Historical Motorsports Stories writes:

"Hermie Sadler, Dwayne Johnson, and the Ill-Fated Rock Racing"

Posted by nascarman on October 26, 2017

Viewed 7020 times Tweet The late 1990s was a tremendous period of growth for NASCAR and brought some huge celebrities to the race track. Sports stars like Brett Favre, Dan Marino, Julius Erving, and Jackie Joyner-Kersee became team owners. The sport became mainstream and nearly everyone involved was touched by Hollywood figures.



As Hermie Sadler prepares to return to the Cup Series this weekend, it's appropriate to tell the story of how he nearly brought one of the biggest stars in today's world to NASCAR. In 2000, Hermie Sadler almost brought Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson to NASCAR.





The Rock NASCAR Shirt Design (Just generic WWF merchandise, not affiliated with an actual team)



According to a recent interview with HighSpotsWrestling Hermie Sadler first started working with Dwayne Johnson through his car dealership. Beginning around 1998, Sadler Auto Center would give Johnson a new Cadillac to use every six months and The Rock would film commercials for the dealership. It was during that time when the wrestler's popularity grew tremendously. In 2000, Johnson was named number six on Access Hollywood's Top 10 celebrities of the year and was one of People Magazine's 25 Most Intriguing People.



After racing a WWF-sponsored car at Bristol in August 2000, Hermie managed to get Dwayne Johnson interested in becoming a NASCAR owner. At the same time, Joe Bessey Motorsports was struggling to survive. Bessey's number 60 Power Team car had scored only two top-ten finishes in two years with Geoff Bodine as the driver. It seemed that team's demise could provide just the opportunity for Sadler and Johnson to become partners and own a team. As the 2000 NASCAR season came to an end, Hermie started putting the puzzle pieces together.





Geoff Bodine's Joe Bessey Motorsports car, the team nearly sold to The Rock (GettyImages)



NASCAR held a test session at Homestead-Miami Speedway on October 30th and 31st which attracted several teams. On those two days, Kevin Harvick was the test driver of Dale Earnhardt's number three car, his first official Cup test. Hermie Sadler was on hand to drive Joe Bessey's car, curious to see if it was worth buying the team. On day two, Sadler was fastest of all teams, beating even Harvick, and impressing Dwayne Johnson who lived nearby in Miami. Apparently the men decided then and there that they wanted to be owners and moved quickly to buy Bessey's team. Patent office records indicate that by November 6th, the team's name, "Rock Racing" was trademarked. Sadler even had meetings about the team with the WWF's sponsorship acquisition department.



"We did agreements, contracts, and on my end right here in Charlotte," Sadler told HighSpotsWrestling, "I signed a contract on a multi-million dollar building for our team to be in. (We) bought about nine or ten race cars, hired a bunch of people, we were all in."



So just how close was "The Rock" to officially becoming a NASCAR team owner? They got as far as scheduling a press conference to announce Rock Racing. Notices were sent to reporters inviting them to the Concord Mills Mall on December 19th to hear the news that the team would run the full 2001 schedule with Hermie Sadler competing for Cup rookie of the year. Unfortunately at the last minute, the pair hit a wall: WWF's legal department and owner, Vince McMahon.



The problem the team found out was that "The Rock" wasn't a name and likeness that Dwayne Johnson could use. The Rock was a WWF character that Johnson played. Daniel Craig can't sell James Bond watches just because he plays the role, and Dwayne Johnson can't start Rock Racing without the WWF's approval. And unfortunately for the team, Vince McMahon reportedly would not allow any WWF likeness to be used unless they were directly involved. Six days after the press conference was announced, and only five days before it was scheduled, the announcement was canceled. Behind the scenes, Hermie was left in a financial crunch.



"I got a letter sent to me, stating that the deal was not gonna take place, they were putting an end to it, and for me not to try and communicate with Dwayne Johnson. 'This is over, do not call him anymore about this,' and just left me holding the bag. Cost me $750,000." While Johnson and Sadler were friends before, they never spoke about the team's collapse. It remains unclear what the WWF told Johnson about the team and why the wrestling body refused to allow the two men to communicate.



Four years later, Johnson and Sadler crossed paths one final time. To promote his movie, Walking Tall, Dwayne Johnson was the grand marshal for the 2004 Samsung/RadioShack 400 at Texas Motor Speedway. By that point, Hermie Sadler was the owner of a small team. That weekend, his driver, Andy Belmont, failed to qualify for the race. Despite his car not being in the field, Hermie and The Rock ran into each other briefly, exchanging only one sentence.



"All he said to me was, 'I know you're mad at me,' and that was it," Sadler recalled.





Johnson at the 2004 Texas race (Kevin Kane/GettyImages)



The failure of the team wasn't due to one partner betraying another but rather just a bad business scenario. One that Hermie doesn't fault Johnson for.



"I know in his heart, I know him well enough to know from back in those days," Sadler explained to HighSpotsWrestling, "in his heart he was terrified at what he was doing to me at that time. I know it."





----



References:

*Jayski.com Past News Archive

*HighSpotsWrestling

*USPTO.gov



-----------

Follow me on Twitter @nascarman_rr for more articles and other old pictures. Or email me at nascarman_rr@yahoo.com Opinions expressed in blogs are those of the individual bloggers and do not necessarily represent the views of racing-reference.info.