Johnny Sauter Wins NASCAR Truck Series Race at Bristol and Claims 2018 Regular Season Title

Johnny Sauter capped off the 2018 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series regular season with a win Thursday night in the UNOH 200 at Bristol Motor Speedway in Tennessee. The win was Sauter’s first at Bristol but his fifth overall of 2018 and garnered him the honor of regular-season champion.

“I‘m so proud of this team,” Sauter said. “I knew we had a great truck today. What a way to cap off the regular season with a win. I had to race really hard with the 52 [Stewart Friesen] there for a while, which was exciting.”

Stewart Friesen finished second to Sauter. It was his third second-place finish of the season and the fourth-career runner-up showing for the driver still looking for his first-career win in the Truck Series.

“That was probably the most fun I‘ve had all year,” Friesen said. “Bumping and grinding, and no better guys to race with than John Hunter [Nemechek]  and Johnny. We‘ll take it and move on.”

John Hunter Nemechek finished third after leading 104 of the 200 laps that made up the race. He also won both of the 55-lap stages. After Christopher Bell started on the pole and led the first 31 laps, Nemechek began to dominate the race with his first lead on a Lap 32 restart.

Nemechek didn’t pit along with most of his fellow competitors between the first two stages, waiting instead until the end of Stage 2. Sauter got out of the pits first after the second stage, while Nemechek came off fourth. Noah Gragson took the lead from Sauter on the restart, but on Lap 131, Sauter was back up front and Nemechek in second.

Nemechek led again for a few laps late in the race before Sauter took his final lead on Lap 196, and Friesen also got by Nemechek for second.

Since Bristol didn’t produce a new race winner, the three drivers in position to make the playoffs on points—Matt Crafton, Friesen and Grant Enfinger—did so, joining race winners Sauter, Brett Moffitt, Gragson, Justin Haley and Ben Rhodes to make up the eight-driver 2018 playoff field. Crafton and Enfinger also posted top-10 finishes, finishing eighth and 10th respectively.

UNOH 200 RESULTS:

1. Johnny Sauter, No. 21 Chevrolet

2. Stewart Friesen, No. 52 Chevrolet

3. John Hunter Nemechek, No. 8 Chevrolet

4. Parker Kligerman, No. 75 Chevrolet

5. Todd Gilliland, No. 4 Toyota

6. Justin Haley, No. 24 Chevrolet

7. Ben Rhodes, No. 41 Ford

8. Matt Crafton, No. 88 Ford

9. Noah Gragson, No. 18 Toyota

10. Grant Enfinger, No. 90 Ford

11. Dalton Sargeant, No. 25 Chevrolet

12. Ross Chastain, No. 38 Chevrolet

13. Austin Wayne Self, No. 22 Chevrolet

14. Tanner Thorson, No. 20 Chevrolet

15. Riley Herbst, No. 54 Toyota

16. Codie Rohrbaugh, No. 9 Chevrolet

17. Stefan Parsons, No. 15 Chevrolet

18. Brett Moffitt, No. 16 Toyota

19. Cody Coughlin, No. 2 Chevrolet

20. Clay Greenfield, No. 68 Chevrolet

21. Austin HIll, No. 02 Chevrolet

22. Jordan Anderson, No. 3 Chevrolet

23. Wendell Chavous, No. 49 Chevrolet

24. Justin Fontaine, No. 45 Chevrolet

25. Cory Roper, No. 04 Ford

26. Jesse Little, No. 97 Ford

27. Korbin Forrister, No. 7 Toyota

28. Christopher Bell, No. 51 Toyota

29. Myatt Snider, No. 13 Ford

30. Chad Finley, No. 42 Chevrolet

31. Scott Lagasse Jr., No. 30 Toyota

32.Bayley Currey, No. 83 Chevrolet

UP NEXT: The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series begins its seven-race playoff August 26 with its only road-course race of the season at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park. Austin Cindric is the defending winner of the Truck Series race at the track. In five previous series races there, none of the 2018 Truck Series regulars have won.

 

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