Johnny Sauter took the ASA world by storm by winning both Rookie of the Year and the championship in 2001. Sauter now hopes to make his mark in the NASCAR Busch Series in 2002, driving the No. 2 ACDelco Chevy Monte Carlo.
The 2001 racing season was pretty awesome. It started out with me running my first full season in the American Speed Association (ASA) but turned into running for the championship and setting a record for most wins in a season. Somewhere in the middle I got a call from Richard Childress Racing to drive one of his NASCAR Busch Series cars and the season ended with me signed up to drive full time in 2002.
My goal was just to win Rookie of the Year in the ASA Series. I told everybody we were hoping to win one to three races, but I honestly believed we could win three to five. Once we had won three races, and then five in a row, I felt the sky was the limit. All of a sudden we started leading the points race and then the rest of the season we just kept doing what we had to do to win the championship.
The season actually got off to a dismal start. We were 17th in points and had a DNF. We headed to a track I was already very familiar with, Hawkeye Downs in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. I had run a couple of Late Model shows there and won both of them. We ended up dominating the ASA race, leading 250 of the 300 laps, and won the event.
I had a lot of things going on then and was close to signing a deal with another Busch team. But my brother, Jay, kept telling me not to do it, that Richard was going to call. I thought, "Yeah, right." Will Lind (RCR's Busch program team manager) left a message on my cell phone one day. I called him back and he said Richard wanted to see me. I went up and met with Richard and the rest is history.
That first race in the Busch Series driving the Rockwell Automation Chevrolet at Richmond International Raceway was a whole new experience for me. We tested two weeks before the race, and I got a good feel for the car, the racetrack and the crew guys. We didn't qualify very well, but ran well during the race and got a fifth-place finish out of it. What better way to start my Busch Series career than to have a Top-5 finish.
Getting a taste of Busch Series racing in 2001 leading into a bigger ride for 2002 is similar to what I did in the ASA Series in 2000. I ran eight ASA races that year and had the winter to reflect on what I had learned. I was able to do the same thing this winter so I know that on-track experience will be beneficial when I get into the ACDelco Monte Carlo this season.
Another neat thing will be racing as a teammate with my brother, Jay, who will be sharing the driving duties in the Rockwell Automation car with Jeff Green. So I'll be racing with him as well as my brother, Tim, who will be driving for the team I drove for in ASA last year. My other brother, Jim Jr., is racing Late Models back in Wisconsin, so hopefully we can get him up here, too.
I was too young to follow my dad around much when he was racing, but I was able to spend a lot of time with Jay when he was running ASA. I learned a lot from him and, at the same time, closer to home, Tim was running Late Models, so I spent time learning from him as well.
I think having brothers on the track will help me, especially since we're so tight-knit. If I need advice, they're going to be there and they're going to shoot straight with me because I'm part of their interest. Being the little brother, though, I catch some grief; but I take it all with a grain of salt-in one ear and out the other. Basically, I hear what I want to hear and let the rest go. That's the great thing about being the youngest.