One of the real winners at the La Crosse Oktoberfest 200 was the teen who finished fifth

WEST SALEM – A couple of hundred yards from simultaneous celebrations, Penn Sauter was standing next to his race car, wiping the sweat of 200 laps on an 80-degree October day from his brow.

The 15-year-old third-generation racer hadn’t tied an event record, the way winner Ty Majeski did.

He didn’t put a heartwarming exclamation point on a comeback from concussions, the way freshly re-crowned ASA Midwest Tour champion Casey Johnson did.

But for a little more than 24 hours, Sauter had been the focus of super late model fans in Wisconsin and beyond.

After turning the fastest lap in qualifying, he accepted the challenge to start in the rear of the Oktoberfest 200 with the promise of a bonus if he could win. By the time dozens of individuals and businesses finished adding to the pot, he was racing for $50,000 in the final event of this weeklong, end-of-season stock car overindulgence.

The odds were not in Sauter’s favor Sunday, Oct. 5, but the fans he energized and the faith they showed served as a great reminder of what makes the sport fun.

“It just means everybody’s paying attention, right?” said his father, 2016 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series champion and 2017 Oktoberfest winner Johnny Sauter.

“I didn’t give it much thought when he told me he was going to take the challenge, and it was only six grand, I was like, uh, whatever. And then the price just kept going up, and I was like, well, you made a good decision.

“He’s mature, way beyond a lot of guys. I can’t even fathom trying to do this when I was 15.”

Penn finished fifth, which was about the best he could have done on this day, regardless of where he’d have started.

“I told myself that I was going to race the same as even for zero dollars,” Penn Sauter said. “If we can repeat what we did yesterday (in qualifying) for next year, we’ll definitely do it again.

“It gives me a lot of confidence the people have faith in me, and just what they think I have the potential of, it means a lot.”

Majeski had the speed all day and patiently waited for a chance to pounce. He ultimately got around Andrew Morrissey on a restart with 56 laps to go and pulled away to beat him by 1.7 seconds to win $10,000. A fifth Oktoberfest victory put the 31-year-old Majeski in a tie with the late Joe Shear for the most victories – all earned in a span of 10 years.

More: NASCAR truck champ Ty Majeski would like to ‘rile up the sport’ and steal a title from the favorite

Casey Johnson finished third, which allowed him to leapfrog Gabe Sommers (ninth) for his fourth Midwest Tour season championship.

This may have been the most meaningful, given Johnson had spent part of 2022 and all of ‘23 dealing with vertigo and wondering if he’d be able to race. Concussions had taken a cumulative toll.

When Johnson won the Midwest Tour opener in May at Madison International Speedway, he said he was at about 75% of his former self overall. He wasn’t sure if he was going to run the whole series.

Johnson is glad he did.

“When you come back, you just want to prove to yourself and everybody else, you’re still the best,” he said. “So that’s what I set out to do. … Some of the big race wins we had this year, and then going out and winning this championship, that does it for me.”

And as for his health?                                                            

“I’m good enough to win races,” Johnson said. “That’s all that matters.”

Johnson, 34, and Morrissey, 40, are fixtures on the Wisconsin super late model scene. Sommers, 22, follows in their tire tracks. Majeski races just as hard in short track special events around the country as he did before he became a NASCAR regular.

Penn Sauter has a head start on most of his peers, and he has NASCAR connections already. If racing talent is genetic, he was born into the right family. And clearly the fans are behind him.

Still, he is young. It’s important to maintain perspective.

But it’s interesting to think about how another year of experience could help Sauter.

“This is his first ever super late race here, first time running 200 laps at a place like this,” Johnny Sauter said. “I’m pumped. I wish I would have done more on my end (as car owner and crew chief).

“When you get to that level and you get up there with those faster cars, all you need is a little adjustment and you look like a hero.”

Fans showed they’re ready for one.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Ty Majeski wins, Penn Sauter impresses at La Crosse racing weekend