Sauter Among the Best at NHMS
LOUDON, NH – Johnny Sauter of Necedah, WI enters the UNOH 175 five points behind teammate Matt Crafton. Sauter has the best average finish at New Hampshire Motor Speedway with 5.6 in three starts.
“It’s just a cool racetrack, reminds me of a short track or a couple of different short tracks that I used to race on up in the Midwest,” Sauter said. “It’s just good atmosphere here. I like this part of the country and it’s just a racetrack that I’ve taken a liking to for whatever reason and seem to run well here. So I think it helps when you like a racetrack, so that probably the biggest part of it.”
“It reminds me of St. Louis (Gateway) a little bit,” Sauter said. “Turn one and two there is kind of similar here. This is a little bit unique all unto itself because it’s got a couple of little bumps that you run across getting into the corner. With the truck you almost drive right past them, so it’s kind of a different feeling, but the turns are tight here. You use a lot of brake and turning is just really important here. It’s gotta roll the middle of the corner and if it won’t do that then you’re in big trouble.”
This is the first NASCAR Camping World Truck Series at the 1.058 mile oval since 2011. The series ran 25 races annually between 2003 and 2011, but has dropped to 22 since 2012. Canadian Tire Motorsports Park and Eldora were new additions last season. Gateway also returned for this year. Seven tracks under 1.5 miles have stopped running the series since 2008: Mansfield (2008), Memphis (2009), Milwaukee (2009), Darlington (2011), Lucas Oil (2011), Nashville (2011) and Rockingham (2013).
“I think it’s everything,” Sauter said. “…I suspect we’ll have a really good crowd here and I think that’s one thing the truck series is lacking is short tracks. Some of those bigger tracks are fun don’t get me wrong, but this is what reminds me of the truck series is short track racing and I think a lot of people would agree with that. So I was happier than anybody that they put it back on the schedule I think this is a step in the right direction and hopefully it leads to us getting a couple of more.”
Sauter was seventh fastest in the first practice session at 29.240/130.260. Sauter drives the No. 98 Nextant Aerospace/Curb Records Toyota for ThorSport Racing.
“We just need to work on turning ability,” Sauter said. “Like we talked about a little bit ago, you’ve got be able to roll the middle here or it’s going to be a long day. We fought some problems with some stuff. We found some speed and then we kind of got off track a little bit and we were able to put it back and get close to speeds that we ran earlier so having said all that, I think if we do everything right well be in good shape.”
Sauter is focused on improving his performance instead of the championship the rest of this year.
“We’re going to run as best we can and if it works it works,” Sauter said. “If it doesn’t it doesn’t. I think we just got to out there and ultimately I think we need to try and win at least another race or two before the end of the year.”
Sauter called track position “super crucial” for any track. Passing is more difficult due to the depth of competition and similar speeds. “There for a minute you had everybody in the top five within a couple hundredths of each other and that means that their trucks equally or almost as equally as fast as the next guy,” Sauter added.
The series has never had a repeat champion in 19 seasons. Teammate Matt Crafton has seven races remaining to hold the points lead. Sauter called the prospect a “huge accomplishment” if the No. 88 Slim Jim/Menards Toyota can get there. Sauter pointed to the duration of two seasons (44 races under the current schedule) and the variables in racing.
“That’s a long time for a lot of things to go right and I think if you talk to any champion I think they’ll agree that they just you obviously have to run good and all that, but there’s certain elements of this that you can’t control especially in motorsports or racing in general,” Sauter said. “Sometimes you just have to have a little bit of luck on your side and it’s hard to get lucky… it’s hard to put it all together.”
The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series returns to New Hampshire Motor Speedway on Saturday afternoon (1PM EST) for the UNOH 175.
Sources: Nicholas Teto/YankeeRacer.com