FanNation

Time for me to buy lottery tickets: When this was first placed on FN, I supposed that the reason for his dismissal was "sponsor-orchestrated", because of his acerbic personality. Score one for johnjohn!

johnnyrunner | 03/25/08, 08:54 AM

So tell me what Sauter said to dispute his removal from the team, as the headline reads.

Bill's Sabre | 03/25/08, 09:20 AM

What the hell could be so abrasive? Bunch of grown men acting like 7th grade girls.

jackman! | 03/25/08, 09:39 AM

Hey, I prefaced my previous post, with the dissclaimer that I had no-insight, no inside-knowledge and that I was probably pullin' it from my behind. He comes across as a Tony Stewart wanna be, with all his attitude and quite frankly, as I said before: He ain't good enough.
One thing though, that we will probably never hear, is if it was a derogatory comment directed towards his sponsor. A less than PC comment perhaps. To be not placed on probation or anything, just dropped, it has to be a major faux pas. ( french at the Nascar site..who would have thunk it)

johnnyrunner | 03/25/08, 09:53 AM

Well if he didn't perform then the sponsor has a right to do so. Johnny knows he really is not that good of a driver.

nascarzorin | 03/25/08, 10:43 AM

Isn't Jacques Villeneuve available?

Rickapolis-Bard of Who's Who | 03/25/08, 11:10 AM

That's exactly what they need to do Rick, is get these open wheel guys some more seat time.

nascarzorin | 03/25/08, 11:43 AM

He must of offended the Indians somehow using terms like scalp and fire water.

jackman! | 03/25/08, 12:24 PM

He made a comment about the sponsors' wife looking like a tatanka.

Pathetic | 03/25/08, 02:50 PM

Nah ..rick the bard, read my entire french vocab, and the way mine oftens works, I'm guessing he started to segue (sp) (seg-way) to a thought about Frenchmen in Nascar. Kinda like lookin' at ink-blots...we would probably come-up with similiar answers. Ink-blot..Ink-blot...Ink-blot....they are all look like ink that has been sandwiched between a folded freakin' paper, enough already!!
Time to take my meds...

johnnyrunner | 03/25/08, 03:19 PM

Need to click on the sight and read the whole thing. Here it is for the hmmm trying to be nice so will say nothing lol
Sauter, in a statement, disputed Reno's account of why he was let go.
"I guess they found out that I don't like to gamble," Sauter said jokingly. "No seriously, I guess the Miccosukees are under the impression that the driver has the power to turn the organization around, and I respect that opinion. But to be perfectly honest, J.J. Yeley, Mike Wallace and Johnny Benson are all great drivers who struggled in Phoenix Racing equipment and were replaced. How many drivers do you have to fire before you realize that they're not the problem?
"As far as sponsors are concerned, Yellow Transportation is an international brand that put its support behind me for three years, and I take pride in the fact that they thought enough of me as a representative to follow me to Haas when I left Phoenix Racing in 2006."
Former Cup driver Sterling Marlin drove the No. 1 at Nashville, but Reno said that is likely only a temporary arrangement. Marlin doesn???t want to do more than 10 to 12 races, and a search for another driver is under way.
Whether Marlin splits time with another driver is unknown, Reno said.
???Sterling???s just in the car this week, and he???s going to go test with us at Richmond,??? Reno said. ???But we???re interviewing other drivers.
We???ve got to run it by the sponsor. I don???t know where we???re at on that. We???ve got three or four people.???
???I think we???ve been running better the last couple of weeks, but this is the first week we???ve had everybody going in one direction. I might be good to leave him in there for a few weeks and get the team a little bit more up to par.???
Reno said there were ???surprisingly good??? drivers the team could sign.

kodiak | 03/25/08, 04:29 PM

Thanks for the story kodiak. I like Sauter. Regardless of what the story does or does not say....its only been 6 races. This is drastic and disappointing.

jackman! | 03/25/08, 06:39 PM

I don't necessarily like him, but it's only been 6 races and he's right about the fact that Yeley, Benson, and Mike Wallace have all struggled in this team's equipment. I don't see any reason to have given Sauter the boot. He did get a 5th at Richmond last fall which is no easy task.

SithLord196 | 03/26/08, 02:22 PM