Category: RC Truck Series

After taking a splash of fuel with seven laps to go, Johnny Sauter would beat his ThorSport teammate Matt Crafton back to the line to score the victory in the Careers for Veterans 200 at Michigan International Speedway. It marks Sauter’s first victory of the season and his 10th victory of his career. It also marked the first race that Sauter had Jeff Hensley on the pit box.

“I’m so proud of everybody on this team,” Sauter said. “That last stop – I knew I had to get on pit road right and make no mistakes. So proud of Jeff Hensley for coming over here.”

Heading into the final 10 races of the season, Sauter now leads the point standings by nine points ahead of Crafton.

“We’re just now past halfway so this is great,” Sauter commented. “This is what we needed, this is the momentum that we needed. We’ve had a solid consistent year, but we really had the speed again.”

Crafton’s second place finish marks his eighth top-10 of the 2014 season as he tries to win back-to-back championships.

“Today, I don’t think we had the best truck but I felt we had a top-three, top-five truck today,” Crafton said. “All in all, good day for ThorSport Racing in working hard. We had an incident in practice and these guys kept trashing through practice to solve the tire rub and get the truck right.”

Ron Hornaday kept his positive momentum going with a third place finish, followed by Tayler Malsam and Kyle Busch. Busch ran up front early, though fell back in traffic after running out of fuel as he got onto pit road at lap 52.

“I was better at pushing than he was at pulling. I think if we would’ve had 10 more laps, we would’ve caught the leaders,” Malsam said. “It was a lot of fun running Michigan this week so hopefully get to run some more races.”

German Quiroga finished sixth, followed by Timothy Peters, Jeb Burton, Joey Coulter and Joe Nemechek. Darrell Wallace Jr. finished 11th after leading a race-high 48 laps after running out of fuel as he came on to pit road with 25 laps to go.

Brad Keselowski Racing teammates Joey Logano and Ryan Blaney ran into problems as both their front nose pieces began to fall apart, requiring lengthy stays on pit road for repairs and poor finishes. Blaney, who came in as the points leader, now sits 16 points behind Sauter after finishing 21st.

“We had a quick Ford and we led the first part of the race,” Blaney commented. “We had a pretty big vibration and had to come down into the pits with the nose cone loose. We then had to come back down as we didn’t get it fixed. It’s a shame as we had a pretty fast truck. We have to figure out what happened.”

There’d only be one caution during the 100 lap race, coming at lap eight when Travis Kvapil’s motor went up in smoke after he contended for the win early.

“No warning. It definitely broke, and it was pretty major under there as there were holes in the oil pan,” he said. “Just thankful for the opportunity. I had a good truck. The drafting was definitely going to play a factor out there and we were able to make some good moves there. Just disappointed, but glad to be back behind the wheel of a fast truck and have the opportunity.”

The next race for the Camping World Truck Series is on Wednesday night at Bristol Motor Speedway.

In one of the most dominating performances the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series has seen this season, Darrell Wallace Jr. ended up in victory lane Wednesday night at Eldora Speedway. Despite his lack of dirt track racing experience, he was able to beat some of the best in the business en route to victory in the 1-800-CarCash Mudsummer Classic.

The unique race format consisted of 150 laps divided into three segments. The first segment was 60 laps, followed by a 50 lap segment and a final segment of 40 laps. The teams were allowed pit stops between each segment to make adjustments to their trucks and obtain fresh tires.

At the beginning of the race, it seemed like Wallace’s teammate Erik Jones would be the one dominating the night. However, his quick start went downhill fast as he suffered some tire issues. Wallace’s first glimpse at the lead came when he took the lead from Ron Hornaday Jr. on lap 49. From that point on, he rarely ran in any other position, leading the final 97 laps.

Some of the most exciting racing of the night came when Ty Dillon and Kyle Larson engaged in a heated battle for position during the 50 lap segment. Larson tried to maneuver around the No. 3 truck of Dillon on the outside. That didn’t work out so well as Dillon made contact with Larson, which sent Larson’s No. 32 truck spinning around in turn two. Larson would later bounce back to challenge Wallace for the win.

Wallace continued to put on a clinic at the front of the field throughout the second and third segments. He only had one major threat which came during the final segment from Larson. With 24 laps to go, Larson caught him and was fighting for the lead. He would take the position just as the seventh caution of the race came out.

Larson was unable to hold the lead on the restart as Wallace took the spot back. Larson battled back for one last charge in the closing laps. However, he slapped the wall a few too many times and damaged his truck, eventually slowing and coming to a stop with two laps remaining. He had to settle for a disappointing 26th place finish.

