Elton Everett Sawyer (born November 5, 1959) is an American formerNASCAR driver. He is married to former NASCAR driverPatty Moise, and is the older brother ofRoger Sawyer, who has also competed inNASCAR.^[1] Sawyer is currently the senior Vice President of competition ofNASCAR, having previously been the Vice President of Officiating and Technical Inspection.^[2]

Sawyer began his career in the NASCARBusch Series. He ran a handful of races in 1983, 1984, and 1985, scoring 8 top tens while running his own team. From 1986 to 1989, he ran full-time seasons withLewis Motorsports. Sawyer ran competitively, scoring many top tens, while finishing between 14th and 18th in points in all of those years. Sawyer left the Lewis organization, after not winning in his four seasons with the team, and headed to the team owned byA.G. Dillard. In 1990, Sawyer ran his best career season, scoring 4 top fives and finishing 13th in the points. However the following year, the Dillard team faced sponsorship problems, which kept Sawyer from completing the whole year. He salvaged a 20th-place finish in the points that year. The sponsorship issues that affected Sawyer in 1991 also caused problems for him the next two years. He was not able to find a solid ride, and only competed in 4 races.

However, luck changed for Sawyer in 1994 when he found a solid ride atSutton Racing. He would go on to win his firstBusch Series race atMyrtle Beach Speedway. He would only have six more top tens the remaining of the year, finishing 14th in points. In 1995, Sawyer continued driving in the Busch Series full-time for Sutton, but he was named to replaceLoy Allen Jr. in the No. 27Winston Cup carJunior Johnson & Associates.^[3] Sawyer's Cup season did not fare too well, but his Busch year was his best of date, finishing 9th in points. In that same year, Sawyer competed in theWinston Select, driving the No. 27 car ofJunior Johnson that made it in, thanks toJimmy Spencer winning twice the previous year.

Sawyer started the 1996 Cup season driving forDavid Blair Motorsports. However, after sponsorship problems, he was released from the team. He then decided to jump back down to Busch, however he did not grab a solid ride until 1997, when he rejoined Sutton. Sawyer would go on to finish 8th in points. In 1998, he had a great year, finishing 5th in points, after scoring 10 top tens. In 1999, Sawyer joinedAkins Motorsports in the Busch Series. Sawyer had one of his most competitive years, winning a race atNew Hampshire International Speedway. He also scored 14 top tens, and finished 5th in points. 2000 was also a great year for Sawyer after he scored once again 14 top tens and finished 6th in points.

2001 turned out to be Sawyer's last full season in NASCAR. He raced competitively, scoring his career high of 19 top-tens in a season, while finishing 5th in points. Akins had sold the No. 98 car toMichael Kranefuss in April 2001, however the team was unable to secure sponsorship after the season and folded, causing Sawyer to search for a ride for 2002. Sawyer did race 3 races in 2002 for the ailingJeff Purvis atBrewco Motorsports. However,David Green received the ride in 2003. Sawyer continued looking for a ride; however, he was unable to find one due to the trend of teams wanting young drivers with sponsorship money.

On February 2, 2015, NASCAR announced that Sawyer would become the managing director of theCamping World Truck Series, replacingChad Little, who was moved to a new role within the organization. Sawyer had previously served as the director of team operations for Action Express Racing in the TUDORUnited SportsCar Championship.^[4]

Sawyer, along with John Probst, helped the design of theNext Gen car that debuted in 2022.

(key) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time.Italics – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)

• Elton Sawyer driver statistics at Racing-Reference

• Living people
• 1959 births
• Sportspeople from Chesapeake, Virginia
• Racing drivers from Virginia
• NASCAR drivers
• NASCAR team owners

• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata
• Short description is different from Wikidata