FANTASY NASCAR Racin

an American professional stock car racing driver. Sauter is the son of former NASCAR driver Jim Sauter, the brother of NASCAR drivers Tim Sauter and Jay Sauter. After graduating high school in 1996, Sauter began competing in various amateur series throughout Wisconsin and the Midwest. By the end of 1997, Sauter had collected three wins in the Sportsman Division at Dells Raceway Park and a win in the Late Model Division at the La Crosse Fairgrounds Speedway. Sauter then joined the American Speed Association Series in 1998. By 2001, he was the ASA Series Champion. In 2001, following Sauter's ASA Championship, Richard Childress Racing invited him to drive the #21 Rockwell Automation-sponsored Chevrolet in five Xfinity Series races. Sauter finished in the Top 15 in three of his five Busch starts, including a fifth place finish in the AutoLite Fram 250 at Richmond, which was his first start in the series.

Sauter raced full time in the Xfinity Series from 2002-2006. The first year he drove the #2 AC Delco car for Richard Childress. He would get his first Xfinity win at Chicago and go on to post three Top 5 and six Top 10 finishes this season. Sauter drove for Childress Racing and the Curb Agajanian Performance Group in the Busch Series, piloting the No. 21 PayDay-sponsored Chevrolet and the No. 43 Channellock/Curb Records-sponsored Chevrolet in 2003. Again he captured a win; and he posted six Top 5 and 14 Top 10 finishes; finishing eighth in the points. 2004 saw Sauter drive for Clarence Brewer and Brewco Motorsports. It was a down year as he failed to visit victory lane; and only had four Top 5 finishes. Sauter also ran 16 Cup races

in 2004 and had a best finish of 14th wheeling the #30 AOL Chevy. In 2005 Sauter drove for James Finch with his Yellow Transportation sponsorship. Sauter would again visit victory lane; and it was especially gratifying as it came in his home state of Wisconsin at the Milwaukee Mile. He was dominant winning the pole, and led 162 of the 200 laps. He added to that five Top 5's and 11 Top 10's. He also ran 10 Cup races for Finch. He had a best finish of ninth at Phoenix. 2006 was the final year that Sauter ran full time in the Xfinity Series. This year he would pilot the #00 Yellow Transportation Chevy owned by Gene Haas. He posted two Top 5 finishes; with a best finish of fourth at Memphis. Haas moved Sauter up from the Xfinity series to the Cup Series for 2007. He ran 35 of 36 races and ran the

best on flatter tracks like the Milwaukee Mile, where he had won previously. He had a best finish of fifth at Richmond, but also posted good runs at Loudon NH (14th); along with a 15th and ninth at Phoenix. 2008 was a disappointing season. He didn't have a full time ride in any of NASCAR's elite series and only ran a combined 22 races in all three series combined. He didn't post a Top 10 run all year. In 2009 Sauter moved to racing full time in the NASCAR Truck Series where he once again hooked up with car owner Mike Curb and drove for him through 2015. The pairing proved fruitful as Sauter visited victory lane at least once every season through 2014. He got three wins in 2013 and finished fourth in points. 2011 proved to be the season he came closest to winning the points; finishing second to Austin Dillon by a scant six points. After Sauter went win

less in 2015 he and Curb split; and Sauter was hired to drive for Gallagher Motorsports. He inherited a team mate as Maury Gallagher's son Spencer also raced full time in the Truck Series. 2016 kicked off the season right as Sauter won the season opening race at Daytona; and qualified him for the Chase. He went on a tear as he won on three occasions, posted 12 Top 5's and a whopping 19 Top 10's in 23 races. He would claim the Championship at season's end. 2017 was another successful campaign. In 23 starts he once again posted 19 Top 10 finishes; coupled with 13 Top 5's and he wheeled his truck into victory lane on four occasions. He made it to the final race at Homestead with a chance to pick up another championship; but Christopher

