Two-for-Two: Johnny Sauter wins Kroger 200 at Martinsville Speedway
After suffering through some bad luck last year, Johnny Sauter is off to a strong start in 2013, having now won the first two races of the season. Sauter becomes the second driver in Truck Series to open up the season with back-t0-back victories; Mark Martin was the first to do so in 2006. It marks the eighth victory of Sauter’s truck series career.
Sauter would take the lead from young Jeb Burton on a late race restart with 17 laps to go and never look back to take the victory.
I just tried to time it just right – that’s the key,” Sauter said in victory lane. “So proud of everybody on this Toyota. All of our sponsors, all of the guys at ThorSport. They’ve been working hard in the shop. It was a long day. Tire wear was the main deal
“Two for two, starting out is just unbelievable.”
Sauter’s teammate Matt Crafton would get by Burton with five to go for second to make it a one-two finish for ThorSport Racing for his second straight top 10 finish of 2013 and 12th top 10 finish at Martinsville.
“We’re going to be a championship contending team,” he said. “Our truck was terrible the first run, but it just shows how good these guys are as we were good at the end.”
20-year-old Jeb Burton would hold on to third after starting on the pole and running inside the top five most of the day.
“We just lost forward bite coming off the corner,” he said. “Just couldn’t stay with them at the end. But it was a good truck all day. It was just awesome from the beginning.”
Timothy Peters would finish fourth, followed by outside pole-sitter Darrell Wallace Jr. in fifth.
Chase Elliott, son of Bill Elliott, would finish sixth in his first NASCAR Camping World Truck Series start. Dakota Armstrong finished seventh, followed by Ryan Seig, Erik Jones and Ron Hornaday. Hornaday made his way back up to 10th after being spun by Burton while battling for the lead on lap 104.
“I’m a rookie, live and learn,” Burton said. “I didn’t mean to wreck him (Hornaday)…sorry about that”
Todd Bodine would finish 11th after being spun by Kevin Harvick with 23 laps to go. Harvick was running up front late in the race when he had a flat tire, causing him to fall back through the field.
The 200 lap race at Martinsville resulted in 10 different cautions with the first coming on lap 58 for Grant Galloway going for a spin. He would also bring out the third caution on lap 86 after another spin, followed by a third spin for the sixth caution with 107 laps to go. Galloway would finish 27th.
The second caution came out on lap 70 for German Quiroga putting down fluid through turns one and two with a gear problem while running inside the top seven. Quiroga would finish 29th.
The fifth caution came out with 120 laps to go when Robert Bruce would go around. He would finish the race 28th.
The seventh caution came out on lap 158 when Hornaday, Tim George Jr. and Galloway went around all together in turn two. George Jr. finished 22nd.
Max Gresham went around in turn two for the eighth caution with 55 laps to go. Gresham would finish 30th.
With 44 laps to go, Crafton got into John Wes Townley, causing Townley to make heavy contact with the outside turn four wall for the ninth caution. Townley would finish 32nd.
Sauter continues to lead the points, 12 points ahead of Jeb Burton.
The next race for the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series is at Rockingham Speedway next weekend.
Lap by Lap: Kroger 200 won by Johnny Sauter
Johnny Sauter would grab the lead with 17 laps to go from Jeb Burton and not look back as he would pick up his second straight victory of 2013.
Lap 1 Jeb Burton takes the early lead from the pole, Darrell Wallace Jr. slips in behind Burton
Lap 3 Burton leads Wallace Peters Sauter Quiroga
Lap 12 Ron Hornaday pushes Crafton up to grab a spot within the top 10. Crafton keeps it going.
