Johnny Sauter with co-founders Ari Deshe and Jon Diamond

On Wednesday, June 29th, SafeAuto Insurance associates were lucky enough to enjoy the beautiful weather for Summer Fun Day at the company headquarters in Columbus, Ohio. It is very important not to forget about the internal workings of a company, and SafeAuto does a great job taking care of its associates. The large windows at the SafeAuto building make it easy to daydream of summertime activities, so a day out in the sun was quite a pleasure.

First, employees were treated to a speech by motivational speaker Joe Malarkey. In his program “The Upside of Down”, he told of the differences between success and failure and noted that one should not assume that the two are opposites. Like his example Thomas Edison figured out, failure is actually just a part of success.

Joe Malarkey brought laughter to the SafeAuto headquarters.

But Malarkey isn’t the only one who taught associates a little something about winning today; SafeAuto Racing Team driver Johnny Sauter stopped by for a meet and greet. Sauter joined SA associates for a barbeque luncheon and signed autographs afterward. One lucky raffle winner received two tickets to Johnny’s next race in Kentucky on July 7th where he will fight to keep his first-place rank in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. President Jon Diamond may want to take Sauter’s place in driver’s seat though; he joined in the fun and even jumped behind the wheel of the actual No. 13 racing truck.

Johnny Sauter’s trip to Columbus today provided a mixture of connecting with both fans and sponsors. “Being here showed how much the employees support me and the SafeAuto Racing Team. They kept congratulating me on my wins and wishing me a good season, and that means a lot,” Sauter said, “Hopefully we’re making everybody proud.”

We couldn’t be more proud, Johnny. Good luck on Thursday!

Michael Mcmannis snaps a picture of SA Racing Driver Johnny Sauter from his great seats!

NASCAR fans are among the most loyal in sports. They drive from all over the country and even set up tents and park their RV’s outside of the track nights before the race in preparation of watching their favorite drivers battle on race day. They turn a one-day event into a week-long celebration.  

Michael Mcmannis is a die-hard NASCAR fan from Elkhart, Indiana. He has consistently followed auto racing for the past fifteen years. The avid social media user heard about SafeAuto Racing’s Facebook page through a friend and instantly became hooked with their compelling content and giveaways. When Michael saw that SafeAuto was giving away two free tickets to the race at Kansas Speedway, he entered despite the long commute and scorching summer heat. When SafeAuto informed Michael that he had won, he instantly called his 12-year-old nephew and planned a last minute trip that will be remembered for a lifetime.

The drive from Elkhart, Indiana to Kansas City, Kansas is over 600 miles each way. That didn’t stop McMannis and his nephew from visiting Kansas Speedway for the first time. “My wife tells me that I need Twitter anonymous so I’d say I’m pretty into social media,” exclaimed Michael. “I think it is really cool that SafeAuto is doing contests like this to connect with their fans.” 

Mcmannis on the track at Kansas Speedway!

Michael’s Nephew signing the finish line!

Michael and his nephew were able to watch Johnny Sauter cruise to a second place finish to recapture his points lead in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. “Johnny Sauter is one of my favorite drivers because he never backs down from a challenge and never quits. He is a go-getter and those are the type of people I like,” said Mcmannis. 
 
In addition to watching the race from spectacular seats, Michael and his nephew were able to go onto the track to sign the finish line and even meet NASCAR legend Richard Petty. “Following SafeAuto Racing on Facebook ended up being a great decision,” Michael said. “I’ve been bragging to all of my friends about this experience.”

Look how close they got to Richard Petty!

Be sure to visit SafeAuto Insurance on Facebook and Twitter for your chance to win great prizes.  

SafeAuto Insurance on Facebook – http://www.facebook.com/safeautoinsurancecompany
SafeAuto Racing on Facebook – http://www.facebook.com/safeautoracing
SafeAuto on Twitter –
http://www.twitter.com/safeauto 
SafeAuto Racing Website
http://www.safeauto.com/racing

Johnny Sauter Currently Sits in 2nd Place in the NCWTS Point Standings.

Johnny Sauter, driver of the No. 13 Safe Auto/Curb Records/Carrier.com Chevrolet Silverado, makes his third NASCAR Camping World Truck Series start in as many years for ThorSport Racing at Kansas Speedway on Saturday, June 4th.  Sitting second in overall driver points after a triumphant battle to sixth place in Charlotte in May, Sauter is ready to return to the track where he won with flair in 2010.  After a skirmish with Ron Hornaday that resulted in one of the fan-voted "best finishes of 2010" on SPEED Channel, Sauter went on to win the O'Reilly Auto Parts 250. 

Last year's win at Kansas gave Sauter the momentum to catapult into a winning stretch. He vaulted into the top 10 in points, posted 12 top-fives in the next 20 races, including five second-place and four third-place finishes; and ended the year third in overall driver points at banquet time.

"For sure, that put us back on the map," SafeAuto Racing Driver Sauter said. "There are just so many things we look back on last season, and said, 'OK, we finished second here, what do we need to do differently?' I think we have addressed a lot of those issues, and here we are kind of picking up where we left off last year.  Let's face it, confidence is everything. When you can pull into a racetrack and have a solid weekend and win a race, that just makes you feel like you can go to the next one and you can win. You know the old saying: 'Winning fixes everything' and it's contagious."

Sauter has one win under his belt this season, at Martinsville, making him the only non-Sprint Cup driver to win in either the Nationwide or truck series until Ricky Stenhouse Jr. won a Nationwide event on May 22 at Iowa.

"That speaks volumes about our program," Sauter said. "The Cup guys coming into the series doesn't bother me. It brings a lot more attention to the truck series. Let's face it: Those guys come down and they are almost expected to win. But we went to Texas and Homestead and a lot of those places, and we had trucks capable of outrunning Kyle (Busch) and Kevin (Harvick). So I feel like we can beat them, and if we beat those guys, obviously we have beat the best, and that's a huge accomplishment for ThorSport Racing."

The NCWTS will celebrate its 400^th race in Kansas, and ThorSport Racing's own David Pepper, Team Manager, participated in 329 of those races consecutively.  Pepper also happens to be Sauter's spotter on race day.  "Pep and I have a very unique relationship, and most folks in racing know all about it.  I'm glad he can keep me out of trouble, and it's neat to see the history of this sport in the making as we reach the 400 mark.  I'm proud to be a part of it."