|
Sauter Captures SBC 250 At The Milwaukee Mile
MILWAUKEE (June 25, 2005) — Not even rain could dampen Johnny Sauter’s
parade Saturday night at The Milwaukee Mile as he dominated the SBC 250 NASCAR
Busch Series race before a crowd of 40,726 avid Wisconsin race fans.
Sauter decimated the field, leading three times for a total of 162 laps in the
rain-shortened 200 mile event. The Necedah native became the first
Wisconsin driver in 15 tries to win the Busch Series at America’s Legendary
Oval.
“It’s overwhelming,” Sauter beamed after the popular win. “This is the
biggest win of my career and to do it in front of the hometown crowd here in
Milwaukee is unbelievable.”
Sauter had the dominating car all day, first shattering the track record in
qualifying to earn the pole position and then quickly streaking out to lead
the opening 22 laps before pitting for tires during the first caution
flag. It was a move that could have cost him dearly as few of the other
leaders followed him to pit road, electing instead to save their allotted
tires for later in the race. Sauter exited the pits in sixteenth place
and immediately began to slice his way through the field, regaining the lead
on lap 58.
“Taking tires so early was a call I questioned at first from the cockpit but
I didn’t say anything,” Sauter explained afterwards. “It was up to the
crew and they made the right call so I never really worried about it.”
Sauter’s crew chief Joe Shear, Jr. of Clinton is one of four Wisconsin
natives on the team, which includes car chief Chuck Meyers (Chilton) and team
mechanic Matt Groeschel (Lodi).
On lap 113, Sauter trailed Tony Raines into turn four. Sauter made
contact with Raines’ rear bumper, causing Raines’ Chevy to spin coming off
the corner, producing a caution flag.
“He (Raines) went high and I thought he was going to give me the preferred
groove,” Sauter stated. “I didn’t know he was going to pit and I hit
him, but I didn’t mean to do it and I apologize.”
NASCAR took a harder stance on the incident and forced Sauter to start at the
tail of the field for the restart as a penalty for what the officials deemed
as rough driving. This meant Sauter had to start behind all other cars
on the track for the race restart.
Sauter’s deficit was no match to overcome.
“My car was so good tonight, I didn’t even break a sweat,” Sauter
continued. “We’ve killed a few cars the past weeks and we had a team
meeting last week where we figured things out. This win is a big morale
booster for the team and as they say ‘winning fixes everything’.”
Dale Earnhardt, Inc. teammates in the NASCAR Busch Series Martin Truex Jr. and
Paul Menard also had strong cars and may have had something for Sauter in the
late stages, especially Truex whose team saved a set of new tires to use later
in the race. Truex never got a chance to put that strategy into place as
rain began to fall on the speedway, stopping the event under the red flag on
lap 200. After a valiant track-drying effort, the skies really opened up which
forced the early conclusion of the race with Truex having to settle for a
second place finish.
“My car was strong all night and looking back now, I wish we would have put
tires on during that last caution,” Truex conceded afterwards. “I still
think we had a good shot as we had a set of tires in the pits and in this
business it’s hard to know when to hold ‘em and when to use ‘em. We
decided to hold a set (of tires) to use for later on in the race but
fortunately our car was good enough on old tires to get a decent finish which
is about all I could ask for on a night like this.”
Menard, an Eau Claire, Wis. native, and his crew Menasha, Wis.-raised chief
Dan Stillman had used a valuable single day team test at The Milwaukee Mile
within the last two weeks to dial in their NASCAR Busch Series racecar.
Menard improved on his 5th place finish one race ago in Kentucky to register a
career-best 3rd place performance at the historic speedway.
“There was definitely motivation coming here (in Milwaukee) to race, “
stated the Wisconsin native. “The car was really good and we came here and
tested where we learned some things. It’s really cool to come to Milwaukee
and run good.”
Open wheel maestro J.J. Yeley also produced a respectably strong run which
netted him a solid fourth place finish. Last year’s pole position
winner David Stremme of nearby South Bend, Ind. rounded out the top five.
Rookie Denny Hamlin finished in sixth place and Randy LaJoie wrapped up his
strongest race of the season by leading once for two laps and finishing in
seventh. Kenny Wallace and Tony Raines ended the night in eighth and ninth
place respectively. Clint Bowyer turned laps just as fast as Sauter all night
and spent much of the race in second place before a loose wheel forced him to
pit just prior to the rainfall, dropping him to a tenth place finish.
The rain-shortened SBC 250 was completed in just over two hours with a total
of five caution flags, the most serious occurring on lap 147 when Kertus Davis
made contact with the third turn wall. The average speed of the race was
97.403 mph and the margin of victory was under caution as the steady rainfall
brought on the conclusion of the race.
The next major spectator event at The Milwaukee Mile is the “ABC Supply /
A.J. Foyt 225” IRL IndyCar Series race, featuring Indy 500 winner Dan
Wheldon and Beloit, Wis.-born driver Danica Patrick. The rising stars of
the USAC Silver Crown and National Midget divisions competing July
22-24. For tickets and information call (414) 453-8277 or visit www.milwaukeemile.com.
|
|
|