Lap 24 Peters is up to second after passing Wallace, looking for a way around Burton
Lap 28 Burton leads Peters Wallace Sauter Quiroga Dillon Hornaday Gaughan Elliott Coulter
Lap 30 Coulter and Paludo pass Elliott for ninth and 10th
Lap 34 Burton leads Peters Wallace Sauter Quiroga Dillon Hornaday Gaughan Coulter Paludo
Lap 51 Burton leads Peters Sauter Quiroga Dillon Wallace Hornaday Gaughan Paludo Coulter
Lap 52 Dillon and Hornaday pass Quiroga for fourth while Wallace falls back to seventh
Lap 55 Harvick passes Paludo and Coulter to move up to eighth while Gaughan falls back to 11th; Hornaday passes Dillon for fourth
Lap 56 Burton leads Peters Sauter Hornaday Dillon Quiroga Wallace Harvick Paludo Coulter
Caution Lap 58 Galloway spins. Leaders head down pit road. Burton leads Peters Dillon Hornaday Harvick Quiroga off pit road. Coulter has a bad pit stop, suffering a pit road penalty which brings him back down pit road and puts him a lap down
Restart Lap 66 Burton holds the lead as Hornaday jumps from the outside down in front of Dillon out of turn two, and then underneath Peters for second through turns three and four
Lap 68 Burton leads Hornaday Peters Dillon Harvick Wallace Quiroga Sauter Paludo Piquet
Caution lap 70 fluid down in turn two. Quiroga hits pit road just before the caution came out.
Restart lap 77 Burton and Hornaday side-by-side through turns one and two…..Hornaday pulls the crossover into turn three and dives underneath Burton to grab the lead. Burton now hung out on the outside.
Lap 79 Hornaday leads Peters Harvick Sauter Burton Paludo Wallace Dillon Piquet Buescher
Lap 81 Paludo Wallace pass Burton; Buescher and Piquet pass Dillon
Lap 82 Hornaday leads Peters Harvick Sauter Paludo Wallace Burton Buescher Piquet Dillon
Lap 85 Burton, Buescher and Piquet pass Wallace for position
Caution lap 86 Galloway goes around in turns one and two.
Restart lap 91 Hornaday and Peters side-by-side through turns one and two….Hornaday grabs the lead as Harvick passes Peters for second
Lap 93 Hornaday leads Harvick Peters Paludo Sauter Piquet Buescher…..Burton passes Paludo for fourth
Lap 95 Harvick has caught Hornaday for the lead.
Lap 96 Hornaday leads Harvick Peters Burton Paludo Buescher Piquet Sauter Elliott Dillon…..Hornaday gives Harvick just enough room to get underneath him. The pair are side-by-side off of turn four for the lead. Hornaday gets the run into corner of three, slides down in front of Harvick. Hornaday then slides up and allows Harvick to pass.
Lap 100 Harvick leads Hornaday Peters Burton Paludo Buescher Piquet Sauter Elliott Dillon
Lap 103 Harvick pulls down and allows Hornaday to pass him back for the lead……Burton passes Harvick for second place on the outside through turns three and four.
Caution lap 104 Burton turns Hornaday for the lead, causing Hornaday to hit the wall with the back of the truck. Joey Coulter gets the lucky dog. “He shouldn’t have blocked me going down the back straigh-away.” Jeb Burton said, saying he didn’t mean to wreck Hornaday. Kevin Harvick, Hornaday’s NTS Motorsports teammate, pulled up alongside Jeb Burton to express his displeasure with the youngster’s move
Restart lap 110 Burton grabs the lead on the restart from Harvick.
Caution lap 112 for debris on the backstretch at about the entrance to pit road.
126 to go Restart Burton and Harvick side-by-side through turns one and two. Harvick tucks in behind Burton going into turn three
124 to go Burton leads Harvick Paludo Buescher Peters……Chastain slides sideways through the corner after going down across Sauter’s bumper, gets it straight and manages to keep it going.
Caution 120 to go Robert Bruce goes for a spin coming off of turn two.
Restart 114 to go. Burton holds the lead. Harvick tries the crossover but doesn’t make it work.
112 to go Burton leads Harvick Paludo Buescher Peters Sauter Piquet Dillon Elliott Chastain…..Piquet passes Sauter for sixth.
