After starting seventh in the Overton’s 225 Friday night, Johnny Sauter was looking for his fifth NASCAR Camping World Truck Series win of the year and his second at Chicagoland Speedway.
In the first stage, Sauter and his No. 21 GMS Racing team fought handling conditions and slipped back to seventh due to fighting dirty air while being caught in the back. During the stage caution, he and his team took four tires and made an adjustment.
In Stage 2, Sauter restarted 11th and once more, he fought tight conditions as he reported, “Can’t get anywhere,” during the team radio communications. As Stage 2 came to a close on Lap 70, Sauter finished fifth.
When the laps started to wind down, the No. 21 Chevy once again was battling a tight-handling truck and had also lost grip. Sauter and his team fought these ill handling conditions all night long. Their struggles continued when, on the last pit stop, a jack dropped and he had to come back and tighten lug nuts that were loose.
After the night was over and all was said and done, Sauter and the No. 21 ISM Connect Chevy wound up third.
“Track position is just everywhere anymore,” Sauter said. “You can be a lot of faster than a guy in front of you, but you just can’t do nothing about it. I’m not a high line runner there. So on the end of that long run there before the last pit stop, I just can’t do it. I just got too tight and on the last pit stop, the jack broke. So we lost a lot of track position there and had to come back down pit road to put a lug nut on.”
“All in all, a great night with our ISM Connect Chevy. The guys did a good job. Everybody at GMS, just had a couple of mishaps in the pit tonight, that’s all. We had really good short-run speed, just needed a little more for the long run.”