Bell would beat him out finishing second in the race with Sauter finished third. In 2018 Sauter was back with Gallagher Racing (switched it's name to GMS Racing). It was a great year for Johnny Sauter behind the wheel of the #21 Allegiant Airlines Chevy. He kicked off the season winning at Daytona, just edging out team mate Justin Haley. Sauter won again at Dover the fifth race of the season and added two more wins at Charlotte and Texas. Four wins in the first eight races of the season. He had 12 races where he finished in the Top 3 and 14 in the Top 5. Of the series 23 races he posted 17 Top 10's. He easily advanced through each round of the play offs advancing to the season finale' at Homestead. Going into race weekend he looked to be the truck to beat; with every one else being a long shot. Come practice time, his truck didn't

show a lot of speed; and when it was time to qualify the best he could do was sixth. When the green flag dropped Sauter went backwards. He didn't even finish in the Top 10 at the end of stage one; and just barely made the tenth finishing spot at the end of stage two. Every time there was a yellow the crew worked on the truck to make it better; but it was to no avail. When the checkered flag fell Sauter ended up in twelfth place. A disappointing end to a successful season. In a surprise move; Gallagher Motorsports released Sauter in January of 2019, and replaced him with 2018 Truck series Champion Brett Moffitt. With less than 30 days before the season kicks off Sauter is still looking for a ride. He was hired by Duke Thorson, owner of ThorSport Racing before the season

kicked off at Daytona. He got caught up in a pile up at Daytona and rebounded to finish second the next race at Atlanta. Three more Top 10 finishes followed, then he claimed a win at Dover which locked him into the play offs. Things took a down turn after that. He only had two Top 10 finishes over the course of the next ten races. During this time he also missed a race due to being suspended. At Iowa, Sauter was parked by NASCAR for wrecking Austin Hill under caution. As a result of his actions; Sauter was suspended the following weeks race at Gateway Speedway near St. Louis. When the Chase started Sauter kicked off

with finishes of eleventh and sixth the first two races. But in the race to cut to the second round at Las Vegas ThorSports ran into major engine problems. Three of their four trucks (Sauter; Matt Crafton and Grant Enfinger all blew their motor within 40 laps of one another. All three drivers were still in the Chase when the race started; but when this race ended only Crafton had enough points to advance to the next round. Ilmor, the manufacturer of the engines, took responsibility for the NT1 engines that suffered from severe detonations due to the combination of the high engine load condition combined with the extreme weather conditions in Las Vegas. When Ilmor stepped up and took responsibility; ThorSport filed a request to reinstate Sauter and Enfinger to the Chase. NASCAR denied the request. At Talladega, Sauter appeared to have won the race, but was penalized and placed in 14th for

blocking Riley Herbst below the yellow line on the final lap going through the tri-oval. The move slowed Herbst momentum and he was passed by Spencer Boyd before the start / finish line. So Sauter crossed the line first and Boyd second, giving the win to Boyd. It was his first career NASCAR win. Sauter would finish sixth in the final race of the season at Miami and finish sixth in the season points. Sauter was back with ThorSport Racing in 2020, and they looked to improve on the miserable 2019 season. Sauter's season started off fairly well. A seventh at Daytona; followed by a strong second place finish at Las Vegas, and then another seventh at Charlotte. At Atlanta his team was

caught manipulating the tires and was disqualified. After that the wheels kind of seemed to fall off. He did have two top five results in the next three races; but then he only had two top ten finishes the rest of the season. Needless to say, he missed making the Chase; and landed in 13th place in the points. A big surprise for a driver who had only finished one time worse than fourth in the season standings the last seven years. It was the first time he had not won a race during the season since 2015. Sauter was back with ThorSport in 2021, as they reload and try to have a good season. For the second year in a row Sauter went winless and also missed the Chase. 2021 was almost a mirror image of 2020. He had three Top 5 and eight Top

10’s in 2020 and five Top 5 and eighth Top 10’s in 2021. His best finish was fourth. Ten of 22 events he finished outside the Top 15 and ended the season 12th in points. Johnny Sauter continued to run a limited schedule in 2022. He made just six starts in the truck series; but managed to pull off a couple good runs. He had mechanical gremlins at Daytona that left him in 34th place. His next race came at Martinsville where he finished second to Cup regular William Byron. At Gateway he finished fifth for his only other top five in 2022. He placed 12th at IRP and his other two runs he finished outside the top 20. No announcement on his plans for 2023. Some info from Wikipedia

Fantasy NASCAR Racing

JONATHAN JOSEPH "JOHNNY" SAUTER - 05/01/1978