111 to go Dillon and Elliott also make their way past Sauter
110 to go Burton leads Harvick Paludo Buescher Peters Piquet
107 to go Caution. Galloway goes around in turns three and four. Some of the leaders pit, while others stay out. Harvick is the first to stay out so he will take the lead. Peters and Buescher have minimal contact coming off of pit road.
Restart 100 to go as Harvick holds the lead while Piquet and Wallace battle for second.
99 to go Piquet holds Wallace off and gets by Harvick through turns one and two. Wallace grabs second from Harvick through turns three and four.
97 to go Burton leads Piquet Wallace Bodine Jones Sieg Blaney Helman Paludo Buescher Peters
Lap 158 Hornaday, George Jr and Galloway all go around off of turn two to bring out the caution. Dillon makes his way down pit road – no tires, just making a wedge adjustment.
Restart 88 to go as Piquet leads Wallace at the front of the field
86 to go Darrell Wallace Jr. passes Nelson Piquet Jr. for the lead in turns one and two
84 to go Devin Jones goes for a spin in turn four, no caution. Quiroga bounced off the curb into Jones to cut Jones’ tire.
83 to go Wallace leads Piquet, Bodine, Eric Jones, Sieg, Blaney, Peters, Buescher, Burton, Paludo
77 to go Blaney, Peters, Buescher, Burton and Paludo pass Sieg for position
75 to go Blaney and Peters pass Jones for position
74 to go Buesher and Burton pass Jones for position
73 to go Wallace leads Piquet, Bodine, Blaney , Peters, Buescher, Burton, Jones, Paludo, Sieg
62 to go Wallace leads Piquet Peters Burton Blaney Paludo
61 to go Paludo passes Blaney for fifth
60 to go Wallace leads Piquet Peters Burton Paludo Blaney Buescher Sauter Gaughan Jones
56 to go Burton passes Peters for third; Crafton passes Jones for 10th
55 to go Caution Gresham goes around in turn two. Leaders head down pit road while some others stay out. Nelson Piquet Jr. stalls on pit road and can’t get it restarted.
Restart 49 to go Jeb Burton slides up through the corner, but keeps the leads.
47 to go Quiroga goes around, but gets it going so no caution.
Caution 44 to go Crafton gets into Townley, sending him around and into the outside wall.
Restart 33 to go Burton and Peters side-by-side for the lead through turns one and two…..Peters takes the lead through turns three and four.
32 to go Burton gets to the inside of Peters through turns one and two to get back side-by-side. Burton grabs the lead back off of turn four.
28 to go Burton leads Peters Buescher Sauter Wallace Paludo Crafton Bodine Harvick
27 to go Sauter passes Buescher for third
26 to go Wallace passes Buescher for fourth; Sauter passes Peters for second
23 to go Sauter has caught Burton and is looking for a way by for the lead. Bodine goes around off of Harvick’s bumper. Caution.
Restart 17 to go Burton and Sauter side-by-side for the lead. Sauter grabs the lead off of turn two.
14 to go Sauter leads Burton Wallace Crafton Harvick Peters……Crafton passes Wallace for third
12 to go Harvick passes Wallace for position
11 to go Coulter goes around virtue of contact from Hornaday but keeps it going so no caution
6 to go Wallace passes Harvick back for position. Harvick has a flat tire. Sieg, Jones and Elliott also by Harvick; Seig passes Wallace
5 to go Sauter Burton Crafton Peters Sieg Wallace Jones…..Wallace and Jones pass Sieg while Crafton passes Burton
2 to go Elliott and Armstrong pass Sieg
Johnny Sauter wins for back-to-back victories. Crafton. Burton. Peters. Wallace. Elliott. Amrstrong. Seig. Jones. Hornaday. Bodine. Gaughan. Starr. Buescher. Coulter. Blaney. Paludo. Dillon. Piquet. Chastain.
