Sauter Drives Damaged Car
To 28th-Place Daytona Finish

DAYTONA BEACH, FLA. – Johnny Sauter drove the No. 70 Haas Automation/Hunt Brothers Pizza Chevrolet Impala to a 28th-place finish in the Coke Zero 400 at Daytona International Speedway Saturday night.

Sauter began the race from the inside of the third row after posting the fifth fastest time of Friday’s qualifying session.

The combination of having to qualify on time along with the cars being impounded immediately following the qualifying session, the team knew they would have to make major adjustments in the pits to get the car to race well.

Sauter was able to run in the Top-5 during the early stages of the race, but as the laps ticked off, as expected the handling on Sauter’s car began to fall off. Sauter reported over the radio that his car was tight in the center of the corners and he was having a hard time keeping it on the bottom of the track.

The caution flag came out on Lap 21 of the 162-lap event and Sauter brought his Chevy down pit road for adjustments. The team lifted the hood to take camber out of the right front and raised the right side trackbar four rounds in an effort to loosen up the handling.

Sauter restarted the race in the 38th position and reported that the car was better but still too tight in the corners. When the field was shown the caution flag again on Lap 45, Sauter said he was only able to hold about 80-percent of the throttle into the corners when typically a driver should be able to hold the throttle wide open. Sauter came back down pit road and the team took another four rounds out of the right side trackbar.

Following these changes Sauter said that he was able to hold the throttle wide open in turns three and four, but was still having handling trouble when going over the bumps that exist in turns one and two of the speedway. Two more rounds where taken out of the right rear trackbar under caution at Lap 72.

The car started off running well for Sauter when the race restarted but became progressively looser on the run. At Lap 93 Sauter reported that he couldn’t run the track’s high line any longer because the car was too loose. He said that he felt he could run really fast if he were able to use the entire race track.

So when the caution came out on Lap 125, the team changed only right side tires in an effort to gain track position and put one round back in the right side trackbar to tighten the car up some.

When the race restarted Sauter was running 24th, and by Lap 130 he reached 17th and reported that his car was “very comfortable.”
However, when cars spun in front of him on Lap 137, Sauter was unable to avoid them and received damage to the front end of his Impala SS. The team worked on the damage on pit row and was able to get Sauter back into the race without loosing a lap. He restarted in the 33rd position with the hope of picking up additional positions as more cars fell out of the field.

Caution was over the track again on Lap 141 and Sauter said the damage had caused his car’s handling to tighten to the point where he was unable to maintain a competitive speed. “I knew it was going to be tight,” Sauter said. “We’ll see what happens. I’m not going to lift, I can tell you that,” he said.

When the race went green again, Sauter was in the 31st position. The yellow flag would fly three more times in the last 20 laps and Sauter’s car received heavy damage in the last of them. The field was frozen as the final caution came out during a “Green/White/Checkered” finish and he was scored as having finished in the 28th position.

“This team has nothing to hang its head about tonight,” Sauter said. “They gave me a really fast race car and worked very hard in the pits to get it changed over from qualifying trim. If was easier to stop a car at 200 mph we might have had a better finish, but when they spun in front of me there was just nowhere to go. The team really showed its potential tonight and I’m proud of them. I hope to race with them again this season,” Sauter said.

The No. 70 team, with driver Jason Leffler, next heads to Chicagoland Speedway for Sunday’s LifeLock.com 400.