Life after 40? Truck champion Johnny Sauter is loving his on and off the racetrack

One of these days, Johnny Sauter figures, he’s going to get a call telling him his services are no longer needed.

He’s a race-car driver who just turned 40 and, beyond that, one of the few in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series who draw a paycheck rather than bring money to a team.

“it’s been on my radar for a couple of years,” Sauter said. “So it wouldn’t surprise me one way or another. The way the sport operates, the way teams function, how they pick drivers is a 180 from when I first started racing.

“All I can do is drive as hard as I can, try to win as many races as I can and hope the opportunity stays there.”

Sauter, the 2016 truck champion, enjoyed a bonus opportunity Saturday in Dover, Del., filling in for GMS Racing teammate Spencer Gallagher in the Xfinity Series. Gallagher was suspended by NASCAR three days earlier for violating the sanctioning body's substance abuse policy.

So in the course of six days, Sauter had a milestone birthday last Tuesday, won a truck race Friday, scored a top-10 finish in his first Xifnity start in four years and then raced his own super-late model Sunday at Madison International Speedway, not far from his home in DeForest.

GMS hasn’t announced its intentions for its Xfinity Series entry for the duration of Gallagher’s indefinite suspension. Brennan Poole drove the No. 23 Chevrolet in a test Monday at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

“I’m happy to drive it if they want me to drive it," Sauter said. "If they want to do something different, then that’s fine too.

“As long as I have a fast truck, I don't care.”

That’s been one constant since Sauter landed at GMS in 2016 as the senior driver and a mentor to Gallagher and the organization's other young drivers. A full-time competitor in the truck series since 2009, Sauter won 10 of his first 175 starts; in the 51 races since with GMS he has added nine victories.

With two wins this season – Dover and Daytona – Sauter has reached sixth on the series’ all-time list, within three of fifth-place Todd Bodine.

Another constant at GMS, Sauter said, is that the whole team seems to be having fun.

Some of that probably comes from winning and some from camaraderie on a knowledgeable team led by crew chief and longtime Sauter family friend Joe Shear Jr. Another factor could be the point Sauter has reached in his career and life.

“You always put so much pressure on yourself. Or I did anyway,” said Sauter, who has made 517 starts in NASCAR’s three national series since his debut in 2001. “I don’t feel that anymore.

“Just take things as they come. Don’t get excited. Things have to materialize. Don’t force the issue. I think that’s what I did a lot early in my career is force the issue, and you get yourself in bad spots.

“I have learned with the right people and the right stuff – and it always seems like you have the right people and not the right stuff, or vice versa – I’ve got it all now.”

Regardless of whether Sauter ends up with more Xfinity starts on top of the 23-race truck commitment, he plans to “wing it” with a short-track schedule this summer. Sauter intends to race his own car sporadically on the ARCA Midwest Tour, at Wisconsin International Raceway in Kaukauna and probably at the Slinger Nationals.

“I don’t have as much time as I used to, put it that way," said Sauter, whose wife, Cortney, gave birth to their fourth child late last year.

“I can’t burn the midnight oil quite as much as I used to, and having four kids is a little more demanding than having just one or two. … But I work my butt off on it.”

And on all his racing endeavors, as long as good opportunities exist.