Wallace Jr. would acquire a lead the length of a straightaway at that point and cruise to victory. It’s his second win of the season and his third career win in the series.

“That’s so cool, on the dirt at Eldora,” Wallace said. “Really? Eldora? “The coolest thing about it is I came into this hoping we’d finish in the top-five. I was worried about the Toyota streak, not to lie.”

The victory is the eighth for Kyle Busch Motorsports in 2014. It also extends Toyota’s winning streak as they have won 12 consecutive races going back to Phoenix International Raceway last November.

Hornaday finished second followed by Ryan Blaney, Ken Schrader and Ty Dillon to round out the top five.

Blaney took over the points lead in the series from Matt Crafton by four points. Johnny Sauter is third (-10), Hornaday is fourth (-19) and German Quiroga is fifth (-26).

The trucks are back in action next Saturday afternoon at Pocono Raceway for the Pocono Mountains 150.

Ryan Blaney did everything that he could in the final stretch to the checkered to get by, however it wouldn’t be enough as Erik Jones would hold him off to score the victory in the American Ethanol 200 at Iowa Speedway. It marks Jones’ first victory of the 2014 season and the second victory of his career in nine career starts.

“That was awesome,” Jones commented. “We definitely drove it hard and there was nothing left in that thing at the end. Great race there with Ryan, great guy to race against; he raced me hard and clean, and we showed a lot of respect to each other.”

A caution would fly with 75 laps to go for Eric Claudell would go around into the infield after contact from Bryan Silas. Blaney would lead the field down pit road, with Jones winning the race off pit road ahead of Blaney, German Quiroga and Joey Coulter. Jones would get the advantage on the restart, pulling out ahead of Blaney. As the laps ticked down, though, Blaney would close the gap.

With 16 laps to go, Blaney would get to the inside of Jones as Jones gets stuck in heavy lap traffic going into turn one. As they came off the corner, Jones squeezes it three-wide in the middle of the lap truck and Blaney as they all get sorts of sideways. Down the backstretch, though, Jones would the advantage and get a small gap on Blaney, which he’d hold the rest of the way to the checkered flag.

“We came out of the pits first and got the lead. Got out, took off and he run us back down and finally got side-by-side, little contact but nothing more than a little short track racing,” Jones recalled the final dash to the checkered in victory lane.

Jones’ win marks the third straight victory for Kyle Busch Motorsports, following Wallace Jr.’s victory at Gateway and Kyle Busch’s victory a couple weeks ago in Kentucky. It marks the seventh victory overall for KBM this year.

Toyota also keeps their impressive streak going as they have dominated this year with their drivers scoring the victory in each of the nine races thus far this season. It marks Toyota’s 11th straight victory dating back to Jones’ win at Phoenix last year.

Blaney would hold on to second scoring his seventh top-10 of the 2014 season as he moves up to second in points, two points behind Matt Crafton.

“It’s hard to tell now but if we came off with the lead, it may have played differently,” Blaney commented. “But he was good on the short run and was able to get out there. We made a change and it sort of helped that, but I kept getting tight when I got closer to him. We’re making strides but just came up a little short.”

Crafton took the points lead after out-dueling Joey Coulter to the line for the third spot, keeping Crafton’s perfect record of a top-10 in each Iowa start going.

“Our guys have working really hard and we’ve beeen getting better each week,” Coulter commented. “We’ve been running good but just haven’t put the whole thing together. Now tonight we had a great run and I woke up out of bed in a good mood so it was a good night. Glad that we’re on a role. I think these next few races are going to be good for us.”

“I’d look a lot better in victory lane,” Crafton said. “We missed a little tonight but all in all, it was a good night. It was a third place truck and I guess that’s where we finished tonight. I think we have a little to learn before we start to catch the other two tonight.”

German Quiroga would battle to a fifth place finish after getting into the wall early in the event.

“First of all, I want to thank everyone who showed up – all the fans,” Quiroga commented. “We have been really fast right out of the box at every track. Here, we struggled to be honest. We tried to get faster, but didn’t get that good. However, we knew we had a good truck and we battled hard and got a good top-five.”

Rookie Ben Kennedy finished sixth, followed by Jeff Choquette, Cole Custer, Tyler Reddick and John Hunter Nemechek.

Pole sitter Darrell Wallace Jr. would finish 13th after going down two laps when the caution came out after he had made his green flag pit stop; Wallace Jr. led the first 41 laps.

Johnny Sauter came in as the points leader, but slips to third in points after battling an ill-handling truck all-day en route to a 18th place finish, two laps down.

