NASCAR Camping World Truck Series

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Sauter’s Hot Start Continues With Kroger 250 Win At Martinsville Speedway

Camping World Truck Series Fan4Racing NASCAR Track News
Johnny Sauter is only the second driver in NASCAR Camping World Truck Series history to open the season with back-to-back wins. Mark Martin in 2006 was the first. Photo - Sean Gardner/Getty Images)
Johnny Sauter is only the second driver in NASCAR Camping World Truck Series history to open the season with back-to-back wins. Mark Martin in 2006 was the first.
Photo – Sean Gardner/Getty Images)

Johnny Sauter’s hot start to the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series season continued Saturday afternoon with a win in the Kroger 250 at Martinsville Speedway.

The win gave Sauter a sweep of the first two races of the season. He won the opener at Daytona five weeks ago and with Saturday’s win he became only the second driver in NASCAR Camping World Truck Series history to win the first two races of the season. Mark Martin won the first two races of the 2006 season.

“We typically run well here, so our expectations are high. Yesterday (Friday practice) was no different. The truck was really fast off the hauler,” Sauter said after his second Martinsville Speedway victory. “We knew today was going to be about tire management, more so than I ever remember here. So the first part of the race we ran about 80 percent and tried not to lose too much track position.

 

“Later on after our first pit stop, we were around eighth and still riding. After the next pit stop with 100 to go we were 18th and I was wondering how I could be patient and aggressive. With 40 or 50 to go we put the hammer down and let her go. It was an amazing day.”

Sauter took the lead with 17 laps to go and really wasn’t challenged, taking a 1.888-second victory over ThorSport Racing teammate Matt Crafton.

Pole-sitter and rookie Jeb Burton finished third, followed by former Martinsville winner Timothy Peters and rookie Darrell Wallace Jr.

Burton, who set a track record in qualifying Friday, had the dominant truck for most of the day, leading 154 laps at the .526-mile track before losing the lead to Sauter.

“I really wanted to win and had them covered for half of the race,” said Burton. “I was really good at the beginning and we adjusted to the track at half way and we still had them covered. I just used up too much of the truck late. But we’ve got nothing to hang our head about. We had a good truck all day.”

The day finished much better than it began for Crafton. He started eighth, fell back through the field and was involved in a little beating and banging two or three times.

“I thought we were going to go down a lap on the first run. They dropped the green and I was good for about five laps and then I was about done,” said Crafton. “But this bunch of mine never gave up. They kept making adjustments. I can’t thank those guys behind the wall enough … they were using their heads and making methodical changes to the truck.”

Action returns to Martinsville Speedway Sunday with the running of the STP® Gas Booster™ 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup race.

Excellent seats remain for Sunday’s STP® Gas Booster™ 500 at Martinsville Speedway and may be purchased by calling 877.RACE.TIX or online at www.martinsvillespeedway.com. Martinsville Speedway’s ticket office will open at 7 a.m. on Sunday.

Martinsville Speedway

 

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Hendrick’s Drive to Entry into International Motorsports Hall of Fame Began on Family Farm at Tender Age of 14 with Passion for Automobiles

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This is the first of a four-part series on the 2013 induction class of the International Motorsports Hall of Fame, which will be celebrated during ceremonies on Thursday, May 2, in Talladega, AL. The inductees include Rick Hendrick, Dale Inman, Rusty Wallace and Don Schumacher. For ticket information on how fans can attend the event, call 256-761-4725. The 2013 IMHOF Induction ceremonies kick off Aaron’s Dream Weekend at Talladega Superspeedway.

downloadRick Hendrick’s journey began on his family’s tobacco farm, a stone’s throw from the small Virginia community of Palmer Springs. It was there, south of Richmond near the North Carolina border, where his father instilled the value of a hard day’s work and a pure passion for the automobile.

Under the watchful eye of “Papa Joe,” that love of cars led Hendrick into the world of auto racing. At age 14, he made a name for himself by setting speed records at a local drag strip with a self-built 1931 Chevrolet. Two years later, the self-described “gearhead” won the Virginia division of the Chrysler-Plymouth Troubleshooting Contest, a competition for engine builders. He was just 16. Continue reading →

Rookies and Veterans Looking for Martinsville Magic

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Martinsville Speedway
Martinsville Speedway

Martinsville short track racing is on just about every fans’ bucket list of tracks to visit. And for drivers in NASCAR’s élite series, Martinsville is on their bucket list too, whether it comes to racing there for the first time or winning at the historic track. For several, this weekend’s race at Martinsville will be their first as NASCAR drivers in the Camping World Truck Series or Sprint Cup Series. Both rookies and veterans of the sport, look for magic at the flat short track, as they all want to bring home a coveted Martinsville clock.

