Race To Sauter, Title To Dillon
11-18-2011 10:09 pm

Johnny Sauter did everything he could, leading the most laps and winning Friday night’s rain-shortened Ford 200 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at Homestead-Miami Speedway. But it was Austin Dillon who locked up the driver’s championship with an 10th-place finish.

Sauter dominated the night in his No. 13 ThorSport Racing Chevrolet to win over Denny Hamlin, Kevin Harvick, Nelson Piquet Jr. and Joey Coulter.

“Twenty points was a long shot coming into tonight, but you just never know,” said Sauter of his pre-race points gap to Dillon. “We did what we set out to do. That’s all we can do.”

Sauter took some consolation in the race victory.

“This is big. Two wins in a season,” he said. “I’ve been trying for years in my NASCAR career to get two wins in a season. Unbelievable.”

Dillon, understandably, was even happier. “This is awesome,” he said. “Best day of my life.”

Qualifying was rained out earlier in the day, so the field was set by the NASCAR rule book. That put James Buescher on the pole, as he was fastest in the day’s lone practice round, with Dillon starting from the outside of Row 2 in the fourth position.

Kevin Harvick, in the final race for his powerhouse Kevin Harvick Inc. team, took the early lead, before NASCAR called a competition caution on Lap 20 to allow teams to evaluate tire wear.

On the restart, Denny Hamlin went to the lead briefly in the No. 18 Kyle Busch Motorsports Toyota, only be challenged immediately by Buescher and Hamlin.

Buescher went three-wide to take the lead on Lap 27, in a bold move. A spin on Lap 30 by German Quiroga brought out another caution, and on the restart, Harvick and Buescher made contact, with Buescher blocking Harvick’s move to pass on the bottom. That opened the door for Johnny Sauter to take the lead.

On Lap 40, Elliott Sadler went high in Turn 4, passing Sadler to take his first lead of the day. Sadler held the lead at the halfway point over Cole Whitt, Sauter, Buescher and Dillon. Shortly thereafter, green-flag pit stops began.

On Lap 73, Buescher and Harvick were heading onto pit road, when Buescher ran into Harvick and spun him out in what appeared to be a fairly flagrant maneuver.

After the pit stops under green, Sauter went to the point ahead of Dillon, Hamlin and Sadler, the latter of whom suddenly experiencing a loose condition.

With 39 laps to go, Ross Chastain spun in Turn 4 to bring out the fourth caution of the day and send the leaders down pit road again.

The top three — Sauter, Dillon on Hamlin — held sway on pit road, with a late-race showdown shaping up. The race restarted on Lap 133, with Dillon getting hung in the middle and falling to 14th.

Suddenly, Dillon began having trouble, with reports of some fluids coming off Dillon’s truck and/or a shiny right-front tire. Dillon needed to finish 16th or better to win the title, and without warning he was struggling back in 14th.

But gradually, Dillon began to move back through the field and was up to 10th place with 20 laps to go.

Two laps later, Hamlin tried to pass Sauter for the lead, but Sauter threw a hard block on the high side in Turn 4, and one lap later, a caution came out for rain. And did it rain — the skies opened and it poured on the South Florida track.

The race was called and Sauter got the win, with Dillon taking the title.

“Johnny a great job. He did everything he could,” said Dillon, “He led a lot of laps. We were running him down there on that long green flag. If it had went green, I think we had something for him.”