Sauter spins and wins truck race at Kansas

What simply had to be the two best saves of the Camping World Truck Series season occurred at exactly the same time and within inches of each other Sunday afternoon at Kansas Speedway.

When the two trucks involved finally got pointed back in the proper direction, it was the one driven by Johnny Sauter that had the lead and would go on to win the O’Reilly Auto Parts 250.

The other truck involved, that of Ron Hornaday Jr., finished second but left its driver buzzing like a radio with a bad tube.

“You can’t tell me that Kansas didn’t like that one," Hornaday, not generally known to be all that excited about a second-place finish, shouted as he entered the postrace interview room.

Sauter, wearing a very large and sticky smear of birthday cake on his fire suit, was equally excited. As well he should be.

“I bet it looked pretty cool on TV," said Sauter, who turned 32 on Saturday.

With 13 laps to go, Sauter had the lead heading down the backstretch, but Hornaday pulled even on his low side. Hornaday’s truck suddenly hooked right—right into Sauter. Both spun simultaneously. With smoke pouring from the wheel wells of both trucks, they turned 60 degrees sideways.

The two drivers, who have a history of roughing each other up on the track and in the pits afterward, cranked the steering wheels and both executed highlight-clip saves.

“He got into me," Sauter said. “I couldn’t help but sit there and think as I was trying to save it … that darn Hornaday got me again within a month’s time. But it all worked out. That was good. That was good for the fans."

The victory was the first of the year for Sauter and moved him from 14th to fifth in the points standings.

Sauter said he felt good about his truck before it even arrived at Kansas. It was the same truck he used to win his first truck race last September in Las Vegas and finish 11th at Nashville the last time out.

Todd Bodine finished third and moved into second in the standings, 22 points behind Timothy Peters, who finished 23rd, six laps back.

Notes: Brian Ickler finished fourth and now has two top-five finishes in both of his starts for Kyle Busch Motorsports. … Rookie Austin Dillon had his best finish, sixth. … The race was stopped after 114 laps for more than 90 minutes by rain and hail.

Results

FIN ST CAR DRIVER MAKE SPONSOR PTS/BNS LAPS STATUS
1 3 13 Johnny Sauter Chevrolet In Country Television / "What A Horse" / Curb Records 195/10 167 Running
2 1 33 Ron Hornaday Chevrolet Longhorn Smokeless Tobacco 175/5 167 Running
3 6 30 Todd Bodine Toyota Germain.com 165/0 167 Running
4 9 18 Brian Ickler Toyota Toyota Tundra 165/5 167 Running
5 13 15 Johnny Benson Toyota Red Top Collector Car Auction 160/5 167 Running
6 5 3 Austin Dillon * Chevrolet Bass Pro Shops / Tracker 150/0 167 Running
7 4 51 Aric Almirola Toyota AKawareness.com / Graceway Pharmaceuticals 146/0 167 Running
8 8 5 Mike Skinner Toyota International Trucks / Monaco RV 142/0 167 Running
9 12 2 Ken Schrader Chevrolet ShopEZGO.com 138/0 167 Running
10 25 81 David Starr Toyota PC*Miler Navigator 139/5 167 Running
11 23 23 Jason White Dodge GunBroker.com 130/0 167 Running
12 7 4 Ricky Carmichael Chevrolet Monster Energy 127/0 167 Running
13 14 7 Justin Lofton * Toyota VisitPIT.com 124/0 166 Running
14 30 63 Jack Smith Ford Mittler Bros. Machine & Tool 126/5 166 Running
15 28 07 Tony Jackson Jr. Chevrolet SS Green Light Racing 123/5 166 Running
16 11 31 James Buescher Chevrolet Wolfpack Rentals 115/0 166 Running
17 17 12 Mario Gosselin Chevrolet TireMonkey.com / James Carter Attorney / Hawthorn Suites 117/5 164 Running
18 32 46 Terry Jones Dodge Team Gill Racing 109/0 164 Running
19 27 39 Ryan Sieg Chevrolet S&W Services 106/0 164 Running
20 26 186 Jamie Dick Chevrolet Viva Auto Group 103/0 164 Running
21 24 85 Brent Raymer Ford Ford. Drive one. 100/0 163 Running
22 20 56 Tayler Malsam Toyota Toyota / One Eighty 97/0 161 Running
23 10 17 Timothy Peters Toyota Strutmasters.com 94/0 161 Running
24 36 57 Norm Benning Chevrolet ProGold Engine Treatment 91/0 159 Running
25 2 88 Matt Crafton Chevrolet McGuire-Nicholas / Menards 88/0 143 Running
26 33 47 Brett Butler * Chevrolet FuelDoctorUSA.com 85/0 99 Accident
27 35 01 Carl Long Chevrolet Koma Unwind Chillaxation Drink 87/5 98 Engine
28 21 10 Jennifer Jo Cobb * Ford Mark One Electric 79/0 65 Accident
29 19 90 Jesse Smith Toyota Great Wolfe Lodge / Child's Tire / Great Clips 76/0 42 Engine
30 18 21 Chris Eggleston * Chevrolet H2O Fire Protection 73/0 40 Accident
31 15 76 Rick Crawford Ford Superseal Construction Products 70/0 35 Accident
32 34 6 Brian Rose Chevrolet Kids Embrace 67/0 34 Accident
33 31 89 Mike Harmon Ford Lafferty Motorsports 64/0 21 Handling
34 29 93 Shane Sieg Chevrolet S&W Services 61/0 9 Transmission
35 16 116 Wes Burton Chevrolet Green Burton Motorsports 58/0 8 Accident
36 22 60 Narain Karthikeyan Chevrolet SafeAuto Insurance Company 55/0 7 Accident

* Denotes Rookie

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