Sauter fired by Nationwide team Phoenix Racing
Quote selected text Published March 17th, 2008 in NASCAR News
Johnny Sauter was released today by Phoenix Racing just five races into the 2008 Nationwide Series season. Sauter was 17th in the standings, and the team is already on its third crew chief.
“I got a call this morning from [general manager] Steve Barkdoll and he just said that pretty much my driving services weren’t needed anymore,” Sauter said in a phone interview Monday afternoon. “I understand that race teams have to do from time to time … what they have to do to try to improve their program. … It’s a tough deal, I’m sure, and it’s a tough call to make. As far as me losing my job, it stinks. What are you going to do?”
Phoenix Racing officials opted not to comment on the driver change Monday.
- Marlin replaces Sauter at Phoenix Racing
- Sauter to drive for Phoenix In Nationwide Series in 2008
- Phoenix Racing announces Nationwide and Sprint Cup plans for 2008
- Sauter in the No 70 for Darlington
- 4 more Nationwide teams to appeal Daytona penalties
I hope they dont mean 3rd crew chief this year. If so I would rather get fired than work for such a disfunctional team.
Eric wrote:
That’s what I was thinking lol
Anybody remember when 17th in points wasn’t all that bad of a thing….?
He is 17th, and the majority of teams ahead of him are either full time Cup drivers, or Nationwide programs from Cup teams.
yeah seriously; Sauter isn’t too bad of a driver. What happened to DEI talking about putting hm into a cup ride?
rcr put him in a cup ride an he didnt do squat there.. hes a decent driver.. i dont think hes cup material but he had always done good in the busch series. pheonix racing needs to get their crap straight. jj yeley drove for them last year and he didnt do much of anything for them. but he did good at gibbs. never won but ran well and made all of the races. i think pheonix is afraid of having one driver.. i remember when they had 8 or 9 drivers drive their busch cars one year. they were great in the owners standings too.. but they need to work things through. sucess is not instantaneous even though thats wat everybody expects these days. not everybody is a denny hamlin or a joey logano. some people take time to get good at wat they do. that responsibility is not always with the driver.. its with the team too.
It stinks that within a year he gets canned from a team with a crappy car and gets it in the top 35 no less and gets fired from a horribly run Nationwide team. This guy seems to have no luck at all.
Maybe they did him a favor. Now maybe he can get a good ride. It will be ruff after the season has already started…
17th in points, wow it sounds like they should be getting a new general manager instead of a drive .
Tore up the Wood Bothers’ car trying to qualify a few weeks back. Wouldn’t drive a second car for Robby either because Robby didn’t have sufficient funding. Even Andretti has a ride! I guess it sucks being you Johnny Boy.
It sounds to me that the TEAM is falling apart and that goes back to the owner and the bad decisions made there. 3, I mean 3 friggen crew chiefs only five races in! WTH!
They have some serious issues in that camp.