RIDGEWAY, Va.—  After beating and banging for 250 laps and a late race charge from Johnny Sauter, Chase Elliott was victorious in the Alpha Energy Solutions 250 from Martinsville Speedway.

“Obviously, we had a little help with (Bell’s) misfortune, but once we got by him, I thought our truck was a little better than his,” said Elliott to FOX in Victory Lane. “It was just a matter of getting by (Sauter) quickly and doing it decently, in a quick manner. Luckily, we only had to do it once with it staying green until the end.”

This is Elliott’s second victory in 12 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series events, his first of 2017.

The first stage was dominated by Chase Elliott. Elliott chose the inside lane to start the race. The caution flew shortly after the green flag fell for oil on the track by the No. 1 car of Bryce Napier. NASCAR did warn Elliott after the initial start about pulling down too soon on restarts. Towards the end of the stage, Johnny Sauter was catching Elliott while they were in lapped traffic. Elliott went on to win the stage, Sauter finished second, Matt Crafton finished third, Christopher Bell finished fourth, and Grant Enfinger rounded out the top-five in the first stage. The caution flew twice in this stage for eight laps.

Elliott lost that lead as the field went down pit road between the start of the second stage. Bell took two tires on pit-road to gain the lead.

When the second stage began, Sauter was able to pass Bell to dominate the stage. On the first restart in this stage, Sauter chose the inside lane, but Bell tried to push him down. However, Sauter was able to hash the lead. The complexion of the stage changed as drivers like Elliott and Bell hit pit toad with 12 laps remaining in the stage. The stage ended under the caution due to Elliott dumping Ross Chastain on lap 137. Sauter went on to win the stage, Crafton finished second, Chase Briscoe was third, Timothy Peters was fourth, and Grant Enfinger rounded out the top-five at the conclusion of the stage. The caution flew five times in the stage for 38 laps.

As the leaders pitted between the stages, Bell moved up to the first position, Elliott was second, Brett Moffit was third, Enfinger,and Joe Nemechek were the top-five on the restart to begin the final stage.

Bell was the dominate car in the final stage, but late-race aggression and lapped traffic cost him the victory.  As the stage was in the final 50 laps, Bell, Elliott, Sauter, and Noah Gragson were within a second of each other battling for the lead. As they progressed through the field, lapped traffic began to separate the drivers. As Bell reached Austin Cindric, Cindric attempted to stay on the lead lap. Bell was frustrated with Cindric and dumped him in the first turn. However, with the move to dump Cindric, Bell lost the lead to Elliott. As the race restarted with 12 laps remain, Elliott throw a successful block on Sauter to go on and score the victory at Martinsville.

Sauter finished second, Bell finished third, Gragson finished fourth, and Ty Dillon rounded out the top-five in the Alpha Energy Solutions 250.

The race ran for two hours, one minute, and 38 seconds. The average speed of the race was 64.867 mph.

The next race for the drivers will be at Kansas Speedway for the Toyota Tundra 250 on May 12th at 8:30 p.m. EST on Fox Sports 1 and Motor Racing Network.

RIDGEWAY, Va.—  Chase Elliott will start from the pole in today’s NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Alpha Energy Solutions 250 from Martinsville Speedway.

In the first round of qualifying, Chase Briscoe was fastest at 94.789 mph,Elliott was second fastest at 94.463 mph, Grant Enfinger was third fastest at 94.279 mph, Johnny Sauter was fourth fastest at 94.256 mph, and Timothy Peters rounded out the top-five at 94.106 mph. Austin Wayne Self, Norm Benning, and Charles Buchanan Jr. are the three drivers who will be heading home and not racing today.

In the second round of qualifying , Sauter was fastest at 94.855 mph, Elliott was second fastest at 95.543 mph, Christopher Bell was third fastest at 94.265 mph, Peters was fourth fastest at 94.200 mph, and Chase Briscoe rounded out the top-five at 94.143 mph.

In the final round, Elliott was fastest at 94.951 mph, Sauter will start second with a speed of 94.803 mph, Peters will start third with a speed of 94.331 mph, Matt Crafton will start fourth at a speed of 94.214mph, and Ross Chastain will round out the top-five at a speed of 93.891 mph.

Truck drivers will hit the track at 3:00 p.m. EST for the Alpha Energy Solutions 250. FOX and Motor Racing Network will have the TV and radio broadcasts.

Johnny Sauter was able to make a pass with two laps to go to sail into victory lane in the Striping Technology 350 at Texas Motor Speedway. This is Sauter’s second win in a row, and GMS Racing’s third win in a row.

“I knew we had a good truck today. In qualifying, everyone was just so discouraged and hanging their heads a little bit. It felt really good. we just kept working on it all night. I tried to give it away there on that last restart. I couldn’t get going. I had to wait for the pressures to get up, and it went,” said Sauter in post-race victory lane.

