Four Takeaways From The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Race At Texas

The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series came to the mid-west on Friday night for the JAGS Metal 350. It was the second race in the Round of 6. Here are four takeaways from the race at Texas Motor Speedway.

1. Johnny Sauter Continues Dominance At Texas – When the scoring pylon showed Johnny Sauter in victory lane at the end of the night, it was no surprise that he was victory lane, even with the new recent repave of the 1.5-mile track. He now has four career wins at Texas Motor Speedway. Sauter has led a career 96 laps out of a combined 608 laps. Safe to say, Texas is one of Sauter’s best track statistically. He is now locked in to compete for the championship for a second consecutive year.
2. Christopher Bell Posts Top Three Finish – After winning the June race, Bell had high expectations for this race to run well and that he did. He led once for 20 laps and placed top ten in both stages. With Phoenix looming, he will try to lock himself by winning but if past history is anything, they cannot take anything for granted. See, William Byron’s championship run last year, where it was cut short at Phoenix due to a blown motor.
3. Matt Crafton Places An Uncharacteristic Ninth – When coming to Texas Motor Speedway, you expect at least two guys to be running up front and challenging for the win. Those are Johnny Sauter and Matt Crafton. Crafton had two wins prior to this race at Fort Worth, both coming in 2014 and 2015, respectively. However, on Friday night, he did not have the best truck out there. In stage 1, Crafton finished sixth and eighth in stage 2. He only led five laps but wound up finishing ninth. He sits third -31 behind. Crafton will have to win two stages at Phoenix or win the race, to be locked in the Championship 4.
4. Must Win For John Hunter Nemechek At Phoenix – John Hunter Nemechek has had a disastrous playoff run in 2017. It all started at Loudon, where he was sent to the garage for problems with the truck and came back out to finish 20th. Nemechek had a couple of solid runs at Las Vegas finishing sixth and eighth at Talladega, despite the damaged truck. However, he had an accident at Martinsville, which took him out of the race and wounded up 30th. And then this past weekend at Texas, Nemechek finished 19th, even though he placed top ten in both stages. It’s win or get eliminated for Nemechek at Phoenix this weekend. He sits 6th, -89 points behind.