Johnny Sauter’s best shot at winning the NASCAR Camping World Championship came down to the final restart of the night in the Ford EcoBoost 200 at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
Following a late caution, Sauter battled fellow title contender Matt Crafton back and forth with 19 laps to go, finally clearing the two-time series champion with 16 laps to go.
From there, Sauter would hang on to the third position to score his first career NASCAR Camping World Series championship.
“I just ran a smart race,” said Sauter. “I’m not going to lie, when we qualified as poorly as we did today I thought this was going to be tough to do because you’ve got to take tires here on every pit stop. There is not real easy way to get track position, so I knew we were going to have to do it by pit stops and passing people. I just can’t thank everybody at GMS Racing, Allegiant Travel and Chevrolet, ECR horsepower, this is awesome.
“To be a champion, I’m speechless.”
For Sauter, it marked his first series title after eight season of trying. It came in a year that saw the Necedah, Wisconsin speedster score three victories, including the season opener at Daytona.
It marks the first time in series history that the championship has been decided using the Chase format. It also marks the first title for GMS Racing.
“This championship means a lot to me, but it means a lot to my family,” Sauter said. “I just can’t thank these guys enough. They executed like they needed to and I can’t thank the Gallagher family enough for giving me this opportunity. It was a leap of faith to come here over the off season. Being in a Chevrolet was very important to me and this is just awesome.”
Meanwhile, William Byron powered around Tyler Reddick with 10 laps to go, and drove away to score his seventh series victory of the season.
Byron, who is leaving Kyle Busch Motorsports to move to the NASCAR Xfinity Series with Hendrick Motorsports next season, said the win was “amazing.”
“This team’s worked so hard all year,” Byron said. “Every single person is so talented. Sometimes I look around the garage and our pit stall and I just think about all the good people on our race team led by Rudy (Fugle, crew chief) and just an awesome truck that we brought to Homestead. We would have loved to be in the driver’s championship, but it feels awesome to get a seventh win for this team. It’s just amazing.”
For most of the night, Crafton had held the top position among the championship four drivers, and looked to be on his way to a third series title. But after being passed by Sauter, Crafton’s Toyota appeared to have handling issues. He faded back to seventh position, and began waging a huge battle with fellow title contenders Christopher Bell and Timothy Peters for second place in points.
The fight saw positions swapped between the three several times a lap, with Crafton coming out on top with a seventh place finish.
“Johnny (Sauter) gave (Reddick) a really good push and we got by him, but just a little too tight there on that run for whatever reason,” Crafton said. “Put tires on it and just made small adjustments all night and got it better the second stop. The second to last stop it got a little free in and then right there on that last stop it got really tight for whatever reason getting into the corner and that’s what killed us.”
For Bell, it was a strong finish to his rookie season as he came home in eighth after a rollercoaster of a night.
“Yeah, well we – when we started of the race, we were pretty far off,” Bell said. “I was struggling pretty bad, but everyone on this No. 4 Kyle Busch Motorsports group did an awesome job and I can’t thank the pit crew enough. Man, they’re the ones who gave us a shot there at the end.
For Peters and his underfunded Red Horse Racing team, being in contention for the championship was a big deal in itself.
“We wanted a shot, we had it and, man, if that last run of the night could’ve been like the first run who knows the scenario might be a little different, but we are in fourth,” Peters said after his ninth place finish. “All in all just great to be in this position and we’ve got a lot to build on for the off-season.”
Reddick held on to finish in second, with Sauter in third. NASCAR Sprint Cup Series regular Kyle Larson, driving a team truck to Sauter, dominated the race, leading 76 of the races 134 laps until falling back to ninth on the final restart. He would rebound to finish in fourth, with Daniel Hemric in fifth.
Daniel Suarez, Crafton, Bell, Peters and Cole Custer rounded out the top ten.
NASCAR Camping World Truck Series
Homestead-Miami Speedway – Homestead, FL
Ford EcoBoost 200 – November 18, 2016
1. (1) William Byron #, Toyota, 134.
2. (7) Tyler Reddick, Ford, 134.
3. (19) Johnny Sauter (C), Chevrolet, 134.
4. (3) Kyle Larson(i), Chevrolet, 134.
5. (18) Daniel Hemric, Ford, 134.
6. (17) Daniel Suarez(i), Toyota, 134.
7. (4) Matt Crafton (C), Toyota, 134.
8. (8) Christopher Bell (C) #, Toyota, 134.
9. (13) Timothy Peters (C), Toyota, 134.
10. (2) Cole Custer #, Chevrolet, 134.
11. (6) John Hunter Nemechek, Chevrolet, 134.
12. (22) Matt Tifft #, Toyota, 134.
13. (20) Rico Abreu #, Toyota, 134.
14. (14) Ben Kennedy, Chevrolet, 134.
15. (10) Noah Gragson, Toyota, 134.
16. (16) Cameron Hayley, Toyota, 134.
17. (24) Austin Hill, Ford, 134.
18. (12) Jesse Little, Toyota, 134.
19. (9) Brady Boswell, Chevrolet, 134.
20. (11) Ben Rhodes #, Toyota, 134.
21. (5) Spencer Gallagher, Chevrolet, 134.
22. (21) Scott Lagasse Jr(i), Chevrolet, 134.
23. (23) Grant Enfinger #, Ford, 134.
24. (30) Jordan Anderson, Chevrolet, 134.
25. (27) Austin Wayne Self #, Toyota, 133.
26. (29) Alon Day, Chevrolet, 131.
27. (32) Travis Kvapil, Chevrolet, 131.
28. (28) Reed Sorenson(i), Chevrolet, 130.
29. (25) Stewart Friesen, Chevrolet, 128.
30. (31) Spencer Boyd, Chevrolet, 128.
31. (26) Patrick Staropoli, Chevrolet, 125.
32. (15) Ryan Truex, Toyota, Engine, 49.
Average Speed of Race Winner: 129.747 mph.
Time of Race: 1 Hrs, 32 Mins, 57 Secs. Margin of Victory: 2.175 Seconds.
Caution Flags: 4 for 18 laps.
Lead Changes: 15 among 5 drivers.
Lap Leaders: W. Byron # 1-16; R. Sorenson(i) 17; W. Byron # 18-19; M. Crafton (C) 20-22; K. Larson(i) 23-43; W. Byron # 44; T. Reddick 45-47; M. Crafton (C) 48-53; K. Larson(i) 54-83; W. Byron # 84; K. Larson(i) 85-87; M. Crafton (C) 88; K. Larson(i) 89-110; W. Byron # 111; T. Reddick 112-124; W. Byron # 125-134.
Leaders Summary (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led): K. Larson(i) 4 times for 76 laps; W. Byron # 6 times for 31 laps; T. Reddick 2 times for 16 laps; M. Crafton (C) 3 times for 10 laps; R. Sorenson(i) 1 time for 1 lap.
Top 10 in Points: J. Sauter (C) – 4,030; M. Crafton (C) – 4,026; C. Bell (C) # – 4,025; T. Peters (C) – 4,024; W. Byron # – 2,199; D. Hemric – 2,163; B. Kennedy – 2,162; J. Nemechek – 2,133; T. Reddick – 511; C. Custer # – 502.
