John King goes from anonymous and unassuming to Daytona winner
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[/media-credit]John King walked down pit road at Daytona on Friday night to his No. 7 Red Horse Racing Toyota and no one paid any mind.
King, a rookie, would be making just his eighth career start and wasn’t on the map when it came to contenders in the Camping World Truck Series. Most didn’t know his name and some didn’t even know what he looked like before he climbed out of his truck hours later in victory lane.
Starting 23rd King dropped to the back with his teammates looking to avoid the big wrecks. Then as the laps wound down and the field thinned they found themselves near the front of the field. And then after three wild green-white-checkered attempts NASCAR had a new winner.
“It’s unbelievable, a dream come true,” said King.
“I knew what the organization was when we went to Red Horse, I didn’t know how great it was, though. I mean, everything. Toyota is unbelievable, the backing and support you get from them. Joe Gibbs Motors, you can go on for days with the horsepower they’ve got. I’ve never driven anything so smooth in my life as that racetrack. It’s just a dream come true.”
Entering the night King only had one personal expectation and goal: finish the race. Having never raced at Daytona or any superspeedway for that matter, he was looking to just stay out of trouble and log laps. He told the team before the race to help keep him clean and they’ll get whatever they could at the end.
As the race neared is final 15 laps the Red Horse Racing drivers of King, Todd Bodine and Timothy Peters were ready to gang up on the leaders. Following a hard wreck by the dominant truck of Miguel Paludo on lap 84, King was already near the top 10. By lap 90 he was running seventh and soon found himself in a position he never dreamed of.
At the races schedule 100 lap mark King sat fifth as the race went into overtime. On the second attempt at a green-white-checkered finish King was riding behind leader Johnny Sauter and being pushed by Bodine. With the white flag just yards away contact from King sent Sauter into the fence and King to the lead.
“I don’t know that I was getting pushed, all I know was the closing rate was real fast, I couldn’t get off of him,” King said of the incident.
“I’m a rookie. I’ve never pushed in my life. This is my first time at Daytona or any superspeedway. I apologize to him from the bottom of my heart. It wasn’t my intention at all. Without wrecking him, I was good to go. I couldn’t get off of him. Once I got up to him in the tri-oval, that’s all I had.”
Now holding the lead with one more attempt to finish the race coming up, King wasn’t thinking about trying to win the event. He was clearly torn up about the wreck with Sauter as he talked to his team over the radio. It left Chad Kendrick doubling as crew chief and psychologist for his driver.
“I’m telling you, this is probably one of the nicest guys you’ll ever meet,” said Kendrick. “When the caution came out, you could hear the concern in his voice, like he was truly almost sad about wrecking Johnny. I told him we’d worry about it at the end of the race. We had a race to run, we still had laps to go. At that point we were legitimate contenders.
“That was Daytona. That happens at Daytona. It’s happened a million times. It will happen again. So we both hate it for Johnny. But it was a racing incident; he was going as hard as he could, Johnny was going as hard as he could. I kept reassuring him it’s fine. It’s a racing incident. Johnny has been around long enough, he understands that. It was okay. Don’t worry about it anymore. Don’t have a second thought about it. Let’s go win it.”
King did. Keeping Peters behind him as he took the white flag and another violet wreck broke out behind. Joey Coulter went airborne into the fence following contact from James Buescher who had been hit by Ron Hornaday. The race was declared over and King was sent to victory lane.
He now leads the points heading into the second race at Martinsville on March 31. Before then though, everyone will be trying to find out who John King is and where he came from. And of course, how he became a winner at Daytona.
“I came off of dirt late models, went to late model stocks after that,” said King. “We’ve run a few truck races. This is feature win No. 3 for my whole career. This is it. I’ve won one dirt late model and one late model stock race. It’s unbelievable. I couldn’t imagine being here. We’re here.”
Rookie John King wins Crash-Filled NextEra Energy Resources 250 at Daytona
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[/media-credit]When the trucks hit Daytona International Speedway, they’ve been known to create a lot of sparks. This year was no exception as after three green-white-checkereds (GWC, rookie John King took the checkered flag.
“I’m a rookie – I’m not supposed to be here,” King said afterwards in victory lane. “This is unreal. This Red Horse Racing team is unbelievable. I don’t know what to say. This is a dream come true.”
A caution with seven to go for Parker Kligermann and others wrecking would set off the chain of GWCs. Kligermann wrecked after Dusty Davis and David Starr squished him in the middle, collecting Bryan Silas and Ross Chastain.
On the first GWC, it was Jason White leading them to the green, but Johnny Sauter taking the lead with help from Ron Hornaday, before dropping down inline on the bottom in front of White. Sauter looked to have the win in hand before a caution came out before the field took the white flag when Brad Keselowski wrecked. Clay Greenfield got into the back of Keselowski, turning him into Rick Crawford. Rookie Max Gresham was also collected in the wreck with significant damage.