Being a short track, the night didn’t go without tempers being shown as Ron Hornaday and Timothy Peters got together early in the race. Coming off of turn four, the pair were battling side-by-side when Peters slid up, thinking he was clear but wasn’t, therefore resulting in both drivers getting into the wall. Peters, thinking he wasn’t raced cleanly, would spin Hornaday the following lap in turn four. Peters would finish 31st after spending laps behind the wall for repairs, while Hornaday finished 21st.

Darrell Wallace Jr. kicked off his search for a second victory this season in the Camping World Truck Series the right way as he scored the 21 Means 21 Pole Award for the American Ethanol 200 at Iowa Speedway. Wallace Jr. drove his No. 54 ToyotaCare Toyota to a quick lap of 22.946 seconds. It marks Wallace Jr.’s first pole of the season and the second pole of his career.

Wallace Jr. will start on the front row alongside his Kyle Busch Motorsports teammate Erik Jones as Jones looks for his first top-10 of the season. Jones has yet to have any luck this year as he has ran inside the top 10, but has failed to finish there this year. Jones has done well for KBM in the past, though, scoring the victory last year at Phoenix International Raceway.

Kyle Busch Motorsports is going for their second straight top-two finish after Kyle Busch won at Kentucky with Wallace Jr. in second.

Timothy Peters will start third after contending for the win last year, followed by Ryan Blaney and Cole Custer. Custer is running a limited schedule this year to get experience.

Matt Crafton will start sixth, followed by Justin Lofton, Ron Hornaday Jr., Joey Coulter and German Quiroga.

Points leader Johnny Sauter will start from the 18th spot after struggling to get comfortable throughout practice all-day.

Starting Line-Up
2014 American Ethanol 200
Iowa Speedway

Editors Note: This story was published on the authors personal site and others

In another dominating performance in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, Kyle Busch emerged victorious after a battle with the rough and tough Kentucky Speedway. He led most of the event and only surrendered the lead a few times to Brad Keselowski and Darrell Wallace Jr.

“Tonight was great,” Busch said. “It’s a great opportunity to drive good equipment and good stuff, and I’m really proud that my name is on the door. I’m most proud of Eric Phillips (crew chief) and all the guys, everyone at Kyle Busch Motorsports for all their hard work and dedication and everything they’ve done to build really good trucks, they’ve done a great job for me. Seeing Darrell (Wallace Jr.) come home second tonight was pretty great, especially him getting back in traffic, like we both were, and being able to methodically work his way back up to second.”

Wallace Jr. proved to be just as competitive as his boss throughout the race as he started on the front row with him and remained in the top-five for much of the night. He even stole the lead on Lap 2 and held it until the No.51 truck stormed back to the front on Lap 36.

“He (Kyle Busch) knew what he was doing,” Wallace said after the race. “He’s hard to beat and he’s so good, but I wouldn’t want to be with anyone else; Kyle Busch Motorsports (KBM) is so strong. The engines were it on the restart, the engines have been stout all year so a shout out to everyone at the engine shop back at JGR (Joe Gibbs Racing). It’s been a lot of fun getting back into a rhythm coming off of Texas and St. Louis and then to finish here second. I try to make the most of it and it was a cool site with KBM one-two, Toyota one-two and 10th win in a row for Toyota. Huge shout out to Toyota Care and this Made in America Toyota Tundra was fast tonight.”

Following the fourth caution of the night on Lap 76 for a John Wes Townley incident, strategy shook up the field. Some drivers opted to stay on track while some hit pit road for either two or four tires. Keselowski did not put fresh tires on and he led on the ensuing restart. However, Busch would get back by with 55 laps remaining.

Keselowski seemed to be in prime position to score his first career Truck Series victory late in the race but a costly pit road penalty for removing equipment from the pit box deterred that plan. He restarted at the back of the field and recovered to finish fifth.

Despite a late restart with eight laps to go and a charge from Wallace Jr., Busch maintained the lead and pulled away by the time the checkered flag flew. However, Busch’s truck failed post-race inspection for being too low in the front and NASCAR will address this issue next week.

Ryan Blaney finished the race in third followed by Timothy Peters in fourth place and Brad Keselowski in fifth.

Johnny Sauter took home a ninth place finish and retains the points lead. Matt Crafton finished in sixth and is eight points behind in second place. Timothy Peters (-11), Ryan Blaney (-12) and Ron Hornaday Jr. (-13) round out the top five in the series points standings.

This is the No. 51 team’s fifth victory of the season. As an organization, Kyle Busch Motorsports has won nine of the last twelve Truck Series events. They will aim to add another victory to their streak in two weeks at Iowa Speedway when the trucks are back in action.