Wisconsin native Johnny Sauter (No. 13 Fun Sand/Rodney Adkins/Curb Records Chevrolet) has been fighting his way through the field over the last four races, earning top-five finishes and leaving all eyes on him as a likely candidate for Victory Lane. Saturday night he finally broke through. In his 31st start in the series, Sauter grabbed his first NASCAR Camping World Truck Series win.
“Just a phenomenal night for us,” said Sauter. “Especially coming off last week. We were so close but ran out of fuel. I can’t say enough about Joe Shear (crew chief) and all these guys. It’s been a long time since I’ve won a race in NASCAR so this feels pretty damn good.”
With the win, Sauter moves from seventh to fifth in the standings. “I can’t believe we’re fifth in the points. If you had told me that at the first of the year, I would have called you a liar,” he said.
Johnny Sauter’s win Saturday at Las Vegas extends his lead to 35 points over Tayler Malsam (No. 81 One-Eighty Toytoa) in the Rookie of the Year standings. The two entered the Vegas weekend 24 points apart. Auto Racing Daily
RANK DRIVER POINTS STARTS 1 Ron Hornaday 3210 20 2 Matt Crafton 3013 20 3 Mike Skinner 2955 20 4 Brian Scott 2714 20 5 Johnny Sauter* 2647 20 6 Todd Bodine 2645 20 7 Colin Braun 2632 20 8 Rick Crawford 2576 20 9 Timothy Peters 2573 20 10 David Starr 2552 20 11 Tayler Malsam* 2526 20 12 Stacy Compton 2526 20 13 Terry Cook 2445 20 14 James Buescher* 2321 20 15 T.J. Bell 2266 20 16 Jason White 2233 20 17 Dennis Setzer 2195 17 18 Chad McCumbee 1963 17 19 Kyle Busch 1894 11 20 Norm Benning 1660 19 21 Aric Almirola 1577 11 22 Ricky Carmichael* 1533 14 23 Brian Ickler* 1340 11 24 Brandon Knupp 1159 16 25 Wayne Edwards 1067 14 26 Johnny Benson 1047 8 27 J.R. Fitzpatrick* 1022 9 28 Mario Gosselin 971 12 29 Chris Fontaine 933 10 30 Ryan Sieg 850 8 31 Butch Miller 819 12 32 Shane Sieg 811 10 33 Nick Tucker 803 13 34 Brent Raymer* 802 12 35 Max Papis 761 7
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