After racing up to second-place during the middle stages of the race, Johnny
Sauter raced back to fourth after problems during the final round of pit stops
dropped the No. 13 SealMaster/Curb Records Chevrolet back to ninth with just 56
laps to go in the AAA Insurance 200 at O'Reilly Raceway Park.
Sauter started ninth and charged towards the front at the drop of the green,
cracking the top five by lap 60 on the tricky 0.686-mile oval and working his
way up to second just after a restart at the halfway point. But a caution with
60 laps to go threw Sauter's night into turmoil. A loose lugnut cost Sauter four
seconds on pit road, dropping him again all the way back to ninth. Sauter's
impressive charge to the front over the final 50 laps resulted in his fifth
top-five finish of the season, his third consecutive and fourth in the last five
races.
"The SealMaster/Curb Records Chevy was really strong tonight and I thought we
had a chance to get up there and win the race," Sauter said. "We had some
problems on the last pit stop and it dropped us back and I had to really use the
truck up to get back to fourth. When you push that hard and you have to run that
lower groove to pass it just burns the right front tire off and we had make our
way up through the pack twice tonight. We're disappointed because we come here
to win and we had a chance to get it done tonight. I'm not a points racer at all
but with the problems with the 51 (Aric Almirola, second in the standings) we
gained a lot on them. I'm still really proud of my guys, they built me a great
truck and we had a real good chance to win, we just need to work on our pit
stops. If we can do that we'll win our share of these races and get ourselves in
position to win the championship."
Sauter also fought issues with the heat, which was in the upper 90s with the
heat index hovering above 110 degrees throughout the afternoon. Cockpit
temperatures exceeded 135 degrees during the day's practice sessions, and
although it cooled off into the 70s during the race it was still very warm in
the truck.
"It wasn't as bad as Gateway last weekend but not by much," Sauter said. "I'm
pretty beat after a day like today. Thankfully it did cool off a little once the
race started and the sun went down. Hopefully we get a break from the heat up at
Pocono next week."
Next up for Johnny Sauter and the No. 13 Curb Records Chevrolet is the Pocono
Mountains 125 at the 2.5-mile triangular Pocono Raceway on Saturday, July 30. As
a team, ThorSport Racing will be participating in its 328th race in the NASCAR
Camping World Truck Series, moving into second-place all-time behind only Roush
Fenway Racing with 353 races and into the lead among active teams. The green
flag will fly shortly after 1 P.M. Eastern live on SPEED. The race will also be
broadcast live on select MRN Radio affiliates nationwide and on Sirius NASCAR
Radio Channel 128 (XM104).