Johnny Sauter, driver of the #98 Carolina Nut / Curb Records Toyota, celebrates in Victory Lane after winning the Camping World Truck Series Fred’s 250 Powered By Coca-Cola at Talladega Superspeedway on October 19, 2013
Photo – Getty Images

Dramatic closing laps left Johnny Sauter in victory lane after a chaotic day at Talladega. Sauter had help from teammate Matt Crafton for most of the race. It was Crafton pushing Sauter on the last restart and that propelled Sauter to his third win of the season.

The destiny of the championship battle took a wild turn at Talladega. Throughout the afternoon, many different scenarios arose that could have put a drastic spin to the title hunt. James Buescher led early and was one of the early favorites which would have dramatically helped his championship case. Point’s leader Crafton stayed at the back for a good part of the race, but at the finish, he made a charge toward the front.

The first big incident of the day took place with 29 laps left to run. Jeb Burton got into Caleb Holman as they shot off into turn three. Holman turned down into Timothy Peters and then they shot back up the track into the wall. Overall, there were eight trucks involved, and the wrecking of the afternoon didn’t end at this point.

A championship picture-changing wreck took place with 15 laps remaining. Justin Lofton, Ron Hornaday Jr., and James Buescher squeezed together on the bottom line as they entered the backstretch. Hornaday turned Lofton down the track and they collected Buescher. There were many hard hits and Buescher most likely took his name out of the title hunt.

Another round of crashing took place with seven laps left in the race. A chain reaction on the backstretch led to Ryan Blaney and Hornaday turning down the track and making impact with the inside wall.

The race restarted three laps later with Ross Chastain controlling the field. Chastain had drafting help from Parker Kligerman and that tandem took off. Two more tandems of Johnny Sauter and Matt Crafton and Dakoda Armstrong and Kyle Busch soon joined Chastain and Kligerman at the front. The three pairs raced three-wide around the track as the laps wound down.

A dead-even race was on off turn four on the last lap. Sauter and Crafton took the slight advantage as trucks entered the tri-oval. Then a major accident ensued when the pack caught the runaway tandems at the front. It was Miguel Paludo turning up into Jeb Burton who got into Busch to start the massive last lap wreck.

As the trucks wrecked behind the tandems of Chastain/Kligerman and Sauter/Crafton, a wreck broke out between the pairs. Sauter was the only one to make it through cleanly, taking the checkers.

Just about every truck was caught up in the last lap wreck. Paludo was on his hood while Busch took a few hard hits; with one impact into the end of the pit road wall.

The smoke took a while to settle. Sauter was celebrating his win in victory lane while his teammate and drafting partner, Crafton, was caught up in the mess and just needed to cross the line today and his championship would still be in tact. He did so to improve his points lead as Buescher had his day cut short.

As expected, Talladega provided a major shakeup to the standings. None of the top contenders could take the victory, leaving Sauter to steal it away. Sauter won at Daytona in February and now, Talladega completes his plate track sweep.

Results via ESPN.com