Call Saturday’s Smith’s 350 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series championship in microcosm.
Austin Dillon, James Buescher and Johnny Sauter comprise the top three – and most likely, only – contenders for the 2011 crown.
A year ago, the finishing order of the Smith’s 350 found each of the title hopefuls among the top three. Dillon won the race by 2.474 seconds over Sauter, with Buescher third.
Sauter won the race in 2009, his first series victory – a springboard to an eventual Sunoco Rookie of the Year title.
Dillon, 21 and bidding to become the youngest NASCAR Camping World Truck champion, leads Buescher by three points with Sauter 19 back. He’s coming off his NASCAR Sprint Cup Series debut in Kansas where he finished 26th.
Sauter has been particularly strong on intermediate tracks – he won last year at Kansas Speedway – and this week’s race is crucial to picking up the pieces, so to speak. The Wisconsin driver dominated competition from spring through early summer before faltering.
Buescher continues to seek his first series victory but has been the series’ most consistent competitor logging 17 top 10s in 19 starts. He finished third behind Ron Hornaday Jr. and Dillon in the most recent event at Kentucky Speedway.
Hornaday, meanwhile, hopes to avoid any hangover from the milestone 50th victory – and shake off what has been a Sin City jinx.
“This is one of those tracks that I don’t have a victory at so that is definitely our priority this weekend. I am back with Bruce Cook and the No. 2 truck team this weekend and really looking forward to getting on the track to see what we have,” said Hornaday, who still harbors hopes for the fifth championship. He’s fifth, 42 points behind Dillon. “This team is on top of their game and with five races to go in the season, it’s game time.”
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