Johnny Sauter did everything he could on Friday night to win the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (NCWTS) championship but it wasn’t meant to be.
[media-credit name=”Credit: By John Harrelson, Getty Images for NASCAR” align=”alignright” width=”234″]
[/media-credit]He led the most laps and won for the second time in 2011 when NASCAR declared the race official 15 laps from the finish because of rain. But with point leader Austin Dillon finishing 10th it left Sauter six points behind in the standings.
“To come out of here six points back is kind of bummer with some of the problems we had throughout the course of the year,” said Sauter. “But I couldn’t be more proud of Joe and everybody at ThorSport, Duke and Rhonda Thorson … I was really concerned in the middle part of the summer, we got off track a little bit.”
Sauter called it awesome to have won two races in a season. It’s also awesome to come back in 2012 and content for the championship again, even if he has to wait a few months. The win makes Sauter feel better though. It is the first time that he has had a multiple win season in any of NASCAR’s three series.
He knows that he doesn’t seem that eyebrow raising, but it’s a big, personal accomplishment. For Sauter, showing that he can be a contender on more than one occasion is important, showing the team are not just one hit wonders.
“Phenomenal year,” Sauter said. “I’ve always wanted to have two wins in the NASCAR series in the same year and to some people that probably doesn’t mean much. I’ve been fortunate to win some Nationwide races and some Truck races but never two in a year, so that was a huge accomplishment.”
Except, there’s a bit of what could have been for Sauter and his No. 13 team this season.
They led the points for many weeks and could have had numerous victories. Then bad luck and fate turned against them. He would have won Texas until he was black flagged for changing lanes before the start-finish line on a green-white-checkered finish. There was the domination he put on the field in Kentucky but broke an axel with 20 laps to go.
In Indianapolis he again was leading when they suffered a flat tire, which led to a broken sway bar. The team was also docked points from NASCAR following Pocono for failing inspection. Once those lost opportunities added up to lost points Sauter found himself too far behind entering Homestead.
“Really if you want to get down to it, it didn’t really matter where he was running,” Sauter said of Dillon. “We knew what we had to do and that was lead the most laps to win the race. It’s a huge accomplishment to come out of here doing what we needed to do essentially and six points is a bummer.”
The off-season will be a well-deserved break for the NCWTS teams. It might also be long for Sauter though, as he’s ready to head into 2012 and try again. The fire, desire as well as the success the team experienced this season leads Sauter to believe they will again be contenders next year. Doesn’t matter that they could and maybe should have won this year, he says they’re the favorites.
And while Sauter will be back to chase the championship, the champion will not. Dillon is moving to the Nationwide Series with his entire team. Brother Ty Dillon and Joey Coulter will carry the banner for Richard Childress Racing. But Sauter doesn’t want to be anywhere but ThorSport and would love to bring them a championship.
As a company they’ve come far. His team owners care as much about the sport as they do their own team. For 16 years they’ve been at the track full-time, spending their own money and commitment. Sauter is eternally grateful and wants to make it worth it for them.
“Built a brand new 100,000 square foot shop we moved into it in August up in Sandusky, Ohio, which is anomaly in this business, being outside the Charlotte hub so to speak,” he said. “I think it’s a huge accomplishment but I also know what I have for a team, and those guys work hard. I guarantee you they work harder than anybody in the garage and I guarantee you that we are a championship team. Even though we are not champions right now, we are a championship team and I do believe we’re the favorites for next year.”
