Johnny Sauter won for the second consecutive season at Dover International Speedway when he took the checkered flag in Friday’s NASCAR Camping World Truck Series JEGS 200.
Sauter held off Matt Crafton in a two-lap dash to the checkered flag in overtime to score the victory. It was Sauter’s second win of the season and 19th of his Truck Series career. Sauter led four times for 137 laps, his second most ever in a race.
The overtime was set-up by an accident involving Noah Gragson, who was involved in an intense battle with Sauter for the lead. Gragson had wrestled the top spot away from Sauter after a late restart with 12 laps to go.
But as the duo raced side-by-side heading into Turn 3, Gragson got loose and after making contact with Sauter’s truck spun wildly before making hard contact with the outside wall.
“Extremely disappointed. in myself,” Gragson said. “It was just a racing deal. Not the way I try to race people. I take full responsibility in that. It was 100 percent my fault. Just unacceptable on my part. All I could think about was the mistake I made. I’m just devastated.”
That set up the overtime and Sauter was able to clear Crafton and finally drive off to the checkered flag.
“Well you just never give up,” Sauter said. “We had to work for this one today. I had a good run on him (Gragson) there and he ran me up. I was like okay, you just gave me the green light to be aggressive, but that was just racing right there.”
Sauter’s Dover weekend will continue Saturday when he fills in for Spencer Gallagher in the GMS Racing Xfinity Series entry. Gallagher was indefinitely suspended by NASCAR earlier this week after failing the sanctioning body’s substance abuse policy.
“This one is for Spencer. He’s a smart kid, he’ll get it right. Proud of him,” Sauter said.
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Crafton, Justin Haley, David Gilliland and Harrison Burton rounded out the top five.
Cody Coughlin, Joe Nemechek, Ben Rhodes, Jesse Little and Todd Gilliland rounded out the first ten finishers.
Gragson and Sauter won the first two stages.
The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series now heads to Kansas Speedway next Friday night.
