Jerome Miron-US PRESSWIRE
Johnny Sauter qualified for the NASCAR truck race 13th in the No. 13 SealMaster Curb Records Toyota. It must have been a good sign, as he was able to race to the front to win. Johnny becomes the third driver to sweep at Texas, joining Ron Hornaday Jr. (2008) and Brendan Gaughan (2002-03).
It might not be a 13 thing but Chicken and Dumplings. “It was just a flawless performance by this whole Sealmaster/Curb Records Toyota team. Proud of everybody at ThorSport. It’s been an up and down season, but we’ve been fast at a lot of race tracks and just had trouble and didn’t have anything to show for it. To be able to sweep Texas — it’s really cool.” Johnny added, “Grandma lives right up the road and that’s two races in a row that she’s made me chicken and dumplings — I think that’s beginning to be my good luck charm. Just proud of everybody and this is a team effort. I want to thank everyone at Toyota, Triad engines, Goodyear — it’s a good deal.”
The race started with teammates the pole sitter No. 30 Nelson Piquet Jr. and NASCAR Truck Series points’ leader No 31 James Buescher racing each other hard and clean. Nelson Piquet Jr. led most of the initial part of the race and ended up leading the most laps of 65. James Buescher was also able to lead 31 laps but that was during the first half of the race. James had problems after midway in the race and got a little damage to his truck. He was not able to get back to the front and finished the race in 11th place.
If you happened to be watching the race and wondered why it finished so quickly, it wasn’t you. The race set a new record as the fastest NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at Texas Motor Speedway ever. The average speed was 154.373 MPH. There were a record low number of cautions of 2 for only 8 laps.
Since the race only had 2 caution flags the final pit stop was going to figure into who won the race and who did not. Anytime that final pit stop is one under green flag conditions it can and does test a driver and a team. Johnny Sauter and his team is no exception. Johnny said after the race, “I just made sure I didn’t screw up getting on pit road. I felt we had a pretty good lead. They said, ‘Well, you’re racing the 30 (Nelson Piquet Jr.) for the lead,’ and then I got by him and they were like, ‘No, no, it’s the 7 (Parker Kligerman).’ I knew he (Kligerman) took two tires and it would just be a matter of time. The bumps were playing havoc with everybody. Grip was at a premium and the Goodyear tires were great. The Triad engine was flawless tonight. I’m so proud of this team. It would be easy to hang our heads after the season that we’ve had, but another win. It’s cool and we just need to finish strong.”
Parker Klingerman finished the race second, Nelson Piquet Jr. third, Kyle Busch fourth and Ty Dillon fifth.
James Buescher retains the points lead by 15 points over Ty Dillon. Chevrolet clinches the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Manufacturer’s Championship, sweeping all three NASCAR national series manufacturer titles.
Brian Berg Jr. is the Lead NASCAR writer for www.RantSports.com.
Follow him on Twitter @brian_jr1 during the race and throughout the week for more NASCAR news and commentary. On Facebook at NASCAR News and Commentary
