DOVER, Del. – Less than 24 hours after winning his second NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (NCWTS) of the season, Johnny Sauter sawed the No. 23 Allegiant Chevrolet to a sixth-place finish in the NASCAR Xfinity Series’ OneMain Financial 200.
Sauter made his first Xfinity Series start since driving for Shigeaki Hattori in 2014 at Daytona International Speedway in July. The recently turned 40-year-old veteran scored his first top-10 finish since scoring at 10th at Homestead-Miami (Fla.) Speedway in 2006 driving for Gene Haas.
“It was good. I felt like I had decent pace yesterday,” said Sauter. “I didn’t have fire off speed. Today, I learned that I was firing off too hard, trying to make time and not letting the car do the work. As I got disciplined as the race went on, Chad (Norris) made good adjustments to free it up.”
While not a serious threat to lead the 10th Xfinity race of the season, Sauter hovered inside the top-10 for the entire race – but the Necedah, Wisc. native says if his GMS Racing team could have made an adjustment before the green flag – the outcome may have been different.
“I wish we could start the race with the track bar up another half inch or so,” added Sauter. “I think we’d have something good. Just live and learn, but it was a lot of fun.”
Competing in his first Xfinity Series race in four years, Sauter says he enjoyed the opportunity to compete on Saturday. The 2016 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series champion substituted for Spencer Gallagher who was suspended by NASCAR earlier this week for violating the sanctioning body’s substance abuse policy.
“It was fun. We found ourselves in some action,” sounded Sauter. “For the most part, it was fun racing with some of the guys I raced in Trucks within the last couple of years. It was familiar territory.”
“I learned that you can drive the heck out of a Truck. You can drive all the way to the center, flip the throttle and get right back to it. With these things, you have to lift early and carry part throttle through the middle of the corner.
“I had a lot of fun filling in and getting the call a day or two ago. I can’t thank Allegiant, Chevrolet and everyone that helps us out on this deal. If we could start the race where we ended and work on it from there, I think we could have had a heck of a day.”
At least that is what I found that was working best for me. Just being smart with it. For the lack of a better way to put it, you have to drive these things easy to be disciplined to lift early and let the car roll through the center.”
Sauter had company in his pit box on Saturday. GMS Racing protégé Justin Haley who finished third in Friday afternoon’s JEGS 200 spent the Xfinity soaking up the information set by Sauter – hoping to improve his craft as a race car driver.
“It’s cool. JJ is committed and wants to be learning everything he can so that was fun,” Sauter added.
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
