Last year, NASCAR driver Johnny Sauter left Oktoberfest not thrilled about a third-place finish in the ARCA Midwest Tour finale at La Crosse Fairgrounds Speedway (WI). This year he chose to do something about it by dominating the race and holding off four-time champion Ty Majeski.

Just thirty-one laps into the 200-lap feature, Sauter powered by Jason Weinkauf to take the lead after starting ninth. From there he never gave it up, even with Majeski and Minnesota’s Dan Fredrickson driving their hardest to catch up. It simply did not matter whether the leaders were dealing with lapped traffic or not, Sauter was in charge.

“(Sauter) was just a little bit better. Our car was pretty good, not much to complain about,” Majeski told Speed51.com powered by JEGS.

The final 20 laps the fans saw a strong battle for the bridesmaid position when Fredrickson continued to pull to the inside of Majeski but could not complete the pass.

“I tried to get by him. We were a lot better than he was,” Fredrickson said, disappointed. “He wouldn’t give me any room, and I wouldn’t expect him to, I would have done the same thing.”

While Fredrickson wished he could have made it to the leader, Sauter played the game smart with a fast car.

“You’ve got to know when to go and when not to go,” Sauter said. “When you get ten to twelve car lengths on them you start backing it up a little bit.”

The historic Oktoberfest weekend continues to be the final race of the ARCA Midwest Tour season and saw Majeski officially celebrate his fourth Tour championship in a row on top of his second-place finish. The Rookie of the Year honors came down to the final race and was won by Michael Ostdiek at the end of the day.

“We knew if we finished the race and John DeAngelis Jr. didn’t finish in the top-5 we would be alright,” Ostdiek said. “We definitely had a good year and it is important to close the year off strong.”

-By Caleb Slouha, Speed51.com Midwest Correspondent

-Photo Credit: Speed51.com/Bruce Nuttleman

ARCA Midwest Tour Oktoberfest 200 Unofficial Results

Pos No. Name Laps 1 5S Johnny Sauter 200 2 91M Ty Majeski 200 3 36F Dan Fredrickson 200 4 119 Dalton Zehr 200 5 39M Andrew Morrissey 200 6 77E Jonathan Eilen 200 7 7S Paul Shafer 200 8 44M Justin Mondiek 200 9 7ED Erik Darnell 200 10 78H Skylar Holzhausen 200 11 9K Derek Kraus 200 12 47 Travis Sauter 200 13 5J Casey Johnson 200 14 12M Nick Murgic 200 15 35D Travis Dassow 199 16 72G Jacob Goede 198 17 18O Michael Ostdiek 198 18 14N Austin Nason 198 19 15L Dean LaPointe 197 20 1S Michael Sauter 197 21 23W Jason Weinkauf 196 22 75H Dillon Hammond 190 23 26P Bubba Pollard 164 24 45S Jim Sauter Jr. 127 25 43K Matt Kocourek 109 26 7D John DeAngelis Jr 97 27 75W Chris Weinkauf 17 28 42P Dennis Prunty

Sauter Gets Redemption in ARCA Midwest Tour Finale