Ask Johnny Sauter what his goals are in 2011 and you’ll get a very simple answer. “To Win!”
If Sauter and his newly-sponsored No. 13 Safe Auto/Curb Records Chevrolet can reach victory lane as often as Sauter thinks they are capable of, being in position to fight for the championship in the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway is all but assured.
“I know what this team is capable of, and I really think we should win four or five races in 2011,” Sauter said. “If we do that, then we’re going to go to Homestead with a chance to win the championship. There’s no doubt in my mind that we had the truck to win at least that many races last season. We had some problems on pit road, and we’ve addressed that over the off-season. We’ve brought in some new guys and we’ve worked hard practicing every day. We’ve also built some new trucks and we’ve updated the ones we had that ran so well the past two years.”
Sauter reached victory lane once in each of his first two full-time seasons driving for ThorSport Racing in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, winning at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in 2009 and following it up at Kansas Speedway in 2010. While acknowledging that winning even once in the NCWTS is extremely difficult, Sauter makes no bones about his belief he and his team should win multiple times in 2011.
“There’s no question about it, winning once at this level is an extremely difficult thing to do,” Sauter said. “So on one hand we’re really proud to accomplish winning in each of the last two seasons. But once you win, you know you can do it and you want more. It’s a hunger that feeds off of itself.”
“SafeAuto Insurance Company is pleased to continue its association with the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series”, company president Jon Diamond said. “We are especially happy to have someone the caliber of Johnny Sauter at the wheel of our truck. Johnny Sauter is bad fast, just like our www.safeauto.com web site quoting system.” Diamond joked.
“Johnny Sauter is a proven winner and certainly has to be considered a favorite to win the series championship and we are proud to be the naming partner of his racing team.”
Not that he needs it, but Sauter has some added motivation to win with new co-primary sponsor Safe Auto on board.
“It’s exciting to have Safe Auto with us this season,” Sauter said. “We’ve spent a lot of time with them the past couple of months, and they’ve asked if having them on the truck will put any more pressure on us to perform. I told them that it’s impossible to put any more pressure on us that Joe Shear and I do right now. We obviously can’t promise them we’re going to win the championship or anything like that, but I did promise them that there isn’t a team out there that wants it any more or is going to work any harder to get it that ThorSport Racing.”
SafeAuto Insurance Company is an industry leader in providing drivers state minimum auto insurance coverage in 15 states.
For more information, visit our new racing site at www.safeauto.com/racing
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