Johnny Sauter Grabs A Fourth Place Finish At Dover

Sauter’s Tough Luck Ends on Friday the Thirteenth With Top-Five Finish at Dover
Johnny Sauter, driver of the No. 21 Allegiant Travel Chevrolet in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (NCWTS), earned his second top-five finish of the season at Dover International Speedway. The Necedah, Wis., native started from the 15th position and finished the 200-lap event in fourth place.

Starting positions for the JACOB Companies 200 were set according to the rulebook after Friday’s qualifying session was rained out. Sauter’s practice speeds secured him a top-15 start. The Allegiant Travel Chevrolet team had little information about how exactly the No. 21 would handle and Sauter reported in the opening laps that he was free on entry and tight on corner exit. The first caution of the race occurred on lap 44, when crew chief Marcus Richmond called Sauter to pit road for tires, fuel and air pressure and track bar adjustments. Two laps after the restart, Sauter drove his way into the top 10 and held position until just before the fourth caution period, on lap 81, when he fell back to 11th place. On lap 82, Sauter reported that the Allegiant Travel Chevrolet was tight. He brought the No. 21 to pit road under caution for four tires, fuel and an air pressure adjustment and returned to the track in the 11th position. Just past halfway, Sauter once again entered the top 10 and on lap 134 pitted for the last time for adjustments to alleviate a continuing tight-handling condition. Sauter was unable to advance his position past seventh place until lap 167 when he took over the sixth position. Following the last caution of the event, Sauter raced into the top five and quickly took over the fourth position, where he remained until he crossed the finish line.

Sauter’s fourth-place finish marks his second top five of the season, the first coming at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway where he won his first race with GMS Racing. He is now 13th in the driver championship point standings and virtually locked in to the NCWTS Chase based on his season-opening win.

Johnny Sauter Quote:
“I’m glad we finally got to finish a race! The handling was never quite there. We were tight all day, but had reached a good point near the end. A fourth-place finish is great for us, especially with the way these last three races have gone. The GMS Racing guys have done such a good job building fast trucks and we really should have more than one win on the season, but I’m happy with the speed we have. I wish we could have had more of a shot at the win here but I’m happy with where we finished.”

Next Race:   
The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series will return to action on Friday, May 20 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

About GMS Racing, LLC: 

GMS Racing competes full-time in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series with drivers Johnny Sauter, Spencer Gallagher, Grant Enfinger, Ben Kennedy and Kaz Grala. GMS Racing also competes in the NASCAR XFINITY Series with Spencer Gallagher. Formerly based out of Las Vegas, Nevada, GMS Racing is now housed in a 100,000 square-foot state-of-the-art campus in Statesville, North Carolina.