The first half of the race saw Spencer Gallagher get an early lead on the opening lap. Despite the early lead, Daniel Hemric and Gallagher set sail from the field as they battled for third on back. As the opening laps began to unravel, the field began to settle down early on. As the opening green flag run continued. Hemric was able to slowly move toward the front, but Gallagher changed his line to pull ahead. Tommy Joe Martins hit the wall, but the field remained green. Before the expiration of time on the caution clock, Gallagher had over a one second lead over Hemric. As the field hit pit road, Hemric was able to gain the lead. As the race restarted, Hemric was able to get an advantage, but was able to pull away as Gallagher and Christopher Bell battled for second. Bell was the victor of the battle. However, Gallagher was able to gain the momentum to pass Bell. As the race reached the halfway point, Hemric was the race leader, Gallagher was second, Bell was third, Crafton was fourth, and Sauter rounded out the top-five.

The second half of the race started with Gallagher making a move on Hemric to regain the lead. However, the caution flew on lap 82 for the expiration of the caution clock. As the leaders hit pit road for their second stops, Hemric regained the lead again from Gallagher. On the restart, Gallagher spun his tires, but was able to gain the lead as the field went into turn three. Gallagher was unable to pull away from the field as Bell remained on his bumper. Bell was racing Gallagher for the lead, but got loose as they hit lapped traffic. Bell lost one spot, but was able to gain it back quickly. As Gallagher and Sauter settled into their respoective positions, Hemric and Bell battled for the third position. As the laps winded down, the caution clock expired for the third time with 22 laps remaining. As Gallagher had an elongated stop, Sauter was able to gain the lead off pit road. On the restart, Sauter and Crafton were side by side going into one, but Crafton gained the advantage. Hemric and Sauter continued to battle for position, but Sauter was able to pass Hemric to catch Crafton’s bumper with less than five laps to go. With two laps to go, Sauter regained the lead from Crafton after passing him on the high side. Sauter gained the victory, Crafton finished second, Hemric finished third, Tyler Reddick finished fourth, and Daniel Suarez rounded out the top-five.

The race experienced three cautions due to the caution clock for a total of 12 laps.. There were seven lead changes among four drivers. Sauter led six laps, Crafton led 15 laps, Hemric led 38 laps, and Gallagher led the most laps at 88.

With his win tonight, Sauter made two positions at Homestead-Miami Speedway to be filled through points. With his second place finish despite hitting the wall, Crafton holds a one point advantage going to Phoenix over Timothy Peters in the Chase Grid. Ben Kennedy, who had an ill handling truck all night, is 13 points way from the cutoff line. Sauter holds the top seed going into Homestead with two wins, William Byron has a five point cushion over the cut line, and Bell has a four point cushion on the cut line.

The Camping World Truck Series returns to competition at Phoenix International Raceway next Friday for the Lucas Oil 150. The race will begin at 10 p.m. EST on Fox Sports 1 and Motor Racing Network.

Spencer Gallagher will start from the pole in tonight’s Striping Technology 350 from Texas Motor Speedway. This is his second pole in 2016. This is the sixth pole for GMS Racing.  Daniel Hemric will start on the outside pole.

The first round of qualifying was slowed once for reports of fluid on the track. Gallagher was fastest in the first round at 180.024 mph, Tyler Reddick was second fastest at 179.677 mph, Timothy Peters was third at 179.444 mph, Cody Coughlin was fourth at 179.396 mph, and Matt Crafton rounded out the top-five at 179.313 mph.  Chase drivers who did not advance to the second round  included Ben Kennedy, who will start 14th, and Johnny Sauter, who will start 16th. Drivers who did not qualify for tonight’s events include Mark Harmon, Ryan Ellis, and Tommy Regan.

The second round of qualifying went without accident. Gallagher won the pole with a speed of 180.307 mph, Hemric will start second at 180.090 mph, William Byron will start third at 179.934 mph, Matt Tifft will start fourth at 179.928 mph, and Reddick will round out the top-five at 179.880 mph. Chase drivers outisde the top-five include Peters who will start sixth, Crafton who will start seventh, and Christopher Bell who will start from the ninth position.

The Striping Technology 350 will be broadcasted on Motor Racing Network and Fox Sports 1 beginning at 8:00 p.m. EST.

MARTINSVILLE, Va --  In typical Martinsville fashion, there was a post-race altercation between two drivers in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series following the running of the Texas Roadhouse 200.

Ben Kennedy and Ben Rhodes confronted each other in the garage area after lap 177. Kennedy spun in turn two after a bump from Rhodes.

Kennedy is currently vying for a championship with GMS Racing. The wreck leaves Kennedy 10 points away from the cutoff line currently held by William Byron.

The caution, however, was a lucky break for Matt Crafton. On an earlier caution, Crafton went a lap down after fixing issues with the left-rear

Kennedy initiated the confrontation. “Come up to me and talk. Don’t stand over here. You gave me a headache all day and then you wreck us over in Turn 2. You wrecked us! That was the second time today! If you were sorry you would’ve walked over and talked to me instead of standing over here by your race truck.”

Rhodes quickly responded, “I was just trying to move you out of the way clean. I don’t want to start problems. That was never my intention.”

Despite the accident, Kennedy rebounded to an 18th place finish and did not fall a lap down. Rhodes finished in the 19th position behind Kennedy.