Fatherly advice can't fully ease sting for Penn Sauter after Joe Shear Classic

TOWN OF RUTLAND – The irony is not lost on Johnny Sauter. 

It hasn’t been that long since he was the hotheaded young driver desperate to win and wallowing in every loss.

Now at 47 he’s the father of a next-generation, 16-year-old talent antsy to break through for his first super late model victory.  Johnny’s the one offering the advice that on a lot of days, fourth place isn’t all bad when that’s all you have.

Deep down, Penn Sauter knows what he’s hearing is good advice from a NASCAR truck champion who lived this life. But that knowledge doesn’t always salve the sting.

“It’s just … pretty mentally depressing when you lead probably 60 laps of a race and you’re running in the top five the entire and then it just kind of gets taken away,” the younger Sauter said after finishing fourth to Austin Nason on May 3 in the Joe Shear Classic 200 at Madison International Speedway. 

“I guess we can use that momentum. We’re making progress on this car every time we go racing. So … we’ll just keep going and go on to the next one.”

He’s not the only young, talented Wisconsin racer who was left wanting on this particular day. 

Twenty-somethings Derek Kraus of Stratford and Luke Fenhaus of Wausau finished in that order between Nason and Sauter. And Gabe Sommers of Plover stunk up three-quarters of the show, leading 154 of the first 156 laps before a failure in the left front suspension sent him to the pits. After repairs, he returned to finish 13^th.

Sommers’ exit cleared the way for Sauter, who’d been lurking for a long time after starting sixth and was comfortably in front when the final scheduled caution came with 31 laps to go. The restart put him alongside Nason, who left sizable donuts on Sauter’s door as he cleared a path in Turn 3 on his way to a $15,000 payday. Although Sauter did pull ahead briefly after one more yellow, he couldn’t make it stick. 

“It just sucks, honestly,” Sauter said. “I feel like all day, all day [in practice] yesterday we had a car that I’ve never felt before, just really, really good on long or short runs, and then we obviously backed it up in qualifying by qualifying second.

“On the restart, [Nason] just kind of drove ’er off in there and used me up a little bit, you could say, and … maybe screwed up the left front tire.”

Then here’s where the advice comes through.

“So super unfortunate,” Sauter continued, “but at least we’ve come home with fourth and it’s momentum, I guess.”

For whatever it’s worth, there’s a good chance Nason won’t be around the next time Sauter finds himself in the lead. 

The 30-year-old from Roscoe, Illinois, planned to essentially hang up his driving shoes after the 2025 season due to business and family commitments. When his car didn’t sell in the offseason, Nason decided to put it back together for the first couple of ASA Midwest Tour races.

Lo and behold, he had a strong run at Slinger Speedway in the opener and a week later picked up a his second trophy from the race named after a short-track legend also from the Rockford area.  

“What was it – February, March? – I called my dad, like, ‘You know nothing’s really sold, so we might as well go and race’ … the first two and, I don’t know, maybe we’ll go to the third.”

Nason finished the race with his steering wheel askew after it broke while he was racing Sommers. If this turns out to be his final victory, that’ll make the story all the more fun to tell.

“I feel like I’ve had a couple taken away from me and some were mechanical failures and some were just racing deals, I guess you’d call them,” Nason said, specifically speaking of races at Madison.. “So eight years later, we won it again. … This year showed that we had the dominant car and I think the end of the race really showed it.”

Sauter knows deep down, he’ll have a day like that soon too. 

But until then the waiting may eat him up.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Advice can't soothe sting for Penn Sauter after Joe Shear Classic 200