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Tag: Chase for the Championship

  • Sauter Now Biggest Threat For Truck Series Championship

    Sauter Now Biggest Threat For Truck Series Championship

    Throughout the course of the 2016 season, the biggest stories in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series were rookie driver William Byron’s series-leading six wins and the absolute dominance of the Toyota teams with 13 wins in 22 races. But with Byron eliminated from championship contention, it is looking like GMS Racing driver Johnny Sauter is now in prime position to hoist the championship trophy at Homestead.

    Since his first full season in the Camping World Truck Series in 2009, Sauter has been at or near the top of the standings each season, with a low of ninth in the final standings coming in 2012. In seven seasons racing for ThorSport Racing, the organization that fields the No. 88 of two-time NCWTS champion Matt Crafton, Sauter won 10 races and finished a career-best second in points in 2011 to champion Austin Dillon. However, despite the success and consistency, Sauter never held the championship trophy.

    In his first race behind the wheel of the No. 21 GMS Racing Chevrolet, Sauter took the win at Daytona and despite early season issues at Atlanta, Martinsville, and Kansas, he managed to fight his way back into the top-five in points, finishing outside of the top-10 only twice since finishing fourth at Dover in May. Now, following up back-to-back wins at Martinsville and Texas with a runner-up spot at Phoenix, his No. 21 Silverado is coming alive at the right time to clinch his first NCWTS championship.

    He holds a higher driver rating (120.3) than his four championship competitors heading into Homestead, and he has also posted more top-10s this season (18) than the other four drivers in the Final Four (Christopher Bell isn’t far off with 16 top-10s). As for the championship race at Homestead, despite Crafton having more top-10s, Sauter has posted several strong runs at Homestead including a win there in 2011. Sauter knows what it takes to win at Homestead and considering the stretch he’s been on coupled with the power that the GMS Racing trucks have been putting out this season (their six wins this season are an organization best), the No. 21 truck is definitely the team to beat.

    With this Chase format shaking things up in the standings, Sauter winning the championship isn’t a certainty. But considering he’s made it this far with a team that’s enjoying a breakout season, he’s on a hot streak. He has the best momentum heading into the finale and may be the odds-on favorite for the championship.

  • And The Chase Is On

    And The Chase Is On

    So the official announcement was pretty much what we already knew, the game was changing. We knew this was coming, we just were not sure of the details.

    The fans of NASCAR have been looking at empty seats in usually sold out races. Fans have complained how boring the races have been, some giving up the sport completely. We yelled at our television screens begging for something to change, thinking no one was listening, no so called “higher-ups” could see what we saw, that the sport we love was losing it’s magic.

    The fans have been begging for this, and now that it’s here so many are already hating it. Although it seems a little hard to understand and the verdict will be out for a while on all the elimination rounds, but the concept of the final four is intriguing. The winner takes all will make the end of the season exciting but with the points not counting as much, the question remains, what happens mid season?

    NASCAR heard us and is trying to make it more competitive, let’s not jump the gun on the hater bandwagon just yet. Granted this new Chase format probably will have flaws, but so did the existing Chase as well as the old points system prior to the Chase. Nothing will ever be perfect, but it can be made better.

    The biggest thing for NASCAR is to be consistent with the rules. They shouldn’t penalize a driver for speaking their mind and then not do it for others. They need to crack down on the penalties so that drivers know it’s going to hurt if you commit an infraction.

    In closing I think NASCAR is trying to change with the times and we should all give it a chance before we hate it. It’s understandable that we all hate change, but NASCAR has realized what they had was not working. This may not work as well as they think but we will not know until the end of the year after seeing how it all plays out. We are NASCAR fans and we are strong in opinions, let’s give it a chance. Who knows, it could be just what NASCAR needs to bring back lost fans and viewers. If it brings back excitement then it can’t be all bad.