic to Elliott Sadler during the conversation about his former competitor’s unreleased wreck footage from the 2010 Pocono incident.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. expressed his curiosity about the possibility that NASCAR is hiding unreleased footage of Sadler’s 14-year-old crash that occurred at Pocono Raceway.

Discussing the mystery surrounding the crash with Elliott, the two-time NASCAR Xfinity Series driver stated that there is a “small cult group following” among NASCAR fans who are particularly interested in the release of the footage, which has never been publicly shown.

“The wreck at Pocono in the #19 car where it ripped a motor out, you know, there's this small cult group following or whatever they believe there's a there's just something that happened in that wreck that NASCAR doesn't want anybody to know about. What in the world is that?” Dale Earnhardt Jr. questioned Elliott Sadler.

Elliott Sadler's wreck at Pocono is still remembered as one of the most dramatic and violent crashes in NASCAR history. On lap 166, a multi-car wreck occurred involving Jimmie Johnson and Kurt Busch.

Sadler was caught in the aftermath. His #19 Richard Petty Motorsports Ford was sent careening off the track and collided with an inside guardrail at nearly full speed.

---

Elliott Sadler revealed the truth behind the unreleased footage on Dale Earnhardt Jr. podcast

Replying to Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s question and fans, Sadler clarified the misconceptions surrounding the Pocono crash footage from 14 years.

He cleared that NASCAR is not hiding anything related to his Pocono crash, and there were no camera angels available at the location of the impact. Sadler explained:

“All right, so with the Pocono wreck, there is nothing that NASCAR is hiding. The reason there's not a good picture of the wreck, where I hit at, is too far off the track, like there's no camera angle for it.”

The area where he crashed was too far off the track, beyond the range of the existing cameras at the time. Recalling the crash, Sadler said:

“So what happens is a wreck on the backstretch; I slow down; my actual teammate actually runs into me and hits me and pushes me across the grass, and I'm just slide and I'm thinking, all right, I'm gonna sit on the nose off this wall here.

“It's not gonna hurt. I'm just kind of bracing up a little bit. All of a sudden, I mean it when it hits it hurt. I'm like, I was not expecting that. I had no idea the fence made a V with the earth behind it, keeping it where it wouldn't give any, right, you know, hurt ribs, nothing broke.”