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acegear
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Joined: 22 Oct 2004
Posts: 973
Location: Enumclaw, WA
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 Posted: Fri Nov 05, 2004 12:20 am Post subject: Busch Driver: Johnny Sauter |
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When Johnny Sauter started his racing career, racing for a living was about the last thing on his mind.
"I just went to the junkyard, got a car, gutted it, put a roll-cage in it and went racing," tells Johnny, who is a native of Necedah, Wisconsin. "I built the car and borrowed a truck and trailer. I had a lot of people help me with sponsors and volunteer help. There were a lot of good people back home that just wanted to help somebody go racing.
"The next year I sold that car, sold my street car and borrowed money to buy a Late Model. I didn't realize I didn't have enough money to race it," Johnny added with a smile. "I was able to scrape up enough money to do a little bit of racing and that's because a lot of people helped me and I won't ever forget that. I ran pretty good and got some opportunities to run some other cars and the rest is history."
His father Jim, a legendary racer in the midwest, was instrumental in creating Johnny's work ethic.
"My Dad was a firm believer in if you want something bad enough you'll find a way to work hard to get it," says Johnny, who only began racing in 1996 at Wisconsin Dells Speedway. "He was never in a position to help us financially. He gave us plenty of knowledge, but he couldn't pay for things for us. That's the way my brothers raced all their lives and that's the way I started too."
Johnny believes he is the person and the racer he is because of that mentality.
"It has a lot to do with the way you're raised," explains Johnny, who is one of eleven children. "We were just never handed anything. That goes a lot farther than somebody's dad going out and buying his son a Late Model. I don't care if that's done; I just wasn't raised that way. And I think I'm better off for it."
Sauter won 10 ASA races in 2001 on the way to the series championship.
Sauter made an auspicious debut for Richard Childress Racing at Richmond International Raceway with a fifth-place finish in one of five starts he made in the No. 21 Rockwell Automation Chevrolet in 2001.
"To have finished fifth in my first Busch race is still pretty overwhelming to me," adds Johnny. "There are a lot of other guys who had been running the entire season who didn't have a top-five finish yet. I mean, someone told me that only eight people had a top-10 finish in their first ever Busch Series start. That's pretty awesome."
In 2003, Sauter and Kevin Harvick helped RCR win the Busch Series owners' title. The season led to Sauter being named as the driver of the No. 30 Chevrolet for the 2004 Nextel Cup campaign.
"Johnny Sauter has been a big part of RCR's success the last few seasons," said Childress. "The move to the Nextel Cup is the next step in his promising career, so I wanted to make sure that step was taken with us."
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