Johnny Sauter No. 13 CMT/"Roll The Gold" Chevrolet Preview: Nashville 200 at Nashville Superspeedway

 
Sandusky, Oh. (August 2, 2010) – Johnny Sauter entered Pocono on a hot streak, picking up a top-five finish in each of the last three NASCAR Camping World Truck Series races. However, the series' first visit to Pocono was a speed bump for Sauter and the ThorSport Racing crew as the left the Pennsylvania mountains a disappointing 14th. However, Sauter heads to Nashville with his favorite truck loaded and ready to roll and he is anxious to start a new streak of impressive finishes as the season starts to wind towards its close at Homestead in November.

What did the No. 13 team learn in April that will help this weekend? "We tried some things in April that we thought would really help take us from a top six truck to a winning truck and it didn't work out the way we expected. It's not so much that we learned what we should do it's that we learned what not to do. With the way the coil-binding setups are these days the difference between being perfect and being two-tenths off is razor thin."

What do you expect the track conditions to be? "Concrete is a lot more consistent than asphalt is so the track shouldn't be much different than it was in April. We are running there by ourselves instead of with the Nationwide Series so there will be a lot less rubber on the track. That might mean it will take longer for the groove to widen out. Other than that the track should be pretty much the same. The biggest difference will be the temperature. It's supposed to be really hot again this weekend so we'll make sure we're all hydrated and do our best to stay cool both in the truck and on pit road."

Johnny wins at WIR: On Tuesday, Johnny won the ASA Midwest Series Dixieland 150 at Wisconsin International Raceway. Sauter was the fast qualifier and had to start 14th after the inversion and spent the first half of the race working his way through traffic. By lap 75 he was second and pressuring for the lead. Two laps later, he cleared Nick Murgic for the top spot and was never headed. "My goal was to finish, because I knew if we got to the end we'd be somewhere near the front. We had a great time up there racing and hopefully we get a chance to do some more of it before the season is over."

Ronald McDonald House Visit on Friday August 6: Johnny will visit the Nashville Ronald McDonald House this coming Friday, August 6, from 4 to 6 P.M. to visit with the families who are residing there while their children are in local hospitals receiving medical treatment. "My wife Cortney and I became parents this year and every day that goes by we realize how fortunate we are to have a healthy baby boy. We can't imagine what these families are going through with a child who has a serious medical condition. It really makes you think. Coming and spending some time with them is the least we can do. There's nothing like talking racing to help take their minds off some of their worries, even if it's just for a little while."

"Roll The Gold" Joins ThorSport Farm: ThorSport Farm has recently added two-time World Grand Champion "Roll The Gold" to its already-impressive stable of Tennessee Walking Horses. Trained at Chad Williams Stables in Shelbyville, Tenn., "Roll The Gold" is slated to compete with Allison Thorson at The Celebration, August 25th through September 4 at the historic Tennessee Walking Horse National Celebration Grounds in Shelbyville, Tenn. Celebration lasts for eleven days ending on the Saturday night before Labor Day, attracting nearly a quarter of a million fans from more than 40 states. "Roll The Gold" will also appear at the Ronald McDonald House in Nashville on August 6.

Johnny's Nashville Truck: Johnny will drive ThorSport Racing Chassis No. 23 this weekend at Nashville. He drove this truck to victory last season at Las Vegas and earlier this season at Kansas. He's also driven it at Atlanta, Charlotte, Texas, and Michigan this season.

Johnny at Nashville: Johnny Sauter has two previous NASCAR Camping World Truck Series starts at Nashville Superspeedway. He finished sixth in this event last season and finished eleventh there in April. He has completed 303 of a possible 304 competition laps (99.9%). His average start is 9.0 and his average finish is 8.5. In twelve career NASCAR Nationwide Series events at Nashville Superspeedway, Sauter has two top-five and three top-ten finishes, with his career best second coming in April 2003. He also started from the pole in the July 2003 event. His average start is 15.5 and his average finish is 15.9. He has completed 2,257 of a possible 2,700 competition laps (93.6%). He has led 48 laps in three races.

Nashville On-track:
Saturday August 7 11:00 A.M. - 12:15 P.M. Eastern NCWTS Practice
12:45 -2:00 P.M. Eastern NCWTS Final Practice
5:05 P.M. Eastern NCWTS Qualifying
9:00 P.M. Eastern Nashville 200
(150 laps/200 miles; Live, SPEED/MRN Radio/Sirius NASCAR Radio Channel 128-XM104)

 

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