ThorSport Racing finishes 1-2 in the Career for Veterans 200 at Michigan International Speedway
For Johnny Sauter this is his first win of the season in the Camping World Truck Series in a tight finish of just 0.433 seconds over his ThorSport Racing teammate, Matt Crafton, finishing second.
Pit strategy was the difference between first and second with the race leader Crafton pitting on lap 97 for fuel allowing Sauter to regain the lead on his way to the checkered flag and victory lane. Sauter led 21 laps en route to his tenth career victory in the Camping World Truck Series. He also takes over the points lead from Ryan Blaney.
Following Crafton were Ron Hornaday Jr in third, Tayler Malsam in fourth and Kyle Busch finishing fifth.
Busch had won all five of his Truck series starts this season coming into this race. He was in contention and lost his momentum when he came to pit road for gas on lap 52. He struggled to get his truck restarted after it stalled during the pit stop. He did rebound from the set back for the top-five finish.
For a good part of the race, Darrell Wallace Jr, – Busch’s teammate – was in the lead by nearly ten seconds, but ran out of gas on lap 76, coming to pit road. Once again, his pit stop lingered on as he struggled to re-fire the engine, nixing his chance of winning. Wallace has won twice in 2014 and led a race-high 48 laps, finishing in 11th place.
Pole-sitter, Ryan Blaney entered the race as the points leader, but with a 21st-place finish, he has now slipped to third-place – 16 points behind the leader. Matt Crafton is second in the point standings just 9 points behind his teammate, Johnny Sauter.
Incredibly there was only one caution for six laps, along with ten lead changes among five drivers.
Rounding out the top-ten finishing spots are German Quiroga Jr in sixth, Timothy Peters seventh, Jeb Burton eighth, Joey Coulter ninth and Joe Nemechek came in at tenth.
Next up for the Camping World Truck Series is the UNOH 200 at Bristol Motor Speedway on Wednesday, August 20th with the green flag at 8:50 pm ET. Television coverage by FOX Sports 1 begins at 8 pm ET with their pre-race coverage.