Making his sixth start at Pocono (Pa.) Raceway, Johnny Sauter, driver of the No. 98 Nextant Aerospace/Curb Records Toyota Tundra turned a 17th-place starting position into a sixth-place finish in Saturday afternoon’s Pocono Mountains 150. The solid run marked the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (NCWTS) veteran driver’s third top-10 finish at the “Tricky Triangle,” and eighth of the 2015 season.
In a race that is usually won on fuel mileage and pit strategy, crew chief Doug George brought the No. 98 Toyota Tundra to pit road during the races first caution at lap seven for a chassis adjustment, and fuel in hopes of catching a late-race caution and stretching their fuel-mileage for a race-winning strategy. As the scheduled 60-lap event approached the half-way mark, the race leaders began making their way down pit road. Sauter, running ninth, assumed the race lead at lap 32, and led the 32-truck field for four laps before making his way down pit road at lap 36 for two tires and fuel. Returning to the race track in the eighth position, following the green-flag pit stop, Sauter worked his way up to sixth by lap 60 and powered through three green-white-checkered flag restarts to finish sixth behind race winner, Kyle Busch.
Sauter remains fourth in the championship point standings following the 6th Annual Pocono Mountains 150.
Quote:
“Our day started out bad because we qualified bad. I knew track position was going to be ultra-important, and it was. You just can’t get going in dirty air back there. We had a good green flag pit stop, and got us a little track position, and just kind of methodically picked them off one by one. There at the end, a couple of late race restarts didn’t agree with us, so you’re just kind of riding along at that point. We got what we got. The truck is in one piece and we’ll go to the next one.”
Thorsport PR
