Sauter Wins Second Straight Race atTexas

FORT WORTH, TX – RIS – Johnny Sauter is hot right now.  After last week’s big win at Martinsville Speedway, even though he had to hold off Chase Elliott in the closing laps, he went to Texas Motor Speedway and won another contest.  With two victories in this round of the Camping World Truck Series, he is in the driver’s seat, so to speak, on who is the favorite.

Passing Matt Crafton near the start/finish line with two laps left in Friday night’s Striping Technology 350 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race,  Sauter pulled away to win.

 In the process, he deprived Crafton of a chance to clinch a spot in the Championship 4 finale, set for Nov. 18 at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Crafton won a drag race to the stripe against Daniel Hemric to secure the runner-up spot, .836 seconds behind Sauter.

 "This is amazing," said Sauter, who started 16th in his No. 21 Chevrolet and won for the third time this season, the third time at Texas (having swept the 2012 races) and the 13th time in his career. "Matt was content to keep running the bottom, and I made a couple of runs on that restart (on Lap 130 of 147, after the third and final caution).

 "They got me great track position on the pit stop, and I just kept bottoming the splitter out on the short run, and I could just not fire off. ... Matt just kept running the bottom, and I was like, 'I'm going to the top.' And I was pretty successful on the top down in (Turns) 3 and 4 all night long -- just big momentum."

Chase drivers Ben Kennedy and Timothy Peters finished 13th and 14th, respectively, and are currently below the Chase cut line. Peters is fifth in the standings, one point behind Crafton in fourth. Kennedy is sixth, 13 points behind Crafton heading to Phoenix, where the Chase field will be cut from six drivers to the final four next Friday.

 Sauter is the only driver guaranteed to race for the championship at Homestead. William Byron, who leads the series with six victories, finished sixth on Friday and held second place in the Chase standings.

Christopher Bell came home 11th after late contact with the Toyota of Cameron Hayley and is third in points, but the gap between the second- and fifth-place Chase drivers is a mere five points.

The only three cautions of the night resulted from the expiration of the caution clock, which runs in 20-minute increments from the drop of a green flag. The previous high number for caution clocks in a single race was two.

Fin Str Trk Driver Team Laps Pts Bns Driver Rating Status Tms Laps
1 16 21 Johnny Sauter (C) Allegiant Travel Chevrolet 147 36 4 121.3 Running 2 6
2 7 88 Matt Crafton (C) DampRid/Menards Toyota 147 32 1 110.6 Running 1 15
3 2 19 Daniel Hemric Blue Gate Bank Ford 147 31 1 129.2 Running 2 38
4 5 29 Tyler Reddick Cooper Standard Ford 147 29 100.1 Running
5 10 51 Daniel Suarez(i) ARRIS Toyota 147 0 88.8 Running
6 3 9 William Byron # (C) Liberty University Toyota 147 27 103.0 Running
7 1 23 Spencer Gallagher Allegiant Travel Chevrolet 147 28 2 132.1 Running 3 88
8 22 71 Austin Dillon(i) Russell by HTPG Chevrolet 147 25 86.1 Running
9 12 00 Cole Custer # Haas Automation Chevrolet 147 24 90.5 Running
10 17 13 Cameron Hayley Ride TV/Cabinets by Hayley Toyota 147 23 86.3 Running
11 9 4 Christopher Bell # (C) JBL Toyota 147 22 107.4 Running
12 15 98 Rico Abreu # Safelite Auto Glass/Curb Records Toyota 147 21 73.1 Running
13 14 33 Ben Kennedy (C) Jacob Chevrolet 147 20 70.2 Running
14 6 17 Timothy Peters (C) Red Horse Racing Toyota 147 19 77.0 Running
15 8 41 Ben Rhodes # Alpha Energy Solutions Toyota 147 18 71.3 Running
16 21 24 Shane Lee LeeBoy Chevrolet 147 17 63.6 Running
17 4 11 Matt Tifft # Waste Connections Inc/BrainGear Toyota 147 16 62.5 Running
18 19 8 John H Nemechek Death Wish Coffee Chevrolet 146 15 70.7 Running
19 20 20 Austin Hill Lawless Jerky/Alien Gear Holsters Ford 145 14 55.5 Running
20 13 97 Jesse Little Carolina Nut Co Toyota 145 13 55.3 Running
21 18 81 Ryan Truex KOBE Toyopet Toyota 144 12 41.0 Running
22 30 22 Austin Wayne Self # AM Technical Solutions Toyota 144 11 46.8 Running
23 24 45 Casey Smith Niece Equipment Chevrolet 144 10 48.0 Running
24 25 49 Reed Sorenson(i) Chevrolet 143 0 44.8 Vibration
25 27 66 Jordan Anderson Columbia SC-Famously Hot Chevrolet 143 8 47.5 Running
26 23 02 Tyler Young Randco/Young's Building Systems Chevrolet 143 7 39.5 Running
27 29 50 Travis Kvapil Willbros Chevrolet 142 6 36.8 Running
28 11 05 Cody Coughlin # Zaxby's/JEGS Chevrolet 141 5 36.6 Running
29 28 07 Matt Mills Thompson Electric Inc. Chevrolet 140 4 32.2 Running
30 32 1 Jennifer Jo Cobb Grimes Irrigation & Construction Chevrolet 138 3 27.8 Running
31 26 44 Tommy Joe Martins Diamond Gusset Jeans/RPM Trailers Chevrolet 61 2 28.0 Accident
32 31 63 Norm Benning Chevrolet 22 1 23.3 Engine