Heard an inteview this morning and some pretty interesting points were made.

Of course, none of this is official yet since GEM hasn't released an official press release.

How did this all happen...

When AJ was brought over to replace Patrick in the #10, it was done with high endorsements from driver Kasey Khane. Khane is good friends with AJ and believes he's the most under-rated driver in the garage.

AJ did pretty good with an average of 16th in his 5 races with the #10 car.

There's also 2 big factors that pushed Sadler out. Sadler was a Evernham guy and Evernham hire. Sadler was also the highest paid driver at GEM. By releasing Sadler, Gillett removes the Evernham ties to GEM and also reduces his salaries alot. Sadler has made it known he was an Evernham guy, where Khane stayed neutral, but wasn't happy with Ray's involement with former driver Erin Crocker. AJ can be hired for alot less than Sadler and can have his contract incentive based, instead of guaranteed like Sadler's was.

Sadler's performance hasn't been great in the #19 either, actually worse than the driver Sadler bumped...Jeremy Mayfield,

Mayfield finished 9th in 2005 (Chase Contender), 10th in 2004 (Chase Contender), 19th in 2003 and 26th in 2002.

2006 was a disaster as Mayfield was released and Sadler was hired.

Since then, Sadler finished 25th in 2007, and 24th in 2008. Sadler never made The Chase.

In fairness, Dodge has struggled since 2005. Dodge has only had Khane and Kurt Busch make the field, Khane in 2006 and Kurt in 2007. No Dodge made the field in 2008. In 2005, Dodge had 3 drivers make The Chase.