Dillon Wins Truck Title Despite Valiant Run By Race Winner Sauter

Photo Credit: John Harrelson/Getty Images for NASCAR

 

By Reid Spencer
Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service

  

(November 18, 2011)

  

HOMESTEAD, Fla.—Austin Dillon withstood a strong challenge from race winner Johnny Sauter to win the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series championship in Friday night’s Ford 200 at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

NASCAR called the event with 15 laps left with Sauter in the lead and Dillon in 10th place, giving Dillon, 21, the youngest champion in series history, a six-point edge over Sauter in the final series standings.

 

Dillon is the first driver in series history to win the rookie of the year title in his first full season and the series championship the following year.

"I remember my first championship with Dale Earnhardt," said team owner Richard Childress, Dillon’s grandfather. "I had the same feeling tonight watching my grandson."

 

"You can’t go out of the truck series any better than this," said Dillon, who will graduate to the Nationwide Series with RCR next year.

Denny Hamlin finished second in the No. 18 Kyle Busch Motorsports truck, followed by Kevin Harvick, Nelson Piquet Jr. and Joey Coulter, who won the 2011 rookie of the year title. Coulter is a teammate of Dillon’s at Richard Childress Racing.

Early in the race, patience was a virtue for Dillon, who steered clear of potential complications and found a comfortable place to run at or near the back of the top 10.

As the race progressed, so did Dillon, who had worked his way into the second position behind Sauter before Ross Chastain’s spin on Lap 96 caused the fourth caution of the evening. The subsequent restart, however, brought more stress than Dillon ever could have expected.

Dillon fell back to 15th, fearing that he might have a problem with the right front fender on the No. 3 Chevrolet. Shortly thereafter, Sauter clinched most laps led, putting Dillon in danger of losing the championship if he lost more positions by the end of the race.

But Dillon drove back to the 10th position before rain halted the race on Lap 119 of 134 with Sauter in the lead.

"The fender got bent in—I don’t know how it happened," Dillon said. "I didn’t hit anybody on the track, but I think it happened on pit road. We got real tight once I got back there (in traffic). I think it was more on the conservative side when I was three-wide. We were three-wide in the middle, and to force a spot right there was not worth it."

 

Sauter, who won his second race of the season and the fourth of his career, wasn’t aware of how far behind Dillon had fallen on the restart.

"I had no clue," said Sauter, who won more than one event in a season in a top NASCAR touring series for the first time in his career. "Not one time tonight did they tell me where the 3 truck was. It didn’t really matter where he was running. We knew what we had to do, and that was lead the most laps and win the race.

"It’s a huge accomplishment, coming out here and doing what we needed to do. Six points is a bummer. You can think back on the season—dominating Kentucky, broke an axle, 20 to go, leading the race; ORP (Indianapolis), leading the race, flat tire; the lane violation at Texas, 22 points; six points at Pocono. You can go down the list—but everybody can. That’s just racing."

 

Notes: Greg Biffle and Travis Kvapil won rookie of the year honors and truck series championships, but not in consecutive years. Biffle accomplished the feat in 1998 (rookie) and 2000. Kvapil was rookie of the year in 2001 and champion in 2003. … Harvick had clinched the owners’ championship with his No. 2 truck before the series arrived at Homestead.

 

2011 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series

Homestead-Miami Speedway

Ford 200
Race Results

 

1. 13 Johnny Sauter SafeAuto/Curb Records Chevrolet
2. 18 Denny Hamlin Dollar General/DirecTV Toyota
3. 2 Kevin Harvick Hunt Brothers Pizza Chevrolet
4. 8 Nelson Piquet Jr. Piquet Realty Chevrolet
5. 22 Joey Coulter RCR Graphics Center Chevrolet
6. 21 Ty Dillon Charter Chevrolet
7. 24 Elliott Sadler AM/FM Energy Chevrolet
8. 17 Timothy Peters Tire Kingdom/Service Central Toyota
9. 23 Jason White Gunbroker.com Chevrolet
10. 3 Austin Dillon Bass Pro Shops/Tracker Boats Chevrolet
11. 81 David Starr Zachry Toyota
12. 31 James Buescher Exide Chevrolet
13. 33 Ron Hornaday Jr. OneMain Financial Chevrolet
14. 29 Parker Kligerman Cooper Standard Dodge
15. 15 Dusty Davis Red Top Auto Auction Toyota
16. 5 Todd Bodine International Trucks/Monaco RVs Toyota
17. 4 Ricky Carmichael Monster Energy Chevrolet
18. 6 Justin Lofton CollegeComplete.com Chevrolet
19. 88 Matt Crafton Menards/Tarkett Chevrolet
20. 62 Brendan Gaughan Tire Kingdom/Service Central Toyota
21. 9 Max Papis GEICO Toyota
22. 60 Cole Whitt Fuel Doctor/Red Bull Chevrolet
23. 32 Blake Feese Red Hot Insurance Chevrolet
24. 39 Ryan Sieg RSS Racing Chevrolet
25. 98 Dakoda Armstrong Ferrellgas/EverFi.com Chevrolet
26. 51 German Quiroga telcel Toyota
27. 93 Ross Chastain National Watermelon Chevrolet
28. 9 Bryan Silas Rockingham Speedway Ford
29. 57 Norm Benning G.L. Hubbard & Sons Inc. Chevrolet
30. 68 Clay Greenfield Anave Weight Loss Dodge
31. 66 Max Gresham MattyBRaps.com/Gresham Motorsports Park Chevrolet
32. 7 Miguel Paludo Duroline Toyota
33. 74 Mike Harmon KOMA Unwind Chevrolet
34. 38 Dennis Setzer RSS Racing Chevrolet
35. 10 Jennifer Jo Cobb DrivenMale.com Ford
36. 7 Johnny Chapman BOBBER.info Toyota

Hornaday wins at Texas when Sauter is black-flagged

Photo Credit: Tom Pennington/Getty Images

By John Sturbin
Special to the Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service

(June 10, 2011)


FORT WORTH, Texas—Ron Hornaday Jr. won the Camping World Truck Series WinStar World Casino 400k Friday night when race leader Johnny Sauter was black-flagged for changing lanes on the night’s final restart.

