DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Johnny Sauter is a master at Daytona.
On Friday night the GMS Racing veteran and 2016 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series champion made a late race move on David Gilliland and held off a hard-charging Scott Lagasse Jr. and GMS teammate Justin Haley for his third superspeedway victory at the “World Center of Racing” in six years.
“This is big,” said Sauter. “I felt like we executed flawlessly.
“We had good track position and we lost it a couple times. I’m just so thankful to be driving this truck. This is best group of guys I’ve ever been around and it’s great to start the season off like this.
“I just felt comfortable today and I don’t even know why. I didn’t have one nerve. I just felt like this was our day.”
Haley earned a career-best finish second after sitting out last year’s season-opener because of an age restriction.
The win for Sauter and crew chief Joe Shear Jr. was significant after Shear’s wife Chandra passed away unexpectedly a few days after Christmas.
“This is very, very, very special,” Shear said. “I don’t know if a lot of people know but I lost my wife in December. She’s looking above us. She was in love with racing just as much as I was. This is good. She was looking over us and helped us to this win.
“And I’m so grateful to be in the position that I’m at and have these people around me. This means so much. I’ll never forget this one.”
Sauter, a native of Necedah, Wisc. said his truck in Friday night’s race was the best he ever had at a superspeedway track.
“This is the most unbelievable speedway truck I’ve ever driven,” added Sauter in Victory Lane.
For Haley, his career-best finish was important towards a championship chase after sitting idle for the opening two races last year.
“Yeah, the final last laps were pretty crazy,” Haley explained. “We didn’t get to qualify where we wanted, and we got shuffled back there. Didn’t have the stage 1 we wanted, but made some good pit stops, got up there towards the front, in the mix there towards stage 2. Then the last lap, I was in the lead there on that caution, and we were going to go back green, and I didn’t know who to pick to push me, and Lagasse obviously gave me a good push on the outside to the lead, so stuck to my gut on that one.
“We ran pretty good there with David (Gilliland) trying to block the runs, and then finally got shuffled back a little bit in the last lap.The energy wasn’t really there on the high side. There was only nine or ten of us, and we were communicating with Joe Nemechek because he was obviously a Chevy. You know, I was going to back up to him on the backstretch there to try to get a win, but if you pull out there on the backstretch and Joe doesn’t go with you, you end up 15th.
“The outside actually happened to have a good run, and the opportunity wasn’t there. Southern Legacy tried to go up and block it, and I side-drafted him, took the opportunity of that, and I thought maybe we were going to have Johnny there towards the end, but really thankful to have the Fraternal Order of Eagles on board, everyone at GMS. I’m glad Johnny won with GMS and we could take home the win.”
Dalton Sargeant in his Truck Series debut for GMS led some laps and ultimately finished eighth after being collected in a Lap 55 accident.
“We had a really good night in the Performance Plus Motor Oil 25 truck,” Sargeant said. “We most definitely overcame some adversity tonight as it just seemed like we were in the wrong place at the wrong time. The truck was beat up, didn’t steer straight but the GMS Racing guys really worked hard to bring it back into contention and my spitter TJ Majors guided me all the way back through the field.
“It was fun, probably one of the most fun races I’ve ever competed in. Can’t wait to continue this racing season and get to Atlanta.”
GMS Racing affiliate truck drove by Justin Fontaine for Niece Motorsports also had a good night collecting a career-best 10th place run after starting 17th. Last February, Fontaine left Daytona in an ambulance after getting upside in his ARCA race in the Lucas Oil 200.
Cody Coughlin the fourth truck from the GMS Racing stable showcased speed throughout the 100-lap event – but had a flat tire late in the event and finished 17th, one lap down.
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
