Sauter Wins First Truck Series Race

Persistence is a virtue for Johnny Sauter as he finally got his first victory Saturday in the Camping World Truck Series, just ahead of his ThorSport Team mate Matt Crafton in the Las Vegas 350. Just a rookie in the Camping World Truck Series, but with three wins in the Nationwide Series. Sauter passed his team mate on the outside exiting Turn 2 on the 130^th lap of a scheduled 146 laps on the 1.5-mile Las Vegas Motor Speedway and then pulled away to cross the line 2.47 seconds ahead of Crafton.

Sauter finally beat Hornaday and it must feel good

It must feel great to finally get his first victory in the Trucks, after spending last year doing start and parks in the Nationwide Series. He had nice speed all year in the Truck Series, but never quite finished the deal in a race, despite having a fast truck on the series for the last two months. This victory is a notable day in that Sauter became the first rookie to win in the Truck Series since Scott Speed accomplished the feat on May 30, 2008, while driving at Dover International Speedway. He was due since this was his fifth consecutive top five finish and the victory lifted him two spots to fifth in the points standings. His best finish this year before this one was a fifth place in his fifteenth race at Dover. What changed things for him during his the last five races? Apparently, it was the arrival on the scene of crew chief Joe Shear, who he had worked with before and apparently has a great respect for.

This victory was the third for ThorSport, which is owned and operated by Duke and Rhonda Thorson and based in Sandusky, Ohio, which makes it one of the few teams not based in the Charlotte, N.C. area.

Crafton still had a pretty good day, but just couldn’t match the speed of Sauter’s truck. He did manage to cut 20 points off of Ron Hornaday’s lead in the point’s standings, but still trails Hornaday by 197 points with just five races remaining on the schedule. Just the same it was a great day for the team and they pulled closer in the standings, so they can’t have much to complain about.

“Image: Zuma Press”