William Byron will cap a dominating NASCAR Camping World Truck Series season with his seventh victory of the year. Byron led 31 of the 134 laps to take his No. 9 Liberty University Toyota to victory lane after a disappointing run last weekend at Phoenix International Raceway.
“It feels awesome. It’s just – it’s incredible. I mean this team has worked so hard all year,” Byron said after the race. “We just had an unfortunate situation last week that we couldn’t control, but, man, they brought a good truck. Qualified on the pole. These guys just are awesome. God, I hate leaving this – I just hate this team not being together next year. It’s just insane how good they are and so many talented people on this race team. Can’t thank KBM (Kyle Busch Motorsports) enough, Toyota, Kyle and Samantha (Busch), everyone at KBM, Liberty University – it’s just amazing.”
Byron dominated the race last weekend at Phoenix until the engine expired with about 10 laps to go. The issue destroyed his run for the championship as they were unable to finish the event.
“Before this race, we knew we had a lifelong bond between all of us,” Byron continued. “I mean, it’s just been an incredible season. I’ve learned so much. They didn’t know what to expect I think with a rookie driver. They were like, ‘What’s this kid going to do,’ so I just tried to prove them right all year and we just had an awesome year, so no better way to finish it off at Homestead like this.”
Byron will move up the racing ladder next season as he races full-time in the NASCAR XFINITY Series with JR Motorsports. Sponsors, car number and crew chief for that effort is still to be decided.
Johnny Sauter will walk away with his first career NASCAR Camping World Truck Series championship. Despite finishing third, Sauter was able to beat Matt Crafton, Timothy Peters and Christopher Bell for the title.
“I just ran a smart race,” said Sauter after climbing from behind the wheel of his Silverado at the championship stage. “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.”
The championship did not come easy as Crafton held the championship spot all evening long. After the last round of pit stops, Crafton faded back to seventh and was unable to rebound.
“This championship means a lot to me, but it means a lot to my family,” the newly crowned champion continued. “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.”
Sauter will finish the season with three wins, 12 top five and 19 top 10 finishes through 23 races. Friday night at Homestead-Miami Speedway will certainly be a night to remember for the Wisconsin native.
Tyler Reddick had his piece of the puzzle during the race after leading two different times for 16 laps in his No. 29 BKR Ford F-150. The runner-up finish will give Reddick his eighth top five and 12th top 10 finish in 2016.
Reddick will move over to the NASCAR XFINITY Series part-time in 2017. He will share the No. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing ride with Kyle Larson. BKR will have Austin Cindric and another driver to be announced.
Kyle Larson will leave the season finale with a fourth-place finish. Larson led the most laps of 76 in his No. 24 DC Solar Chevrolet for GMS Racing. The California native started the evening in third.
The Chase drivers fought all night long for the other spots in the championship. Crafton will finish 2016 in the second spot. Christopher Bell, who finished eighth in the Ford EcoBoost 200, will end the year third in points. Timothy Peters will end 2016 fourth in points. Peters took his No. 17 Red Horse Racing Toyota to a ninth-place finish. Here is what they had to say:
“Johnny (Sauter) gave the 29 a really good push and we got by him, but just a little too tight there on that run for whatever reason,” said Crafton after the race. “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.”
“I’m really proud of our Kyle Busch Motorsports group here. They worked really hard to give us what we needed to win the race and I feel like I just made a couple mistakes up there trying to get all I could get, but overall, man, it just wasn’t our year,” said Bell. “We were always kind of a fifth to 10th-place truck and fought hard and that’s where we ended up tonight, so just thankful for all of our partners at JBL, Toyota, TRD (Toyota Racing Development), the guys at Kyle Busch Motorsports – everyone who doesn’t come to the race track and who does come to the race track – SiriusXM, DC Solar. It’s a lot of fun to be racing in the Truck Series with Kyle Busch Motorsports and I’m looking forward to 2017.”
“Just keeping track position. Everybody did a great job, you know? One pit stop – it is what it is,” said Peters after the race. “These guys do a great job for me every week. All we wanted was a shot coming down here. We were so good when we initially fired off the start of the race. It never would come back, so I don’t know. I’ll be scratching my head a little bit, but all in all it’s still a great year for the Red Horse Racing team. Just so proud to be in this moment. It’s really surreal and we wanted to get that championship, but fourth isn’t too shabby.”
The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series will return to action at Daytona International Speedway on February 24 at 7:30 p.m. ET. The Motor Racing Network and SiriusXM channel 90 will carry the live radio broadcast.
Stay tuned to SpeedwayDigest.com all offseason long for team news!
About Me: Brett has been following the sport of NASCAR since the beginning of the 2006 NASCAR Sprint Cup season. Since Brett was 13, he has had a passion of chasing a job in sports that not many get the opportunity of doing. He has been in the NASCAR media since the middle of the 2010 season. Since then, he has been a part of many racing podcast shows to improve his talents. He has written for racingonfuel.com and theracingwheel.com. Currently, Brett writes for motorsportsnat.com and TracksideChatter.com. You can find him on twitter @NASCAR_Brett.
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