Ryan Hunter-Reay wins pole for Honda Grand Prix of Alabama
2012 IndyCar Series Champion Ryan Hunter-Reay found his way back to the top of the charts after winning the pole for the Honda Grand Prix of Alabama. Hunter-Reay laid down a lap of one minute, seven seconds for the third pole of his career, first pole of the season. His last pole came at Edmonton in 2012.
“This team has done so well this weekend, we just kept progressing and we knew where we needed to work on it,” he said. “I really went to work on my driving as well, and we all did it together here. It’s a great position to start from and now we need to go make it work in warm up and for the race, making these Firestones hang in there for an entire race. That’ll be the challenging part.”
Hunter-Reay finished 18th in the opening event of the season at St. Petersburg after running into some mechanical problems.
Defending race winner Will Power qualified second, three tenths off of Hunter-Reay’s quick time. It marks his third front row start in four starts at Barber Motorsports Park. Power has won two of the three races, including the last two.
Power was running third in the closing laps of the race at St. Pete before he suffered heavy contact from JR Hildebrand under caution. Power would finish the race 16th.
In just his second IndyCar Series start, Tristan Vautier qualified third for his career-best start after starting sixth at St. Pete. Vautier ran inside the top five for much of the race at St. Pete before mechanical problems took him out of the running.
Scott Dixon would qualify fourth after struggling last week in St. Petersburg. Dixon set a new track record of 1:06.7750 in Segment 1, but was unable to back up that time during the Firestone Fast Six.
“Here the car has been decent the whole time,” Dixon said. “We have just been trying to work out some of the issues that we have had at St. Pete. This isn’t the best track to do it but it gives us a bit of direction. I am a bit bummed about qualifying, you know we were fastest in Q1 and Q2 and then just a bit of missed timing, a bit on my behalf, didn’t go out hard enough and then tried to expect some more from the tires later and it just wasn’t there. So, I don’t think we quite would have gotten a 7.0 that Ryan did, you know we did a 6.7 earlier on new tires but he did a hell of a job and putting a good lap together. You know race day is a different day and hopefully we can move up three spots”.
Charlie Kimball would round out the top five for his best start in the IndyCar Series. His previous best start was seventh at Motegi in 2011.
After leading practice, Helio Castroneves would qualify sixth for his first start outside of the front two rows at Barber.
St. Petersburg race winner James Hinchcliffe qualified 20th.
“We’ve been struggling a little bit this weekend compared to the test,” Hinchcliffe said.”We didn’t have the quickest car, but had enough for Q2… got held up by another car and ended up getting knocked out. It’s frustrating but we’ve got an extra set of reds (Firestone red alternate tires) than those guys now in the race and maybe degradation will come into it tomorrow. We’ll keep fighting and hopefully get the Go Daddy car up in a good position by the end of the day.”
The IndyCar Series will take to Barber Motorsports Park for the Honda Grand Prix of Alabama at 3pm EST on Sunday.
Clint Bowyer leads final Sprint Cup Series practice at Martinsville
After coming close to victory last year, Clint Bowyer would lead the final practice at Martinsville Speedway with a lap of 19.518 seconds, 97.018 mph. Bowyer restarted last year’s spring race late in the third position, though spun out after going three-wide underneath Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson. Bowyer will start Sunday’s race in 15th position. He has two top fives and eight top 10s in 14 starts on the paperclip.
Pole sitter Jimmie Johnson was second in practice, 0.147 seconds off of Bowyer’s quick time. Johnson has won at Martinsville before – in total, seven times in 22 starts. Since finishing 35th in his first ever start at Martinsville, Johnson has finished no worse than 12th in the 21 starts that followed.
Carl Edwards was third in practice and has only five top 10s in 17 starts at Martinsville. He will start Sunday’s race from the ninth position.
Greg Biffle and Jeff Burton rounded out the top five.
Brad Keselowski was sixth, followed by Paul Menard, Brian Vickers, points leader Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kevin Harvick.
