All News Carl Long Hermie Sadler

Fans help out Long UPDATE Hermie surprised and Charlotte Interview:

March 3, 2004 at 12:00 AM
  • It has been one of this week’s most amazing sports stories, and a quite emotional one – dozens of NASCAR fans have nearly inundated Carl Long with checks for $25 or $50 to help him rebuild his race car from the remains of Sunday’s crash [at Rockingham] as he tries to continue one of stock-car racing’s most improbable quests. Long, a driver from Roxboro [NC] now living in Troutman, is trying again to put his racing life back together after the off-season sponsorship collapse of the Travis Carter operation. “It’s something I never thought would happen,” Long said in amazement. “The fans have been going to my web site and sending in money, close to $4,000 now. That means more to me…. I’m going to try to send ’em all something, a postcard or something, maybe with a before-and-after shot of the car. The crash appeared to doom Long’s comeback bid. But then Hermie Sadler jumped into the deal and is loaning Long his car for next week’s Las Vegas race and the Atlanta race the week after.(see full story at the Winston Salem Journal)(2-28-2004)
    UPDATE: Hermie Sadler had no idea that there would be so much fanfare surrounding the hiring of Carl Long to pilot his team’s NEXTEL Cup entry this weekend at Las Vegas. Since the announcement, the Sadler Fan Club has been deluged with offers of support and many questions. Sadler finally decided to address some of the questions. “When I talked to Carl last Friday at Rockingham, we were simply looking for someone to drive the car that I thought could do the job, and Carl can do that,” stated Sadler. “Neither of us thought that anyone would even care that he was driving our car, much less write about it, but since his accident at Rockingham, it seems to have turned into one of the biggest stories heading into the event.” Sadler says many questions are being asked about the car Carl will be driving as well as sponsorship. “The car we are taking is a brand new car. It is a Pontiac we built last season and never got the chance to race it. We updated the body to meet NASCAR’s new template rules and it looks great. I am looking forward to watching it run as much as Carl is looking forward to driving it. As far as sponsorship, we do not have one at this time for the Cup car, but I told Carl to feel free to make any contacts that he can. We are committed to going and doing everything we can regardless of sponsorship, but if someone wants to help us out, we were certainly appreciate the help.” When asked about future races, Hermie said that he and Carl had agreed on Las Vegas only for now, but felt sure they would team up again in the near future. “Right now, it is Vegas only, but we will evaluate where we are after that and go from there. Maybe we can go to LVMS and have a respectable finish, and we can put together more races.” For more information on sponsorship opportunities for SCORE Motorsports and Carl Long for this event, please call SCORE Motorsports at 434-348-0267 or contact Carl Long at www.carl-long.com.(SCORE Motorsports PR)(3-2-2004)
    INTERVIEW: A guy that made headlines at Rockingham but for all the wrong reasons was in studio Monday night with News 14’s Mike Solarte. Nextel Cup driver Carl Long, who drove the #46 car at the Subway 400, will drive the #02 car in the circuit’s next two races. Long came out unscathed from a spectacular crash at the North Carolina Speedway, where his car flipped over several times. Many fans admire Long’s perseverance. Despite little funding, he has managed to qualify for races and put up a good showing. Long talked to News 14 about how the season is going so far, his “field-filler” status, and how some generous fans have donated money to his cause. See the interview via video at www.news14charlotte.com.(3-3-2004)