Leffler, Sauter off to strong start at Dover

DOVER, Del. -- Johnny Sauter and Jason Leffler, both badly in need of a victory, made a good start to the weekend when they qualified second and third for Saturday's MBNA America 200.

	Jason Leffler has eight straight top-10 starts. Credit: Autostock

Sauter's Brewco Motorsports teammate, David Green, won the 22nd Bud Pole of his career. But Green has done a much better job of adapting to the Chevrolets that Brewco is still in the process of switching to this season.

Green has been in the top-five in the standings since the second race of the season. Sauter kicked off his campaign with second at Daytona but fell out of the top-10 after 10 races, and is currently 13th, 552 points out of first.

"There's always pressure in this business -- I don't care what you're driving or who you're driving for," Sauter said. "I've always been one to put more pressure on myself to be successful than anyone else.

"You definitely start to feel desperate to turn it around. You start to doubt yourself, to doubt your team. I think it's safe to say that every driver probably does that when he starts to struggle a little bit."

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Leffler, who won last year at Dover in the Craftsman Truck Series, has worked in the opposite manner as Sauter. Teaming with new crew chief Robert Barker at Daytona, Leffler had four double-digit finishes in the first five races, including three worse than 22nd.

He was 20th in the points at that point but has continued his strong qualifying efforts that have resulted in a 7.62 starting average through 13 races. In the eight races since then he's had only one finish worse than 11th and has averaged a 10th place result.

"We have great equipment and great team," Leffler said. "It just took a little time for everybody to gel, but I think our first win's right around the corner."

Sauter had his best qualifying effort of the season on Friday.

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"We came out of the gate just awesome, for Brewco being a new team for myself," Sauter said. "We've struggled a little bit the last few weeks after switching over to the Monte Carlos.

"We were trying some stuff with the aero package and obviously felt that we'd gone the wrong way and we struggled because of it."

Sauter's best finish in his last six races was 18th, and he's had three results worse than 31st. His recent slide was marked by finishes of 31st and 36th in Chevrolets, sandwiched around a 22nd place in a Pontiac at Nazareth.

For the season he has two second places and three top-10s.

"I knew the things that we were trying were maybe a little bit out of the ordinary or not what we were accustomed to running at the beginning of the year. But you'll never get better if you don't try and we feel like we gave up a few weekends to make ourselves better."

Sauter, who finished 21st and 29th here last year, said the benefits were becoming evident, Friday.

"It's a far cry better than we've been the last couple weeks and hopefully tomorrow for the race we'll have a good racecar," Sauter said. "I'm pretty optimistic about tomorrow (because) I feel like I've got a car that's capable of winning this race.

"This is a fun racetrack when the car's right but when the car's not, it's obviously a long day and pretty physical."

	Leffler has finished 11th or better in four straight events. Credit: Autostock

After his strong recent runs, Leffler is ninth in the standings and coming. He has two top-five and seven top-10 finishes and has qualified out of the top-10 only twice in 14 races.

"It was just a case of getting everything together and everybody on the same page," Leffler said. "This is the best situation I've ever been in, in stock car racing and having Bootie as my crew chief is awesome.

"We're good friends and he's a really sharp guy that wants to win just as bad as I do. His knowledge of the racecars has been an eye opener. He's really, really sharp but he listens to you at the same time and dissects what you're saying.

"Some guys I've worked with in the past had moved on to the next change before I could even get out what I was trying to say. He listens to what part of the corner you're talking about and does a great job -- it's awesome.

"Plus, I think he has the same goals. He didn't have a good experience when he was a Cup crew chief and I didn't have the greatest experience as a driver, so our goal is to get back to Cup and we're working really hard at it."