“Truck 45,” currently decorated in Carolina Nut’s blue-and-black sea salt and pepper roasted peanuts’ livery, has become Sauter’s workhorse and it’ll be the primary for Las Vegas after a side-by-side surface-plate comparison between it and the team’s next-best Tundra.
“We ran it at Bristol and Iowa, where we came from the back and finished in the top five at both places, and at Chicagoland, which could’ve been better than 10th if circumstances had worked out better late in the race,” Sauter said. “So I know it’s a good truck and I feel good about it.
“It’s a comfortable truck and every time we’ve run it this season it’s run in the top five even if it didn’t finish there. So the truck has speed and we just have to make sure we put the right setup in it so we can go fast. There’s nothing wrong with that truck.”
Sauter said there’s one key element with the truck that was built on chassis No. 45 at ThorSport Racing’s shop in Sandusky.
“It has a good body on it, first and foremost,” Sauter said. “I’ve been racing long enough to know that if you’re going someplace and you’re at an aerodynamic disadvantage you can make all the mechanical changes you want and you can’t overcome that aero disadvantage.
“So ol’ 45 has got a good body on what seems to be a good chassis. It responds well to changes and it has a good balance — just everything about it seems right.”
And thus Sauter’s hoping to win his second Coors Light Pole Award of the season. He’s only raced the current version of LVMS, but that’s plenty satisfying to him, especially given his record there. He also has an ace up his sleeve in the person of former three-time series champion crew chief Dennis Connor, who has three poles and two race wins at Las Vegas.
“It’s got a lot of banking and it’s fast and it’s got some bumps in it that give it a little character,” Sauter said. “It’s gotten better in the last couple years as far as being able to race side-by-side there, for sure. So it’s the kind of place that you wake up with a smile on your face because it’s a cool place to race.
“And let’s face it, who doesn’t like going to Vegas in general? Being there to race is kind of the icing on the cake. We’re staying at the Monte Carlo, which is the best on the (Las Vegas) Boulevard and we’re doing autographs for the fans Friday night at The Pub inside the hotel (complex).
“Our buddies from Mud Jug are back on the truck for a special one-race deal and it’ll be good to see them again.”
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