Notebook: Sauter makes name known in Challenge

CONCORD, N.C. -- On a night that is made for creating heroes, Johnny Sauter certainly fit the bill.

After a late-race banzai run to second place in the Nextel Open, Sauter kept right on coming when the $1 million Nextel All-Star Challenge began in earnest. After starting 20th in the 21-car field, Sauter finished 11th in the first segment, seventh in the second and slipped two spots to ninth after the third segment, setting up a shot at the leaders with the big money on the line.

Harvick wins All-Star

Kevin Harvick kept a charging Jimmie Johnson behind him as he went on to win his first All-Star Challenge in Charlotte.

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He ended up sixth, 3.275 seconds behind winner Kevin Harvick.

"It was awesome," a dripping-wet Sauter said with a smile. "It's kind of funny how things go in life, because this car here, at the test, I didn't feel it was very good. We decided to bring it here just in case we got in trouble.

"This was the best turning car I've had on a mile-and-a-half in a couple of years."

Sauter said he didn't make a single adjustment all night long, other than a set of tires between the Open and the All-Star Challenge.

"Sometimes when I tell them to make adjustments, I end up screwing it up," Sauter laughed. "I just wish I had a couple more laps at the end of the Open so I could have caught Truex.

"No changes all night, man. Just tires ... and the car stayed fast."

A true education

The Nextel Open was a test session of sorts for most of the teams, and there were some surprises when it was over. The cool temperatures made even loose setups very tight.

So what did some of the drivers learn?

"We learned not to bring this car back," Jamie McMurray cracked after the race.

Carl Edwards, who led most of the Nextel Open before his handling went away, had a solution to his problems. "It was just extremely, extremely tight," he said. "If I could make an adjustment, I'd raise the track bar about 10 rounds."

Even Nextel Open winner Martin Truex Jr. was tight. "I thought at any time I could hit the wall or blow a right front tire," he said. "I just kept turning the wheel and every time it would push, I'd just mat it and hope it would turn."

Happy Anniversary Dale

Guess what Saturday night was? The 20th anniversary of the famed "Pass in the Grass" on the front straightaway, a move Lowe's Motor Speedway president Humpy Wheeler once termed "the greatest move in the history of motorsports."

Dale Earnhardt held the lead off Turn 4, with Bill Elliott right behind and Geoffrey Bodine behind Elliott. As they were coming to the start / finish line, Earnhardt and Elliott made contact, turning Earnhardt's car into the infield. Big E kept his foot in it and powered through the grass back onto the pavement, never losing the lead. He went on to win the race.

Even though it wasn't a pass, per se, it still retained the moniker.

A disappointing day

How did the court decision granting Richard Childress Racing the right to place the AT&T logo on Jeff Burton's car for Saturday night's race play at the highest levels of NASCAR?

Not well, apparently.

"We're disappointed," said NASCAR CEO Brian France. "We obviously feel we're on the right side on this." France made reference to the fact that NASCAR is already appealing the decision.

RCR was ready for the change. The team had its AT&T duds -- fire suits, crew shirts, etc.-- on standby after the injunction was granted Friday. At 1 p.m., the team began changing the decals on the car in its garage stall. By 2:30, the car was done and work resumed at its normal pace.

Crew chiefs can drive?

A new event this year at the Nextel All-Star Challenge was the Kobalt Tools Crew Chief Race, featuring top-line crew chiefs in 600 Racing's Thunder Roadsters. The drivers were racing for a $10,000 top prize that would be donated to the driver's favorite charity.

The opportunity for drivers to put the shoe on the other foot was one of the main attractions, as Jimmie Johnson jokingly said he was going to get on a radio and badger his crew chief, Chad Knaus, as much as he gets badgered on a weekly basis.

"I hope I can get a radio because for the last six years I have heard Chad Knaus yell at me 'Don't overdrive the entry', 'Don't get the brakes too hot', and on and on and on," Johnson cracked. "So if I can get a radio hooked up or find one that works somehow, I am just going to complain to him the whole time and wear him out. I hope I can get that done."

Former car owner Andy Petree won the eight-lap dash, followed by Knaus and Paul Andrews.

"That was a lot of fun," Petree said. "I knew we had a good car, but I didn't know it was going to be that good. I tried to talk them into letting me start at the tail of the Nextel Open, but they wouldn't go for that."

Seeing how the Open wound up, he might have had a top-five finish ...