The unquestioned class of the field in Saturday’s O’Reilly Auto Parts 250 at Kansas Speedway, Clint Bowyer won his first Camping World Truck Series race of the season in dominating fashion.
Bowyer, from Emporia, Kan., beat Johnny Sauter to the finish line by 1.695 seconds to claim his third victory in 11 starts in the series.
It was a watershed race for Bowyer, who posted his first NASCAR national-series victory in his home state in the 400th race in Truck Series history. Previously, Bowyer had finished second in the 2007 Cup race at the 1.5-mile track and second in the 2008 Nationwide Series event here. NASCAR.com
“It was a dream for me to be able to compete here in any series, and to roll into victory lane is a dream come true,” Bowyer said.
No one seemed immune to reveling in the moment. That included Bowyer’s fellow competitors, such as four-time truck series champion Ron Hornaday Jr., who met Bowyer before he got out of his car in victory lane to deliver a celebratory Dasani bath.
“That felt pretty good, and it was a good shot,” Bowyer said. “He blasted me with a whole bottle. I think he emptied the whole bottle right in my face. But we’ve still got one to go.
“I still haven’t won a Nationwide race here, but we’ve gotten close, and we’ve been close in the (Sprint) Cup race. But I want to win a Cup race here bad.” Kansas City Star
“I thought we had something for him in that middle run, and that last pit stop, we elected to take fuel only, and that was our only way to beat him,” Sauter said. “He got through traffic better than I did.”
Defending series champion Todd Bodine finished third, while James Buescher took the fourth spot.
Rookie Joey Coulter passed Kyle Busch during the final laps to finish fifth. Busch’s sixth-place run ended a three-race winning streak in the series. He had won at Nashville, Dover and Charlotte prior to Kansas.
Brendan Gaughan, Nelson Piquet Jr., Brad Sweet and Travis Kvapil finished seventh through 10th, respectively. MiamiHerald.com
“We had a horrible truck all day,” Busch said. “Just was fighting real, real tight. Couldn’t get it to where it needed to be.”
Sauter took over the points lead, moving 12 ahead of rookie Cole Whitt. Whitt stayed in the middle of the pack for most of the day, starting 16th and finishing 15th.
Austin Dillon, who started on the pole, fell off the pace early and was penalized twice, once for coming out of pit road too fast and once for entering too fast. He finished 12th.
Four-time series champion Ron Hornaday, who entered fifth in the standings, blew his left rear tire and hit the wall 17 laps in. He finished 30th, 66 laps down, and slipped one spot to sixth. Seattle Post Intelligencer
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