Johnny Sauter’s victory last week at Martinsville Speedway marked a career-high six season wins and serves as the golden ticket for an opportunity to defend his 2016 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series championship on Nov. 16 at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
And there are no expectations for the veteran to slow down soon. He is the two-time defending winner at Texas Motor Speedway, site of Friday night’s JAG Metals 350 (at 8:30 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). In fact Sauter (five wins) is one winner’s cowboy hat away from tying Todd Bodine for the most series victories (six) at the track. A win would also put him one-victory shy of Brendan Gaughan’s record of four consecutive wins at the track.
And yet for all of Sauter’s hard work, the 2018 championship remains very much in heated contention. With Sauter already in the Championship 4, Noah Gragson now leads the standings with a 24-point edge over Justin Haley in fifth place and 34 points over Matt Crafton in sixth.
However, Haley is only two points behind fourth-place Grant Enfinger and 15 points behind third-place Brett Moffitt – keeping this weekend’s Texas race crucial in a tightly-contested run to be championship eligible.
Sauter and Crafton – who won in 2014 – are the only two drivers currently championship eligible with previous victories at Texas. In fact, this is only Moffitt’s second race at the 1.5-mile speedway and the fourth ever for Gragson, Haley and Enfinger.
Source: Holly Cain | NASCAR Wire Service
