Charlotte: Hermie Sadler subs for Rick Mast

Hermie Sadler will be replacing Rick Mast in the No. 90 Duke's Mayonnaise Taurus this weekend. Mast informed car owner Junie Donlavey on Tuesday night that he would not be able to drive while he undergoes some medical tests. Sadler and Donlavey spoke about the situation before practice on Friday.

HERMIE SADLER --90-- Duke's Mayonnaise Taurus

"I'm tickled to death. I've been a friend and a fan of Junie's for a long time. He's a great fixture in this sport and this is a situation that helps both of us out. He was left with a situation yesterday afternoon without a driver and a crew chief. We had planned to bring my car back, but when I talked to them it just seemed logical to do something to help Junie and the Duke's people, but also to give me an opportunity to drive a different race car with a different group of people. I'm still learning, but these guys have accepted me so far. I wish we would have had time to go test, but we'll deal with what we've got and work on it and make the best of it this weekend. We'll check on Rick's situation, but this is his car and I'm just filling in until he's ready to come back. I'll do whatever they ask me to do until then."

IT PROBABLY DIDN'T HURT YOU WERE FROM VIRGINIA EITHER. "I've always been proud to be a Virginian and I guess, in this case, it helps even more. Emporia is only about 60 miles away from Junie, so I was able to buzz over there pretty quick and get my seat in there and talk to all the guys. I know many of those guys because a lot of them worked for me in the past when I had my Busch team, so, in a lot of ways, it's like old times. It's a great honor and a great opportunity, so we'll see what happens."

DO YOU FEEL THE VISIBILITY YOU GOT JUST FROM RUNNING YOUR OWN TEAM ON A LIMITED BASIS HELPED GET THIS RIDE? "There's no question in my mind that I wouldn't be here today doing this if I hadn't run the races I had run with my own car this year. Junie has been around long enough to see that when we can go to Richmond and finish 18th with my team that it shows a little potential. Hopefully he feels like, and I hope he's correct, that we can do even better in his car. He certainly doesn't have all of the resources that some of these guys got, but he does run every week and are probably a little bit more up on things than we are. I'm just happy to be here and I'm gonna work real hard to do them a good job and come out of here with a good, solid weekend. Whatever happens from there happens, but we'll make the best of this weekend."

JUNIE DONLAVEY, Car Owner --90-- Duke's Mayonnaise Taurus

"Rick called me the night before last and he said that he had to take some time off because he had a bunch of tests he had to go through. We've noticed that he's lost a lot of weight recently and we're just hoping that everything is all right. But until he goes through all of his tests, we won't know. We're just going to take things one day at a time because we don't really know anything."

-ford-