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NASCAR CAMPING WORLD TRUCK SERIES: ECOBOOST 200November 18, 2016Maurice GallagherJohnny SauterJoe Shear, Jr.Homestead, Florida THE MODERATOR: We are now joined by the championship winning owner and crew chief, Mr.Maury Gallagher, owner of GMS Racing. This is GMS Racing's first NASCAR Camping World Truck Series driver championship since the team made its series debut in 2013, and for Mr.Joe Shear Jr., our drivers' champion winning crew chief, this is your first NASCAR Camping World Truck Series championship, as well. Your previous best standings finish was a second with a driver by the name of Johnny Sauter in 2011. Gentlemen, congratulations. Talk to us a little bit about what this means for you as a team owner and a crew chief. MAURY GALLAGHER: Well, thank you all very much. Appreciate the time. Hard to put into words. Sports is‑‑ competitive sports like this at the highest level is something that is rare and difficult to do. Certainly everyone aspires to it, but attaining it is‑‑ you don't quite understand until you get there how hard it is. I can't say enough about the investment by Joe on my right, Johnny, the whole team. Mike Beam certainly has to be at the head of the list with the credits. Mike spent 43 years in this business, has worked with some of the best all time. He brings an intensity that is second to none, an intensity you need to bring it home. Tom Ackerman, working with him. We worked with ECR, their motors; they were terrific this year. All the parts came together, but at the end of the day, Johnny had to deliver the goods starting 18th‑‑ was he 18th? 19th? Sorry, I missed one. He worked it to the front and did what he had to do. That's determination to a fault. I couldn't be happier for Johnny and his family. I'm not that well‑informed on the backgrounds. I do know having said that that the Sauter family has been in racing for many moons, and I was chatting with someone with the NASCAR record book in mind and said this is the first NASCAR win for the Sauter family. So that I couldn't be happier for Johnny and obviously the rest of the team. THE MODERATOR: Joe, it's got to feel pretty special for you, as well. JOE SHEAR: Yeah, of course. Me and Johnny have been together for years and our families have been together for years, and we've raced against each other, and we've won a championship before, and we've just became best friends and worked really hard and been determined. I'm like almost lost for words. This is like really huge and special. As like Maury says, in sports, it's amazing how hard it is and how long it takes to achieve your goals and stuff that you've been working for all your life, and when you finally do it, it's like a big relief. I'm so happy to be with Maury and GMS and Mike Beam and Tom Ackerman and all the guys that work there. I'm so proud that they brought me into their organization and gave me and Johnny back together and gave us a chance to do this. I've really got a good bunch of guys, and they worked hard, and working hard achieves these goals. I'm so proud to be part of that gang. I'm really lost for words. This is exciting. This is amazing. This is the top of the goal to win in NASCAR. I'm flabbergasted. Q. Maury, Johnny was super appreciative to you guys over the team radio on the cool‑down lap. How easy did the deal come together to bring him to GMS, and what has he meant to your organization in just a short time being with you guys? MAURY GALLAGHER: Johnny is just terrific people. We had talked about it actually two years ago about doing it, and it's been a building process for the last couple years, and we felt with the encouragement of Chevrolet, I might add, that we needed to bring a top‑quality driver in. We have good drivers. I think Spencer has shown up pretty good this year. Obviously Ben Kennedy got into the Chase and won. We've had Kyle Larson, he can pass for a driver. A few of those types. But Johnny was that kind of constant. He shows up with the experience, and I call him the old salt, and you just can't put a price on that kind of, I've been there, done that. He was terrific with the younger guys, shared‑‑ couldn't ask for a better teammate, and it's an investment; you do it, and you hope to have the outcome we had. You'd like to think that every investment pays off. It's hard in this business, but this one has paid off in spades. Yeah, hats off to Johnny, and he'll be back next year, and you'll be seeing me about a year from now, I hope. Q. Joe, I know you and Johnny won an ASA title 15 years ago. Was there ever a point where you thought, man, Johnny is a great driver, he's going to win a lot of races, but he's just not going to win a NASCAR championship? JOE SHEAR: I guess I never really thought of it. We just always go race to race to win everything that we can, and we gave it‑‑ we always give it 110 percent. We just‑‑ it falls where it falls. We always try, but it takes a lot of effort to do this, and it takes a lot of people, and the people that you surround yourself to get to this point in life, and thank God I got hooked up with Maury and GMS and all the guys. Me and Johnny always clicked. It's putting the rest of the people together that makes it happen. We had this feeling when we came here, and we just kept working hard and kept working hard, and we achieved it. Q. When you start this had team, did you expect to have this much success just three years into it, being able to recruit big‑name drivers and expanding to a