Johnny Sauter, defending Kansas Speedway winner and driver of the No. 13 Safe Auto/Curb Records/Carrier Chevrolet Silverado, held off Todd Bodine in a late lap battle for second place behind winner Clint Boyer at the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series O’Reilly Auto Parts 250 at Kansas Speedway. Sauter, who started third Saturday, also won the Exide Start Positive, Stay Positive Award and the Mobil Driver of the Race Award. The finish moves him up one spot to regain the lead in the 2011 NCWTS point standings – a place he held earlier this year.
“I couldn’t be more proud of our effort,” said Sauter, who took a 12-point overall points lead over Cole Whitt. “There’s a little added pressure coming in here as the defending race winner. Everybody wants to talk to you about that, but we’re racing everybody out there every race. Joe Shear, Jr and my guys are a big part of the success here, and that effort helped get us to that second place finish.”
Last year’s win at Kansas gave Sauter the momentum to catapult into a winning stretch. He vaulted into the top 10 in points, posted 12 top-fives in the next 20 races, including five second-place and four third-place finishes; and ended the year third in overall driver points at banquet time. Sauter isn’t concerned about championship points just yet.
“The championship, right now, is something that is important but not something to pay a lot of attention to – going into Texas,” he continued. “It’s way too early in my opinion, but it’s still an accomplishment and I’m honored. I don’t think you can really focus on winning a championship, especially this year with as much competition as we have, until there are five, six, seven races left. It’s not going to be like years past when you just go be consistent down the stretch and finish 10th…we’ve got to race every race to the end. We gave it everything today.”
