Photo Credit: Noel Lanier
Anytime a driver joins a new organization, there’s always a bit of worry in wondering whether they will continue to have success, especially if they’re leaving an organization that had produced success for them in the past.
For Johnny Sauter, though, he doesn’t have to worry about that. He started off his partnership with GMS Racing in the biggest way possible by scoring the victory at Daytona International Speedway.
“This is an opportunity that I don’t think I could put into words what this opportunity really means for me, and to get Chevrolet their first win in the Truck Series in 17 tries down here, that’s extra special for me, growing up in a GM family,” he said. “Couldn’t be more proud of everybody.”
Starting from the front row, Sauter ran up front all night long, till he got he lost it all virtue strategy and a caution during the first round of pit stops. Sauter would quickly make his way back to the front, though, even stating post-race that he was surprised in how quickly he was able to make ground on the outside.
On the final restart with a couple laps to go, Sauter started on the outside, and would get just enough of a push from Christopher Bell to get out front, before Bell spun, and flipped over 13 times.
“That last restart was very hairy to say the least. I thought I was in big trouble there,” he said. “We lost momentum initially when we got into Turn 1, and I thought, well, we’re going to end up finishing fifth or sixth here, and next thing I know the 4 truck came barreling back and pushing and pushing and hitting and banging and sideways, and the thing picked up like 500 rpms instantly, and here we came. Those guys didn’t even have a chance to block, we had so much momentum and so much speed coming at them.”
Even before reaching victory lane and gave himself extra assurance, the confidence showed in Sauter. He said that came from seeing first hand in the GMS Racing shop the resources that they have, as well as the in-house chassis shop and in-house body shop.
“That’s kind of a rare commodity in the Truck Series,” he commented. “You just don’t see that. Just all the people at the shop, everybody is positive and pumped up. You know, they welcomed me with open arms, and when you see that, it makes you feel really good about the decision to do this.
I honestly can’t say that I’m surprised that we’re here. I mean, I felt like after practice yesterday that we had as good a truck as anybody. I knew we had raw speed. It’s one thing — and we proved it tonight. I’ve always had trucks that maybe didn’t qualify that great down here, but we were able to win once before. But when a truck runs fast by itself, it really runs fast in the draft, too, so I did learn that tonight.”
With the Chase format implemented for the series, Sauter is locked in as one of the drivers that will compete for the championship later on this season. Despite that, though, don’t expect him to back off at all as he says he’s going to drive hard and try to fulfill the goal of winning every week.
“I want to win 10 races this year,” he stated. “You know what I’m saying? People ask me what my goals are all the time going into a season. Well, there’s 23 races, I want to win 23 times. I don’t know if it’s realistic or not, but that’s how I approach it. So yeah, continue to race hard and learn as much as we can, so when it’s go time towards the end of the year, we can do it.”
