Sauter wins another truck race at Texas
Fort Worth, TX (Sports Network) - Johnny Sauter scored a season-sweep in the
NASCAR Camping World Truck Series at Texas Motor Speedway by winning Friday
night's WinStar World Casino 350.
Sauter, who won the first truck race at Texas this season in June, grabbed the
lead from Parker Kligerman with 11 laps remaining and then easily beat
Kligerman to the finish line by 2.2 seconds.
During a late-race round of pit stops under green, Kligerman took just two new
tires and captured the lead after the cycle of stops was completed on lap 121.
Sauter, who held the top position before the pit stops began, trailed
Kligerman by three seconds after taking four fresh tires. But Sauter quickly
chased down Kligerman and then made his winning pass.
Sauter notched his sixth career truck win in a season that has been a
disappointment for the ThorSport Racing driver following his second-place
finish in the series point standings last year. He is currently ninth in the
rankings.
"It's been a season of peaks and valleys, for sure," Sauter said. "We've just
had a lot of bad luck this year, quite frankly."
Sauter became the third driver in the Truck Series to post a season-sweep at
Texas, joining Ron Hornaday Jr. (2008) and Brendan Gaughan (2002-03).
"I'm so proud of this team," Sauter added. "It would be easy to hang our heads
after the season that we've had. Another win is cool, and we just need to
finish strong."
Rookie Ty Dillon's fifth-place finish coupled with an 11th-place run for James
Buescher allowed Dillon to trim Buescher's lead from 21 points to 15. Just two
races remain -- Phoenix (Nov. 9) and Homestead (Nov. 16).
Buescher started second and led 31 laps in the early going, but he got hit
from behind by Matt Crafton and then bumped into the back of Nelson Piquet
Jr., the pole sitter, during a restart on lap 70. Buescher then experienced a
vibration, which caused him to fade in the field.
"It was looking like it was going to be a decent night for us, but when I
restarted in third and felt like I was in a good position, the 33 (Cale Gale)
spun his tires and Nelson had to check up, so it was bumper cars from there
and got too much damage," Buescher said. "The truck got really tight and
couldn't turn and couldn't run the bottom."
Piquet finished third after leading the most laps with 65, while Kyle Busch
bounced back from an electrical problem just before the halfway point to place
fourth.
Crafton, Joey Coulter, Todd Bodine, Aric Almirola and Timothy Peters completed
the top-10.
Peters now trails Buescher by 25 points, and Kligerman is 27 behind.
Featuring just two cautions, the 147-lap truck race at Texas moved at a
record-pace of 154.737 mph and was completed in 1 hr., 25 mins., 30 secs.
11/02 23:11:21 ET
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