four‑truck team? MAURY GALLAGHER: Sure, doesn't everybody do it this way? You know, I didn't know enough to know. A couple years ago I couldn't spell car. I think I'm on C now. I'm in the business of building businesses for the most part, and I've started a lot of companies in my life, and you have to go places that other people don't think you should go or can't go, and more importantly, you have to go there with the right people, and while I didn't expect to get to this place perhaps this fast, I certainly didn't think we would never get there. You know, it's just been a great process. We bought our facility in Statesville. We've got 160,000 square feet. I think if you looked at us now, Mike has put together‑‑ some people walk in and say we have a small Cup shop. We built 25 frames this year. Those frames that you see out there running around on the track are the handiwork of Mike Beam and his fab team. Put those components together with good crew chiefs, obviously good drivers, ECR motors, you've got to have the good power, and it's come at a reasonable pace. I think the other thing, too, is when I got started a couple years ago, I was frustrated as hell about not having good stuff compared to particularly the Toyotas out there, the Fords, in '14 when we got going, it was tough sledding, new nose and everything on the trucks. You know, it's surprising but not that surprising, particularly when you get to know Mr.Beam. You ever get into that grille of his and the intensity factor that comes with him, he was not easy to talk to tonight before the race. It's all‑‑ by the way, hats off to NASCAR. Again, a bit of an outsider. This format is terrific. I'm glad they brought it to us this year. We all got to experiment with the caution clock and those things, but I think NASCAR has done a great job of putting all this together and keeping the drama. Until about the last second or third lap, you didn't know who was going to win. You can't do much better than that. Q. Maury, I know you're really busy in Las Vegas with Allegiant Air and whatnot. How involved are you with the day‑to‑day operations of GMS Racing being as busy as you are? MAURY GALLAGHER: I'm a distant owner, so to speak. I'm certainly talking to Mike a lot about structural stuff. We're frankly ‑‑ a lot of the discussion now is about what we're doing next year. But Mike day‑to‑day, that's his call. I mean, he's put the package together. He's put the personnel together. He's the man among men that's done this day‑to‑day with the approach and the like. Certainly I've been able to help him in a lot of structural business things that would kind of fall in my bailiwick, but no, hats off to Mike, Tom Ackerman, building, wind tunnel, all the technical work to get it done. Really been his doing. THE MODERATOR: I want to welcome to the stage our 2016 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series champion, driver of the No.21 GMS Racing Chevrolet Silverado, Mr.Johnny Sauter. Johnny, you finished the 2016 season with three wins, 12 top 5s, 19 top 10s, one pole position and one gigantic trophy. Talk to us about tonight and what this championship means. JOHNNY SAUTER: Well, this championship means a lot, obviously. I just‑‑ I don't think it's completely sank in quite yet, but you know, it wouldn't be possible without these two guys sitting next to me. That's for sure. I can remember last September when I flew to Las Vegas and the Gallagher family brought me to their house and cooked me a wonderful meal and said this is our goals and this is what we want to do. You know, when I went and checked out the shop and saw their ultimate vision for where they wanted GMS Racing to be, I knew it was something that I wanted to be a part of. What a remarkable year to start off with a win at Daytona. You mentioned 19 top 10s. I can remember three of those races we were in contention to win, one of them running second and the other blew a right front tire. Had decent speed all year, and we really hit our stride here at the end of the year when it really counted. I'm not going to lie; today I was a little bit nervous when we qualified 19th, but I knew that we'd race good. The trucks are just so good. All the product that they're building at GMS Racing just ‑‑ and doesn't hurt to have Chevrolet power under the hood, and we executed like we needed to. Had solid pit stops tonight. We made some positions up on the racetrack like we needed to, and here we are. Great year. Couldn't be more proud. Q. Johnny, what do you think you had the past year at GMS? You spent so many years driving for such a solid team in ThorSport. What do you think you had in this year that you didn't have at ThorSport where you were able to get it done here? JOHNNY SAUTER: Well, I mean, it's not just one thing, it's a lot of little things if you want to know the truth. You know, to be honest with you, when I talked to Mike Beam on the phone the first time, my wife was in the hospital having a baby and I was in the parking deck talking to Mike on the phone about next year, or the following year. You know, the killer instincts that Mike has, all he says is I want to win and we need to kick their butts, and it's very motivating, for me anyway. I like to hear that kind of talk. Having said that, you know, I think it was very important for me to get back in a Chevrolet. I felt very strongly about that, being a GM kid. But you know, people is a big ingredient. There's just a lot of little things. I could sit here all night and talk about it, but it's