Johnny Sauter isn’t just coming to Martinsville Speedway this weekend off of his first career NASCAR Camping World Truck Series victory, but he’s also arriving with a new contract with ThorSport Racing to return in 2010. Sauter, who has 76 starts in what is now the Sprint Cup Series and 195 in what is now the Nationwide Series, won his first Truck race in 20 career starts four weeks ago at Las Vegas. Sauter said team owner Duke Thorson already had the paperwork done to sign him for another year prior to the Vegas race, but winning obviously didn’t hurt. Sauter has five consecutive top-five finishes – three fifths, a second and a first – in his last five races. What’s made the difference? Well at least part is new crew chief Joe Shear, whom Sauter has worked with at various times in his career. “He’s obviously a huge part of the equation,” Sauter said. “One of the biggest things he has done coming in is lean on our teammate [Matt Crafton] as far as setups. I have all the confidence in the world in him, and he believes in me, and it just works.”(SceneDaily.com)(10-23-2009)
