Elliott Sadler was on the hunt for Victory Lane in the Daytona 500, eventually finishing fifth in his No. 19 Dodge for Richard Petty Motorsports.

There was nothing unusual about him hunting down something he wanted, as that is one of his favorite pastimes. He sat down and talked about one of the great off-the-track passions of his life -- the Walker Hound hunting dogs that he raises by the dozens on his land in Emporia, Va.

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It's just something to get me as far away from racin' as I can, to kind of let my body and mind reset.

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ELLIOTT SADLER

Q: So how many of these dogs do you have?

Sadler: Sixty or 65 of 'em. We use 'em for hunting white-tail deer. My dad and I bought our first 10 dogs probably when I was 10 or 12 years old. We kept messin' with them, and then I kind of decided I wanted to raise my own.

I've always been an animal lover. We've always had pets and stuff around the house. I just started my own kennel and raising dogs. They're like my kids. It's been a lot of fun -- using them, raisin' 'em, watchin' 'em grow. It's just something to get me as far away from racin' as I can, to kind of let my body and mind reset.

Q: Do you have a couple of favorites that you let sneak into the house to watch a little TV with you after a long day of running?

Sadler: These particular dogs are outside dogs. But I've got a nice kennel set up for 'em. We've got heaters for 'em in the winter time and we've got a water sprinkler system and fans in the summer time for 'em. So we definitely keep 'em spoiled as much as we can.

We let 'em run. We have what they call pens -- like fox-reserve pens -- that we let 'em go run in, and just let 'em get a lot of exercise. Pens are about 1,000 acres apiece, so they can run forever. The reason we put 'em in pens, No. 1, is so they won't get hit by a car -- and you can leave 'em out for a couple days and nobody will try to steal 'em or anything like that. You keep 'em locked up. So that's their exercise and playin' around until it comes time for huntin' season. Then from the beginning of November to the beginning of January, we run 'em pretty hard every day.

Q: How many do you take out at a time when you go hunting?

Sadler: We take about five or six at a time, and we turn 'em loose about five times a day. So we'll go through 30 dogs a day. So I'll run 30 on Monday, get a fresh group for Tuesday, then switch back up for Wednesday and do it like that.

Q: So it doesn't really matter who you pick?

Sadler: Well, I try to run brothers and sisters together, and stuff like that. (Continued)