With my first season completed in the 2000 NASCAR Busch Series following Miami last November, the team and myself were left asking the proverbial question, "what if?"

	Sauter won the Craftsman Trucks O'Reilly 300 in 1999 before moving to the Busch Series.

Even though we finished the season with eight top-10 finishes -- which we felt would be considered respectable for a rookie team -- we all agreed we could have had many more. From an out of the ordinary mechanical failure in Michigan to a lapped car spinning me out in Indy, we had our fair share of bad luck in races which we were sure to finish in the top-10.

We certainly raced better than some of our finishes showed. Regardless, we recognize the need to look forward rather than back and to learn from our experiences.

The team and I are determined and confident heading into the 2001 season. We feel we have all the right elements in place to regularly compete for top-ten finishes and even capture our first win.

Many changes have taken place during the offseason with the team and with NASCAR. The biggest development has been the engine change. NASCAR has instituted a new rule that will produce engines similar to Winston Cup cars, with the only difference being the carburetor.

The engine compression ratio will go up from 9.5:1 to 12.5:1, which will translate into approximately 200 more horsepower. The new engines will be as fast if not faster than the Cup cars this year, because Busch cars are lighter and have a shorter wheel base than Cup. This should create some exciting racing in 2001.

In December, we went to the Kentucky Speedway to test the new engines and were pleasantly surprised by the results. Out of the handful of teams that were there, we were the fastest on the track.

During the holidays, I took a much-needed break to spend some quality family time with my wife and kids. As a family, one of our favorite things to do is to go to a dirt track located about 30 miles from our home in Mooresville, N.C., and race go-karts with the kids. We did this regularly on Sunday afternoons during this past offseason.

	“	Things have come a long way since my rookie year last year, and with all that the team and I have learned, we are confident we will be competitive all season long. ”
		— Jay Sauter

Between Christmas and New Years, we went home to Wisconsin to see my parents. With 11 brothers and sisters, there is always plenty of storytelling and good family time -- not to mention the good Wisconsin home cooking.

With the new year came a busy month in January. First, we went to Daytona along with many other teams for testing. We were pleased after coming away with the second-fastest speed of all the teams there. Crew chief Gene Nead has really fine-tuned the Daytona car to make it very competitive.

Next, we headed out west to Vegas. This was particularly important to us because it was the only track where we didn't qualify last year. We were certainly one of the fastest teams there, but since the track does not keep electronic timing during testing, we weren't exactly sure how we stacked up.

In early February, we went to Rockingham for our final test before the season start. We were the fastest of the 10 teams that were there, concluding a very successful offseason test program.

I am pumped up about getting the 2001 season underway. We have set our goals high and we believe can attain them. Things have come a long way from my rookie year last year, and with all that the team and I have learned, we are confident we will be competitive all season long.

We are excited to have Quality Farm Stores back as our sponsor this year. Quality will be introducing a new paint scheme designed by Sam Bass on the car at Daytona -- it looks really good. Also, Morton Salt has joined our team as a major associate sponsor and I will be driving a Morton Salt decorated car in several races this year. It is all very exciting; I can't wait to get to get to Daytona.

Jay Sauter drives the No. 43 car in the NASCAR Busch Series Grand National Division and will be submitting a weekly diary to ESPN.com throughout the season.