Sauter, who had passed Hornaday for the lead with a powerful run through Turn 4 on Lap 130, was penalized for moving from the outside lane to in front of Hornaday before crossing the start/finish line on a green-white-checkered restart on Lap 167. The race went 168 laps, one beyond its scheduled distance.

“Good way to steal one,” Hornaday said. “I think we had a third- or a fifth-place truck, but it worked out for us. On that restart, he was the leader, but he kind of blocked, basically.”

Asked at what point he realized Sauter had broken the restart rule, Hornaday said, “Soon as the green dropped he turned in my lane, and I was yelling, ‘He’s in my lane!’ At that time we had a second-place truck, but it was a (good) call. I spun my tires, he spun his tires, and his spotter must have said, ‘Clear.’ ”

The black flag call was made by series director Wayne Auton, who Hornaday said specifically addressed the issue during Friday’s driver’s meeting.

“He said, ‘This is your last warning.’ I think he said it three times,” Hornaday said. “ ‘You go into another guy’s lane, better give it back before you get to Turn 1.’ Sticky call. But you can’t change lanes until you pass the start/finish line. And I hate that rule.”

Sauter, the series points leader, was scored 22nd, the last vehicle on the lead lap.

“He’s got a lane to race down there,” Sauter said as he walked to his hauler. “We both spun the tires.”

Asked if he would confront NASCAR officials over the decision, Sauter said, “It’s official, isn’t it?”

Hornaday, a four-time series champion, earned his 48th career victory and first of the season. It was his third victory on Texas’ 1.5-mile quadoval. Parker Kligerman finished second for his third top 10 of the season. He is the second-highest rookie, eighth in the standings.

David Mayhew’s third-place run easily eclipsed his previous best series finish of 14th. Brian Ickler and rookie Joey Coulter rounded out the top five.

Contact between Austin Dillon and Matt Crafton—fourth and fifth in the point standings, respectively—ended Crafton’s night after a grinding crash into the outside and infield retaining walls on Lap 90. The two were entering the quadoval off Turn 4 when Dillon hooked the right rear quarter panel of Crafton’s truck and sent it spinning.

Photo Credit: Todd Warshaw/Getty Images

Crafton exited uninjured, but rather than head for the ambulance, he proceeded to walk toward Turn 4 to “confront” Dillon as he cycled around. Crafton raised his arms in a “What were you thinking?” pose as Dillon drove past. After reviewing the replay, Crafton was considerably cooler.

“I was a little bit loose and trying to get out of the throttle and turn back to the left,” Crafton said. “But when you get hooked in the rear on the front straight, that’s a tough way to go out at Texas Motor Speedway.”

Earlier, Todd Bodine saw his shot at a seventh victory at Texas end via contact and a crash with David Starr. Their crash on Lap 68 in Turn 2 was the second of the night involving Bodine, who was caught up in another Turn 2 incident with Ickler on Lap 52. Bodine won this event in 2009 and 2010.

NASCAR rules against Haas CNC Sprint Cup teams after confiscation of cars

The penalties were brought against Haas CNC team carries the subtle feeling of a wet towel whipping. Not only were the #66 and #70 car publicly removed from the garage on exposed flatbed trucks last weekend, the real punishment sentenced late Wednesday night are some of the most severe hits for an already embattled race team.

NASCAR issued a 150 point loss for each car in the Sprint Cup owner's points, Haas CNC drivers Scott Riggs and Johnny Sauter are also hit with 150 point penalties. This deeply effects the #66 Chevrolet which was sitting comfortably inside the coveted top-35 points spot after the Coca-Cola 600. Having resided in 26th position, the points adjustment now alarmingly places Scott Rigg's #66 car on the 34th position. Concerning the costliness of 150 points to the driver's yearly tally, this hits Johnny Sauter especially hard as he only ran three races this season on a race-to-race basis for Haas CNC. Additionally, Crew Chief of both car Bootie Barker and Derick Jennings have now been suspended by NASCAR for six races along with being fined $100,000 a piece. The #66 and #70 car chiefs are also serving six-race sentenced away from their race teams as a result to their suspected involvement.

In a similar incident last year, Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s #8 Budweiser Chevy was caught with unapproved wing mounts at Darlington. While the current spec COT race car was even deeper in infancy, the #8 Chevy of Dale Earnhardt Jr. received a hammering with a $100,000 fine and 100 point deduction in driver and car owner points (at the end of the 2007 season, that amounted a two point position loss in 16th rather than 14th). The crew chief punishment was equal with Tony Eury Jr. serving a six-race suspension. Ironically, this incident had #66 crew chief Bootie Barker making a similar defense as Eury's by stating that the wing mountings had previously passed NASCAR inspection.

Along with the loss of money and points, NASCAR has also confiscated the two offending race cars.

While the team would have succomed hard to the deep embarrassment of seeing their cars being openly carried away by NASCAR, this is by no means a case of the stock car racing sanctioning body singling out one team. This follows a long history of NASCAR inspectors, making non-conforming cars and components their own trophies in a game to catch those they believe are more blatantly bending their rules. The staging was more a message to any other team tempting past the razor edge of the NASCAR Rulebook. However, with near record-setting fines being levied against teams, the hurt for a NASCAR Sprint Cup race team runs deeper.