On the restart, Sauter looked to have the win in hand again as he pulled ahead with help from King. However, coming to get the white flag, King turned Sauter into the outside wall, collecting Brendan Gaughan, Starr, Grant Enfinger, Matt Crafton, Nelson Piquet Jr., Chris Fontaine and Ryan Seig.
“It was substainable help,” Sauter said of the contact he got from King to send him around. “He’s obviously getting help from behind – that’s Bodine, typically known for driving over his head at these places.”
“I apologize to Johnny Sauter,” King said. “I shouldn’t have been there. I closed up real fast. … I couldn’t get off of him.”
The field then restarted for the final attempt at a green flag finish with King leading Todd Bodine, Timothy Peters and Joey Coulter. On the restart, Bodine and Coulter didn’t get a good start on the outside, causing them to drop back through the field as King pulled out to the lead with help from Peters. Coming to get the white flag while Coulter and Bodine were trying to mount a charge back to the front, James Buecher would turn Coulter into the outside wall. The contact would cause Coulter to go airbourne and make contact with the catch fence. Coulter were emerge from the crash with no injuries, while a track spokesperson reported two fans were injured but would be okay.
Coulter’s wreck would hand the win to King, who was making his eighth Camping World Truck Series start.
King’s Red Horse Racing teammate Timothy Peters would be credited with second for his third top-10 at Daytona.
“It was an action-packed night,” Peters said. “We were fortunate enough to keep our nose clean all night long. That right there is what it’s all about, seeing that boy right there celebrating in Victory Lane. That’s a special place. It couldn’t have been a better night for Red Horse Racing as a company, 1-2 finish, Todd coming in fifth.
“Can’t say enough about my guys, Butch Hylton, guys on pit row, Service Central, Tire Kingdom, Toyota Tundra, Joe Gibbs Engine. It was an awesome night tonight. These guys worked hard on our truck since we left Daytona last year. We got some momentum. It’s showing. We’re going to be a force to be reckoned with in year.”
Justin Lofton would be scored in third to score his first top-10 at Daytona.
“It was an exciting one,” he said. “I mean, we had a game plan of sticking to the bottom. Unfortunately our teammates were taken out halfway through the race. Team owner (Eddie Sharp) was spotting for me also. That definitely helps a lot. It was a really cool run. We had good pit stops all night. We played the right strategy. Eddie kept me calm. When they would get that run on the outside, I wanted to drive up there, but he kept me down. We found ourselves in the right place at the right time. I tried to push Timothy to get us in a better position.”
Travis Kvapil , who found out just a couple weeks before Daytona that he’d be racing, came home in the fourth position.
“All the credit goes to Robby Benton and the RAB racing team,” he says. “They brought me a solid Toyota Tundra tonight. We just kept it out of trouble. We knew we had a strong truck – just kept out of trouble, made the right moves at the right time. To come out of here with a top five finish makes me really happy.”
Jason White would round out the top five, followed by Todd Bodine, Chris Fontaine, Ward Burton, Ty Dillon and Clay Greenfield. Dillon was able to come home with a ninth-place finish after barely dodging the wrecks at the end.
“Going into tonight, we knew it was going to be a wild night and we just wanted to finish the race,” the rookie said. “We played it a little conservative – it hurt us a bit. Felt like I was a magnet tonight. We had a strong truck, could do whatever we wanted, and we’d make it to the end.”
The three wrecks at the end weren’t the only action for the night, as there was action for fans from top to bottom.
On lap seven, Paulie Harraka got sideways and shot up into Jason Leftler, taking him out, while Dakota Armstrong wrecked behind them.
“It’s just too good to be true,” Leftler said afterwards. “The truck was really good. The truck was fast. Kind of just sitting there, couldn’t get anybody to work with me that early in the race. It just happens. I don’t know what happened, the No. 5 (Harraka) just shot up into me. The next race is at Rockingham and there’s no question that I’ll be quick there.”
On lap 60, eventual race winner King moved up to the track, hitting Cale Gale, turning him and collected TJ Duke, Matt Crafton, Mike Skinner and J.R. Fitzpatrick.
“Can’t teach patience,” Skinner said afterwards. “You can’t teach people how to drive racecars; they obviously are great racecar drivers. I’m not going to blame Cale for that; I wish he would’ve just rode behind us. I was running half-throttle, the other veterans were running half-throttle; they were just running all over.”
“It’s just one of those things,” Gale said. “We got a little behind in a fuel window there, came back on track and were trying to move up. I don’t know what happened there. I tried to be patience. I was to the point of ‘Do I need to ride and wait it out?’. I guess it’s just our fault.”
Pole Sitter Miguel Paludo wouldn’t find much luck as with 30 laps to go, he would make hard contact with the inside wall after getting loose behind teammate Nelson Piquet Jr.
“That was a hard hit for sure, I lost my breath,” Paludo said. “All in all, it was a good day for us. Got the pole, led some laps. Just got loose up there; I had been loose all day. Just so proud of my guys, having all three Turner Motorsports trucks up there. We’re going to win some races this year.”
The next race for the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series is in five weeks at Martinsville Speedway.