Last year’s race winner Ryan Newman was 14th.
Mark Martin, who is filling in for Denny Hamlin, was 20th.
The Sprint Cup Series will take to the track for 500 laps tomorrow afternoon at 1pm EST.
Keselowski reaping the benefits of fast start and fast cars
Defending Sprint Cup Series champion Brad Keselowski knows that things could be worse. He really can’t complain about how his 2013 campaign has started: he’s been fast, consistent and has already been atop the point standings.
But, Keselowski hasn’t won. Yet, at least and it’s starting to nag at him. Speaking Friday at Martinsville Speedway, where he has yet to win, Keselowski revealed he’s anxious to win early in the season and that his team worked hard during the offseason to make it happen on the Virginia paperclip. The only thing left that would cap off the hot start Keselowski’s been on.
“Motivation for us, we certainly don’t want to be a one and done team. You look at the great teams and I’m reminded of this quote by Mark Martin when he talked about winning his first race, which was at Rockingham,” started Keselowski, when asked about that hot start.
“He talked about one [win] is great, but you haven’t really made it until you’ve won two. That was race wins, but I feel very similar about that as it pertains to championships, and I think a lot of people on my team feel that way and that’s our motivation.”
Winning the championship in only their third full season together, the Miller Lite team of Penske Racing are now among the elite. Keselowski’s more than just another driver in the sport and as such, his goals have changed. Winning a couple of titles isn’t good enough; Keselowski used the word dynasty at Martinsville.
“That’s not to take anything away from winning one because that’s a very special accomplishment, but it sure would feel irresponsible to give up on it and not have that drive,” he said. “If anything, winning a championship makes us more dangerous because it gives us that much more confidence and an ability to self-motivate.”
And so as the season moves forward and he has yet to find Victory Lane it adds to his fire and drive. Last season his first win of the season came at Bristol in March, becoming the earlier Keselowski had won in his young career. But Keselowski didn’t win again until the summer and fall months came. Those have always appeared to be the team’s stronger months as they make their charge toward the Chase.
Except, when a New Year was brought in a few months ago, Keselowski made it known that he wasn’t going to wait to make his charge. It was more important that he picked up right where he left off during his championship season. And even with an offseason switch from Dodge to Ford the team hasn’t missed a beat, in fact finding more speed, says Keselowski.
“I think our team is one of the best in the garage at executing a race, whether it be strategy – or knock on wood – equipment failures and so forth,” Keselowski continued. “My guys do a great job with that and then from there it’s just a matter of having speed and me not screwing it up. We’ve had a little bit more speed at this time than we’ve ever had and that’s very encouraging and I think if we can find a little bit more, we could go on a tear and win a bunch of races.”
Hopefully for Keselowski, that starts Sunday in Martinsville. He qualified seventh for the STP Gas Booster 500, markedly better than where he started last fall when he was 32nd and expected to be lapped before the field was even up to speed. Instead, Keselowski finished in the top 10, a feat that went a long way towards wining the championship.
Perhaps that performance, along with the top 10 he earned in this race a year ago, is why Keselowski’s a lot more confident than before. Because he knows, while his stats might be deceiving, his team’s ability and speed, aren’t.
“Everything in this sport is based around speed. That’s your basic building block and from there you have to execute and do all those other things right,” he said. “We’ve had great execution as a team for the last 16-18 months. Give us some speed and look out.”
Helio Castroneves leads practice at Barber Motorsports Park
Following his second place finish two weeks ago at St. Petersburg, Helio Castroneves would top the charts with a lap of one minute and eight seconds, 120.781 mph.
“I think it’s better to be lucky than good,” he said. “Obviously with the yellow in the end a lot of guys probably put tires, but the car felt pretty good. The AAA team felt really strong, the morning unfortunately it was a little bit difficult because seeing that the track has lots of grip and when you have an extra set of tires certainly it helps a little bit. In the end of the day, with A.J. (Allmendinger) and Will (Power) we’ve been actually doing a lot of different stuff out there and it seems to be working.”
