BRISTOL, Tenn. – Elliott Sadler walked into the Bristol Motor Speedway media center on Thursday morning as relaxed as a man who just announced his upcoming retirement from NASCAR racing could possibly be.

There was no stress, there were few tears and there were a whole lot of smiles as the Emporia, Va., veteran took some time to sit with the media and reflect on his career as it begins to wind to a close.

Chief among those reflections was the massive amount of messages congratulating Sadler on his time in the sport and his decision to call it quits and move forward on his own terms.

“I really appreciated all the nice calls and texts and Tweets that I received and that went out yesterday,” said Sadler. “The people I’ve met and the relationships that have come out of my time in the sport … that’s what I’m going to miss the most.

“I’ve been so fortunate to create a lot of great friendships and have a lot of great friends during my time in NASCAR. Some of us talked after the announcement and shared stories and laughed together, and others of us cried together,” Sadler admitted. “There were a lot of emotions within this announcement, but the journey is not over yet and I’m motivated to go out and finish this part of my life strong.”

Just as he did in his statement on Wednesday, Sadler reaffirmed that his decision was largely fueled by the desire to spend more time with his children, Wyatt and Austyn.

However, he expanded on his after-racing plans and confirmed that he’s already got work lined up once his full-time driving career concludes in November.

“As a person and as a dad, I just think the time is now to move on to the next chapter of my life,” said Sadler. “I need to be around for my wife and kids; I love that and want more of that.

“I love being Coach Elliott … I’ve already got another job, so that’s cool,” he added. “I’m going to be coaching a lot of baseball here soon, and I’m really looking forward to that phase of my life. This was a pretty easy decision for me to make and to move forward from.”

Contrary to the belief of some, Sadler said that his decision to depart the sport at this juncture wasn’t due to a lack of potential opportunities for the 2019 season, either at JR Motorsports or elsewhere.

“I’ve been approached by a couple different teams to race for them next year, but I have respectfully declined those offers at this moment,” said Sadler. “I told Kelley that (JR Motorsports) has been so good to me that I’m not going to turn my back on them. I’m here in case they need me. I hope they don’t need me, but if they do need me, that’s what I want to do. I’m not taking any offers from anyone else.”

“I’d rather leave on a high note with good friends of mine than leave and go do something different.”

Sadler did leave the door cracked slightly for a potential return, but stressed that it would only be for select races and that it would likely only be for JR Motorsports if he did.

“The reason why I worded it the way that I did and said I’m retiring from full-time racing is because I love JR Motorsports to death and Kelley (Earnhardt-Miller), Dale (Earnhardt Jr.) and Mr. (Rick) Hendrick have been great to me,” Sadler said. “I’m not sure what their plans are for next year … other than knowing they want to have four full-time teams, but I left it open-ended in case they needed anything.”