There are six Camping World Truck Series drivers that have already visited Victory Lane at the 0.526-mile oval. And six others are attempting to make their first NASCAR national series appearance.

Forty-two different competitors have made their first NASCAR Camping World Truck Series start at Martinsville.

Among the group is NASCAR Sprint Cup champion Brad Keselowski, who debuted in the Kroger 250 on April 17, 2004. Timothy Peters is the only competitor to claim both first series start (2005) and victory (2009) at Martinsville.

Peters, Johnny Sauter, Ron Hornaday Jr., Kevin Harvick, David Starr and Scott Riggs are Martinsville winners expected to compete in Saturday’s race.

Kyle Busch Motorsports brings a pair of first-timers to the event: NASCAR Drive for Diversity graduate Darrell Wallace Jr. and Erik Jones. Although this is a first-time visit for Wallce in NASCAR’s truck series, it’s not his first time at the track. Wallace finished third in a 2010 NASCAR K&N Pro Series East race at the track. He’s 19; Jones is 16.

“I’ve got the same truck that Denny [Hamlin] won with here last year so there’s no reason we shouldn’t be up front,” said Wallace during a recent test day. “It’s going to be key for all of us to learn as much as we can from Kyle [Busch]. If we can pick his brain to get as much as we can, we should be pretty good right off the bat.”

Other debuting are Chase Elliott, 17, son of 1988 NSCS champion Bill Elliott and a NASCAR Next9 driver; Grant Galloway, 18, an Indiana midget racer; Devin Jones, 16, a transplanted Californian racing out of Hickory, N.C., and Jonathan Davenport, a 29-year-old late-model dirt touring competitor.

In the Sprint Cup Series, first-time visits to the .526-mile Martinsville Speedway rarely prove successful for even the biggest of talents. Rattle off the names, and then check out their debuts. Jimmie Johnson – now a seven-time winner at Martinsville – opened his Martinsville career with a 35th-place finish in 2002. Three-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion Tony Stewart finished 20th in 1999. Kevin Harvick, finally a Martinsville winner in 2011, slogged to a 34th-place finish in his début at the Virginia short track.

Among those who blossomed into Sprint Cup stars, the latest and greatest example of immediate Martinsville success is Denny Hamlin, who finished eighth in his 2005 début. It was a foreshadowing of Martinsville brilliance, as the Virginia native has four wins there. He’ll miss this weekend’s race while recovering from a back injury.

All that begs the question: How will Sunoco Rookie of the Year contenders Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Danica Patrick fare this Sunday? Because the NASCAR Nationwide Series has only raced at Martinsville once – 2006 – since 1994, neither Stenhouse nor Patrick has much competitive seat time there.

At this point of the season, Stenhouse and Patrick are tied for the Sunoco rookie standings, each with 54 points. Stenhouse is now 12th in point standings, and in contention to become only the second rookie to make the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup – only Hamlin has this distinction so far.

If Patrick makes the field on Sunday, she’ll make history once again as the first female to start a race at Martinsville. Likewise, neither have much short-track experience to lean on in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. Patrick has two Bristol starts with a best finish of 28th this season; Stenhouse’s lone short-track start resulted in a 16th at Bristol three weeks ago. Stenhouse did, however, tally three short-track wins in the NASCAR Nationwide Series, all at Iowa Speedway.

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Kroger 250 Preview

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2012 Martinsville race with Kevin Harvick #2 and Ty Dillon #3 Photo - Getty Images
2012 Martinsville race with Kevin Harvick #2 and Ty Dillon #3
Photo – Getty Images

The Trucks are back this weekend at Martinsville as they compete in their second race of the season. It has been five weeks since the Trucks competed at Daytona and now, they’re back to get their season going again. When we were in Daytona, Johnny Sauter brought home the trophy after a last lap crash prevented the race from ending under green. That means, Sauter is still on top of the points standings and he will be looking to take home another win this weekend at Martinsville. Continue reading →