Former NASCAR driver Elliott Sadler has revealed that NASCAR have 'hidden' evidence of one crash in his career, but did debunk one other fringe conspiracy theory.
Speaking on the Dale Jr Download this week, Sadler was asked about a 'small cult group' who believe that NASCAR suppressed footage of a 2010 wreck at Pocono Raceway which tore his engine block free of his car.
The lack of replay angles have nagged at some fans for more than a decade, with some suggesting that there's an angle which was hidden by officials.
While he denied that the Pocono wreck was affected by a cover-up of any kind, Sadler revealed a crash from a full decade previous which officials admitted to him that they planned to keep hidden.
“With the Pocono wreck, there is nothing that NASCAR is hiding,” he said. “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."
When asked by Earnhardt Jr. which video had been suppressed – adding 'we’re gonna get in trouble with big brother here' – Sadler was open about the incident.
“I’m not going to get in trouble. I don’t do anything anymore,” he explained. “In 2000, I wrecked at Michigan in practice. In the Wood Brothers Citgo car. They say a piece of exhaust pipe had feel off. I’m going down the front straight-away and all I heard was a boom.
“We blew the right rear tire. And, when it blew, the right rear quarter panel blew straight out. So, it made it like a wing of an airplane. So, when I went this way. It went straight up. And, I was actually higher than the catch fence.
“NASCAR calls me to the trailer. And, they have a video of my wreck. They show it to me and they say, ‘That’ll be the last time you ever see that video because you’re higher than the catch fence and we don’t really want to just show that to everybody. Everybody don’t need to see that.’ “
“A whole car length. I was nose down and I was higher than the whole catch fence. That’s how high I was.”