Sauter gained national attention in 2001, when he won the ASA national Tour championship, when he won ten races. That same year, he ran a partial NASCAR Busch Series schedule for Richard Childress Racing. The following year, he ran a full season and earned his first win at Chicagoland Speedway. Sauter was also involved in one of the biggest crashes in NASCAR history, a thirty-plus car accident at Talladega Superspeedway. In 2003, Sauter split time between RCR and the Curb Agajanian team, driving 15 races for Curb and the other 19 for RCR. He also raced in his first five Winston Cup Series races with Morgan-McClure Motorsports.