Former Camping World Truck Series champion Johnny Sauter will be back in action for the race weekend at Phoenix Raceway. He will use the season finale to join a new team.
According to the NASCAR Roster Portal, Sauter will drive the No. 02 Chevrolet Silverado for Young’s Motorsports. He will make his sixth start of the 2022 season after making four with ThorSport Racing and one with G2G Racing. He will work with Steven Dawson as his crew chief.
📰: 2016 @NASCAR_Trucks Series Champion @JohnnySauter will pilot the No. 02 Silverado for the season finale at @phoenixraceway
Sauter has made 13 starts at Phoenix Raceway during his Truck Series career. He has posted top-10 finishes in 69.2% of his starts. This run includes a second-place finish in 2016, which helped him seal his championship. He also posted a win during the 2017 season while he was driving for GMS Racing. Now Sauter will make his first start of the year at Phoenix.
This race will mark Sauter’s 317th start in the Camping World Truck Series. This number is important considering that it will tie David Starr for the fourth-most in series history. Rick Crawford is third with 336 starts and Ron Hornaday Jr. is second with 360 starts.
Sauter’s teammate at ThorSport Racing, three-time champion Matt Crafton, is first on the all-time list. He has made 520 starts in the Camping World Truck Series while becoming the only driver to top 400.
Young’s Motorsports Has Featured Several Drivers
GettyJohnny Sauter has a previous win at Phoenix Raceway.
Young’s Motorsports has featured multiple drivers during the 2022 season. Spencer Boyd has been the full-time wheelman in the No. 12 while a variety of drivers have shared the No. 02 and No. 20 entries.
Kaz Grala and Jesse Little have primarily shared the No. 02 Chevrolet Silverado. Little made 13 starts — 10 in the No. 02 — and posted one top-10 finish. Though he announced in mid-September that he would retire from NASCAR after one last start at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Grala has made 12 starts in the No. 02 Chevrolet Silverado. He has posted an average finish of 19.7 while turning in his best performances on road courses. This includes 14th-place finishes at Circuit of the Americas and Sonoma Raceway. Grala also finished seventh at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.
Sauter’s Part-Time Schedule Has Featured Strong Finishes
GettyJohnny Sauter has made four starts for ThorSport Racing in 2022.
Sauter, who ran full-time from 2009 until the end of the 2021 season, changed his schedule for 2022. He took on a part-time role that initially featured starts with G2G Racing.
Sauter kicked off his year at Daytona International Speedway with G2G Racing. He didn’t complete the superspeedway race due to an electrical issue. This became his only start with the Toyota team after originally planning on marking “up to 13.”
The veteran driver’s four other Truck Series starts have been with ThorSport Racing. He returned to the No. 13 Toyota Tundra TRD Pro during the spring race at Martinsville Speedway, and he finished second overall behind William Byron, who captured Spire Motorsports’ first Truck Series win.
Sauter returned to the No. 13 for races at World Wide Technology Raceway, Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park, and Talladega Superspeedway. The trip to WWTR, in particular, resulted in a fifth-place finish. He then finished 12th at IRP and 25th at Talladega Superspeedway.
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Johnny Sauter Joins New Team for Phoenix Weekend