The NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series visited Dover International Speedway for their six race of the 2019 Truck Series season. While a season-veteran and champion return to victory lane, what did we learn from the race? Here are four takeaways from the JEGS 200 at Dover.
- Johnny Sauter Finally Gets Win – If you would have told someone before Dover that two-time Truck Series champion Johnny Sauter would not have a win yet at this point in the season, some would have shaken their heads in disbelief. Despite it taking this long, if you look at last year, he won the season opener at Daytona but wouldn’t win again until Dover. Friday was his first win of the season and his third consecutive Dover win. Now we have to wait and see if Sauter and the No. 13 ThorSport team will set the world on fire or not.
- Track Position- Dover is not known to have the best races and that’s been seen here recently in the Truck Series. There wasn’t that much excitement that happened throughout the race. While yes, it was somewhat determined as a short track, it didn’t provide much passing for the lead. Also, Brett Moffitt wasn’t able to catch Sauter for the win late. Sauter even said in a post-race press conference, that track position was very important. And you could see why. It seemed like the only way you could pass was either on the restart or on pit road under caution. In last year’s race, there were only nine leaders among seven lead changes. This years race saw a little bit more lead changes with 11, but still, there wasn’t much excitement. There were only six cautions for 35 laps with two of them coming for stage breaks, and four of them coming for actual incidents. Maybe the Truck Series shouldn’t come to Dover or maybe they should but something needs to change.
- Start Time – There was an odd start time to Friday’s race at Dover with a 5 p.m. ET start on the East coast. It’s hard for someone to who works a 9-5 job to take off early to catch a Truck Series race with a start time like that. Imagine living on the West coast, where the start time would be 3:00 p.m. Pacific. Barely anyone would be able to catch the race live. Thank goodness for DVRs. Still, something needs to change about the race start times. Maybe it’s time for a doubleheader with the Xfinity Series.
- Derek Kraus Earns Top-10 Finish – Flying under the radar after Friday’s race was rookie Derek Kraus, who currently drives part-time for Bill McAnally Racing in the Truck Series. It was Derek’s third career Truck Series race in his young NASCAR career. He tied his best finish of eighth. Kraus also finished eighth in his first Truck Series race at ISM.