just the whole package. I just felt very comfortable, like I said, about meeting the Gallagher family and all this, and I'm not sitting up here blowing smoke. I'm telling you the truth. I felt very comfortable that night and knew this was something I wanted to be a part of. Q. Johnny, last year when you announced this deal in October, did you expect to have results this quick? JOHNNY SAUTER: Honestly, yes. You know, as I mentioned, any successful organization in racing that I've ever seen, they surround themselves with people, people that work very hard and do the right things I guess a lot of times. You know, I can sit here and say that I don't think I would have ever made this kind of move if I didn't feel comfortable with it. When you see what we're building, I've said this a thousand times, but if you check out what GMS Racing in Statesville, North Carolina, has to offer, the way they're going about it, building our own chassis in house, hanging our own bodies in house, obviously we had ECR horsepower all this year. They executed on the pit crew with the Ganassi guys, I mean, all that stuff was just top‑notch. It took us a little while in the middle part of the summer to get it rolling. We were consistent knocking down top 10s and a few top 5s here and there, but yeah, I'm not shocked at all to be sitting here tonight. I feel that strongly about the people that we have. Q. Johnny, I talked with David Pepper after the race, and he said he was proud of you and said obviously you performed well over at GMS, but now they've got a target to shoot at. Any words for those guys coming here after last year? JOHNNY SAUTER: For those guys meaning? Q. ThorSport. JOHNNY SAUTER: Not really. Look, I had a great time at ThorSport. Duke and Rhonda Thorson are great people, and they've been in the sport for a long time. They've had a lot of success. You know, this was just something that I felt like I wanted to try. You know, I'm glad that we're sitting here celebrating a championship, but next year the goal is to win 10 races and ultimately get Maury an owner's championship. Q. When you came to NASCAR after winning the ASA title, did you think you were going to win a championship quickly, and can you kind of put this whole 15 years later, you ran Busch cars for three teams in a season, you had the Cup experiences you've had, and several years in the Truck Series just to get to this point? JOHNNY SAUTER: Yeah, I mean, it's been a long time, had some successful years along the way, had some years that you kind of want to forget about, I guess. You know, for various reasons. But you know, we've been pretty competitive in the Truck Series, and quite frankly I felt like I was competitive in the Busch Series and the XFINITY Series or whatever. And had some decent runs in Cup. But it's very hard to get all the pieces of the puzzle put together. It's not just the driver; know what I mean? Jimmie Johnson, perfect example. Did okay in ASA, did okay in the Busch Series, but when he got his guys and got with Hendrick and all that, they came alive; know what I'm saying? It's all about putting the pieces of the puzzle together. Sometimes it works out, and I've always said, timing is everything. You know, I feel like the timing is good where I'm at right now. Q. What can we expect from your championship speech on Monday? JOHNNY SAUTER: A lot of stuttering, a lot of "um." I don't know, I'm not very good at that stuff I don't think. Having said that, you know, we've got good PR people that are going to help me try to muscle through all that. But just going to thank some people in the past that have been pretty influential in getting me here, and obviously just be thankful. I'm humbled to be a champion in NASCAR. I'm just going to thank all the right people. I mean, this is a‑‑ I'm very much a small percentage of what's been accomplished, and we need to acknowledge and thank the people that made this possible. Q. Kind of going back to Bob's question, with the amount of time that you spent in your career in NASCAR, do you feel the driver's championship is something that you kind of wanted to validate all the effort that you've spent, and also, that your family has spent in NASCAR competition? JOHNNY SAUTER: Yeah, I've wanted a driver's championship for 15 years. So yeah, I mean, of course. Everybody wants to be a champion. You want to win races ultimately, and you want to be in the hunt. Like tonight's deal, I think, with the Chase was pretty exciting. There was a point there where we ran, I don't know, 50 laps, and we would have finished fourth in points, and we picked them off one at a time, one at a time, one at a time. And going back to my family, you know, I've said this for a couple weeks now that this championship would mean a lot‑‑ I don't know what it would mean to me until it really happened, but for my family, just validation for‑‑ I don't know that they need validation, but it's just cool. My dad had raced for 40 years. I think that's what Michael Waltrip said. He can remember every Sauter in NASCAR for over 40 years. So it's just cool to grow up in a racing family, go to so many racetracks throughout the Midwest, and to be a champion in one of the top three NASCAR divisions, that's just something that I hope the family can enjoy. THE MODERATOR: Gentlemen, congratulations on a championship season, and we look forward to celebrating with you again on Monday night. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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