Contact Halts Strong Qualifying Effort, Race Run for Sauter, No. 37 Cub Cadet Ford

Lebanon, TN  (April 9, 2007) – After a fourth-place qualifying effort, hopes were high for driver Johnny Sauter and the No. 37 Cub Cadet Ford Fusion to have a strong run in the Pepsi 300 at Nashville Superspeedway on Saturday. But Sauter and the Brewco Motorsports Ford were struck by another competitor mid-race, sending the team to the garage and ultimately putting an end to the potential top-five finish.

Sauter went out to qualify early (10th) on a very cold morning in Lebanon, Tennessee Saturday. His qualifying time was fast enough to hold the provisional pole position for more than half of the qualifying session, but three late qualifiers posted slightly faster times. However, Sauter and the Brewco crew were satisfied to start the race in the fourth position – the team’s highest qualifying effort of the 2007 season so far.

Early in the race, Sauter was moving through the field, and had already moved up to the second spot by lap four. However, shortly after he reported back to Crew Chief Newt Moore that the No. 37 Cub Cadet Ford was getting tight, Sauter began dropping through the field, and was in the 12th position by lap 23. It wasn’t until lap 62 that Sauter made a pit stop for four tires, fuel, and trackbar adjustments to free up the Brewco Ford.

The adjustments on the pit stop did the trick, and Sauter began to once again charge toward the front of the field. The team pitted on lap 89 for four tires, fuel, and spring rubber and trackbar adjustments and Moore called Sauter back down pit lane for more adjustments following a caution on lap 96.

“At that point we knew we were in great shape,” said Moore. “We were one of only 14 cars on the lead lap and we still had our two best sets of tires left for the final laps of the race.”

Unfortunately for Moore, Sauter and the Brewco crew, they would not get a chance to use those tires. Sauter was running in the 12th position on lap 128 when the No. 12 car got loose and overadjusted, making contact with the left side of the No. 37 Cub Cadet Ford and sending the Brewco machine into the fence. Sauter radioed to the Brewco crew that the car was “destroyed” and maneuvered it back to the team’s garage stall. The No. 37 Cub Cadet Ford ended the race in 35th place.

“I gave him (No. 12) plenty of room, but he just dumped us,” Sauter said. “I was really happy with the car all weekend, and Newt and the Brewco guys were great to work with again. We qualified so well, I knew we could have had a strong finish. That’s not the way we wanted the day to end, that’s for sure.”

“Johnny did a great job of driving the car, even when it went tight early on,” said Moore. “It’s just a miserable situation for him and the whole team and our sponsor Cub Cadet to get taken out of the race the way we did. We know we would have had a good finish this weekend. We’ve been strong all year at every track we’ve been at so far, but we’re just not getting the finishes to reflect that. We’ll head into Texas this weekend with a renewed resolve to get the strong finish we know we’re capable of.”

Next for the No. 37 Brewco Ford will be the O’Reilly 300 at Texas Motor Speedway on April 14.  Yard-Man will be the team’s primary sponsor, with Jamie McMurray behind the wheel. Television coverage of the race begins at 2:30 pm EST on ESPN2.