The 2016 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series champion Johnny Sauter was looking to back up his reign in 2017 and go for two consecutive championships. It would have been the first time since Matt Crafton did it in 2013 and 2014.
The season began with Sauter being involved in the last lap melee at Daytona which saw him place 16th in the season opener. He had a string of second place finishes at Martinsville, Kansas and Charlotte. Then, the No. 21 GMS Racing Chevy driver collected his first win of the season at Dover International Speedway. It was his 14th career win and his first since Martinsville of last year. With this win, Sauter claimed a playoff spot early in the 2017 season.
“I can’t say enough about the way this season has started and the work that Joe (Shear, Jr., crew chief), the 21 team and everyone at GMS have put in,” Sauter said. “The last four races I’ve sat here and talked about how good things have been and how I felt a win was coming, but when it actually happens there is a bit of weight taken off our shoulders. I’m happy to finally get a win here, I’ve done pretty good here over the years, but this is definitely a track I’ve always wanted to win at. It’s not an easy place to do that so it feels like a big accomplishment.”
Sauter continued to have solid finishes throughout the season until Eldora, where he started 14th and finished 23rd due to a spin and radiator problems. It was a tough outing for the 39-year-old.
“I’m not a dirt racer in any sense of the word, so the best I could hope for was to survive and get a decent finish, but unfortunately it just wasn’t meant to be one of those races for us,” he said. “The Allegiant team did an amazing job repairing the truck after the wreck in practice and I thought, with the spin early on in the race, that we’d still be okay. The guys did a great job switching out the radiator as fast as they did, just wish I could have had a shot at a good finish there at the end. It was probably the most comfortable I’ve ever felt going into Eldora, and Joe (Shear, Jr., crew chief) and the team showed we’re making progress everywhere, so I’ve got nothing to hang my head about.”
It was Sauter’s worst finish of the season in 2017. He and the GMS Racing team put that disappointing finish behind them by winning at Chicago, the final race of the season before the Playoffs began. Throughout the Round of 8 and 6, he had finishes of ninth at Loudon and 10th at Chicago. His only finish outside the top 10 occurred at Talladega where he placed 12th.
After the 12th place finish at Talladega, Sauter placed third at Martinsville and won back to back at Fort Worth and Phoenix. With those wins in the Round of 6, he clinched a spot in the Championship 4 for the second time in his career. The win at Phoenix did not come easy, however, for Sauter.
“We struggled during qualifying but once they dropped the green flag we had pretty good speed in our ISM Connect Chevy,” he said. “Track position is so important here and we were just in the right place at the right time at the end of the race. A lot of red flags there at the end but it was good for me to just be able to sit there and gather my thoughts and think through how I wanted to handle those last restarts and those last two were perfect as far as I’m concerned. This is a team effort. We’ve been in position to win at least seven races this year and this is our fourth so we’re getting hot at the right time.”
On the day of the championship race at Homestead, Sauter and GMS Racing announced that he would return next year to the No. 21 Chevy.
“I can’t thank the Gallagher family and Mike Beam enough for the opportunity they’ve given me the last two years,” Sauter said. “To be able to compete at this level, where you know you could win any given weekend, is incredible and I’m excited to be able to continue with the No. 21 team next year.”
With the announcement behind him, it was time for him and the GMS Racing team to focus on what they set out to do at the beginning of the year, winning the championship. But qualifying did not go as well to plan for Sauter, as he would place 11th, third out of the four playoff drivers. With not a so great qualifying position, he worked his way up just a tad and finished eighth in Stage 1. In Stage 2, Sauter had a much better finishing position of fifth. Throughout the race, however, he ran as low as 14th and as high as third. He never could challenge that much for the lead, and when the race was over, Sauer finished third, one spot short of collecting his second consecutive championship.
“We started the race way too free, the loosest I’ve been in I don’t know how long,” Sauter said. “We made some good adjustments on the first stop, but it just eventually went away on me and was still way too free. I could never commit to the top, I’d have to drive in the corner shallow. I thought we had a little bit for the 4 toward the end but I just couldn’t touch the throttle on corner exit. We gave it everything we had, but I guess that’s what you get when it comes down to one race like this. I’m proud of everyone’s effort at GMS Racing, we did a good job, we’ve just got a lot of work to do.”
2017 marked his 14th year competing in the Truck Series for the 2016 champion. Stat wise, it was a great one for Sauter, despite falling one position short of the championship. He had four wins (Dover, Chicago, Fort Worth and Phoenix), 13 top fives and 19 top 10 finishes, including an average start of 5.2 and an average finish of 6.3 along with 455 laps led.
It will be interesting to see what the 2018 season will bring for Johnny Sauter as he will be competing in his 15th season and searching for his second championship.
For more information on Johnny Sauter, follow him Twitter @JohnnySauter and for team information @GMSRacingLLC.