Alex Tagliani would time in second fastest, seven-hundereths off of Castroneves. Tagliani finished 10th at St. Pete.
“I am really proud of what the team accomplished here this weekend,” he said. “Obviously we are accustomed to being in the Firestone Fast 6 last year. I really didn’t like using the Port-a-Potty in the back of the grid. We struggled on the new tires. These tires are different. These are road course tires. We also had a chance to test here and the team came prepared.”
Rookie Tristan Vautier continued to impress after running up front most of the race last week as he timed in third fastest. Vautier, though, ran into mechanical problems at St. Pete which relegated him to a 21st place finish.
“It was good,” he said. “It was disappointing at the end of the first practice to cause a red because of a mistake, but no, I’m very happy with the car that the team has given me today. I think that I still have some room to keep improving, and we need to carry the momentum from today into tomorrow.”
Simon Pagenaud was fourth while Will Power rounded out the top five. Power led testing last month.
“We definitely have a bit of work to do with the Verizon car because we’re just off the pace a bit,” he said. “We were running top five all day, but we really had to push to get there. We’ll get together tonight and work to figure out how to improve for qualifying tomorrow.”
After struggling in St. Pete, Scott Dixon was sixth in practice, followed by EJ Viso, A.J. Allmendinger, James Jakes and Takumo Sato.
James Hinchcliffe, who picked up his first career victory at St. Petersburg, was 15th on the chart.
“Today did not go as planned, but you get these days in racing,” he said. “We had a couple of things go wrong in the first session, and the way the yellow fell in the second (session) we didn’t really get a proper run all day. I think we can get the Go Daddy car up there tomorrow when it counts. I think it’ll be a challenge, but that’s what they pay us the big bucks for.”
The IndyCar Series cars will take to the track tomorrow for qualifying, with the race scheduled for Sunday afternoon at 3pm EST.
Jeb Burton scores first career pole at Martinsville Speedway
At the end of Camping World Truck Series qualifying, it’d be Jeb Burton scoring his first career pole in his seventh career truck start. The 20-year-old lapped the track in 19.589 seconds, 96.666 mph.
“I was crying like a baby when I got out of that race car. It means a whole lot to me and my family,” said Burton, son of former Daytona 500 winner Ward Burton. “It’s really cool for my sponsor to have out of South Boston too. I worked really hard to get here. I’m really happy.
“I knew if I won or got the pole, I’m going to be emotional — anywhere, especially here. Like I said, it means something to me. I live it. I eat it. I sleep it. It’s just a passion of mine and I’m just thankful to be in front of you all right now.”
Burton broke the old track record that was held by Timothy Peters. Peters held the record previous with a lap of 19.641 seconds, 96.641 mph.
Burton will be joined on the front row by fellow rookie Darrell Wallace Jr., who is a graduate of NASCAR’s Drive for Diversity program.
“We just have to do our best on pit road and get the adjustments right and what the truck needs to be able to put us up front,” Wallace Jr. said. “Every track you go to pretty much is about saving tires. Hopefully, we can do that or I can do that just well enough to keep us up front. Track position is key, but you have to have your tires stay on there to have good track position. We’ll work hard to get that and we’ll see how it goes.”
Peters would qualify third for his 10th top 10 start at Martinsville Speedway.
“When my crew chief called out the lap time I was pretty blown away, but I knew there was still a bunch more good trucks to come,” Peters said. “Being that qualifying is on Friday evening I was surprised with the lap times and what they were. In the past we’ve qualified in very cool temperatures on Saturday morning where you would think there was more grip.”
Daytona winner Johnny Sauter and German Quiroga rounded out the top five.
Ty Dillon was sixth, followed by Matt Crafton, Chase Elliott, Ron Hornaday Jr. and Brennan Newberry.
The truck race will take place tomorrow afternoon at Martinsville Speedway.
