MARTINSVILLE, Va.: In his first race for ThorSport Racing since the 2021 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series season finale last fall at Phoenix (Ariz.) Raceway, Johnny Sauter returned to the Sandusky, Ohio-race team with a monstrous performance in Thursday night’s Blue-Emu Maximum Pain Relief 200 at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway.
Sauter’s 115th career top-five finish in the Truck Series didn’t come as easy as some of his previous races at the historic 0.526-mile short track located outside of Ridgeway, Va.
With Mother Nature soaking the historic race track and wiping out the short 20-minute practice and then qualifying, Sauter would have to rely on his past champion’s provisional from the 2016 season to make his 313 career Truck Series start.
It didn’t take long for Sauter’s Protect The Harvest Toyota Tundra Pro to make headway through the opening laps of Stage 1.
Of course, Sauter used his short track racing mentality which included a few bumps and bruises along the way to earn positions on the track, but his aggressiveness was rewarded in his 27th Truck Series race at the famed paperclip.
After picking up 16 positions in a caution-filled Stage 1, Sauter would propel his Carl “Junior” Joiner-led team into the top-10 during Stage 2 but utilize a pit strategy that would allow him to retain his presence at the front of the field for the final run to the finish.
The strategy worked and Sauter found himself on the back bumper of race leader William Byron for most of Stage 3 and despite hard charges from ThorSport Racing teammates Ben Rhodes, Christian Eckes and two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Kyle Busch, Sauter despite fighting an ill-handling truck would earn his first top-five finish since finishing fourth at Las Vegas (Nev.) Motor Speedway last September.
“Just so proud everybody at ThorSport on this Protect the Harvest Toyota Tundra,” said Sauter after the race. “That’s the first in-house chassis and in-house body for ThorSport. The two-thirds part of the corner, I just couldn’t quite cut the corner like I needed to and actually asked (Carl) Joiner (crew chief) to tighten it up there on the first run and I wish I wouldn’t have done that because generally if you fire off a little bit free here as the night goes on and get better.
“The group of guys that are working on this truck, I know what they’re capable of and seconds just not good enough.”
While not running for his second Truck Series championship in 2022, the goal is to win or bust for the No. 13 ThorSport Racing Truck Series team and Sauter came up one position short of his 25th career Truck Series victory, he considered the night a success.
“To come here and run second, it’s not exactly what we’re looking for, but just need a little bit more turn, but all in all solid night.
To come here and get no practice and you obviously start shotgun on the field and end up second, that’s a solid day.
A full-time competitor in the Truck Series since the 2009 season, Sauter is running a limited schedule this season. He started off the year at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway with G2G Racing before returning home to ThorSport at Martinsville.
While Sauter’s actual schedule remains fluid for ThorSport Racing, the Necedah, Wisc. native is hopeful to return at Texas Motor Speedway next month. In all, up to eight races are under consideration for the 44-year-old veteran.
Overall, the fifth race of the season was solid for the oldest running organization in the Truck Series.
Bringing five trucks and teams to the track, ThorSport landed two top-fives with Sauter and Ben Rhodes. Three top-10s with Sauter, Rhodes and Matt Crafton and five top-12 finishes with Ty Majeski and Christian Eckes bringing up the rears in 11th and 12th respectively.
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
