NCWTS: Clint Bowyer Grabs Home-Track Win at Kansas

Credit: Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images for NASCAR

A feel-good story came of the 400^th NASCAR Camping World Truck Series came in the form of Emporia, Kan. native Clint Bowyer winning at his home track of Kansas Speedway on a hot Saturday afternoon. Bowyer, who is the first Kansas native to win a NASCAR race at Kansas Speedway, was undoubtedly thrilled after a dominating performance in which he led 124 of 167 laps.

“So happy to finally be in victory lane here,” said Bowyer.” It means so much to me. The fans are always awesome here. So proud of this speedway and everything that’s become of it and being able to race here let alone being able to win here is just a dream come true.”

Credit: Geoff Burke/Getty Images for NASCAR

Second-place was Johnny Sauter, the highest finishing Camping World Truck Series regular in the field, propelling him to the points lead. He now has a 12-point advantage over second-place Red Bull Racing rookie driver Cole Whitt.

“Couldn’t be more proud of everybody at ThorSport,” said Sauter. “This ECR engine was strong. I thought we had something for him there in that middle run, then that last pit deal we elected to take fuel only. That was our only way to beat them and he got through traffic better than we did. Nonetheless, great day for us.”

Todd Bodine finished third, followed by James Buescher in fourth, and rookie Joey Coulter rounded out the top five as the highest finishing rookie of the race. NASCAR Sprint Cup Series regular Kyle Busch was surprisingly uncompetitive, failing to lead even a single lap in the O’Reilly Auto Parts 250.

In fact, Coulter and Busch had a minor altercation following the conclusion of the event. Coulter and Busch were racing side-by-side for the fifth positions in the closing laps of the race, when on the final lap, Coulter slid up into Busch and took the position. Busch angrily tapped Coulter’s No. 22 Chevrolet on the cool-down lap after the checkered flag flew, but Coulter was unfazed after grabbing his best career result in the Camping World Truck Series.  

“According to the spotter, he was just saying congratulations,” said Coulter. “It was kinda strange because every other time we got side by side like that, I had gotten really bad loose off the corner and just for whatever reason that corner where he was on my quarter panel I just got extremely tight. Clearing him for just a split second, my spotter called clear and I jumped back and he kinda got back on me a little bit and tightened me up. With as hot as it is and the tires having lots of laps on them, once the tire starts sliding it’s really hard to get them stop and we just ended up running up towards the fence. I really hate that it happened.”

A total of seven caution flags flew in the 167-lap race, with 28 total laps run under caution. No incident involved more than one truck, but drivers involved in incidents include Ron Hornaday Jr., Brad Sweet, Nelson Piquet Jr., Shane Sieg, and Ryan Sieg.

Hornaday had a particularly rough day, crashing just 18 laps into the race due to a flat right rear tire. He fell one position in the standings to sixth, and is now 56 points out of the lead.

Sauter moved up one spot in the standings to first, knocking Whitt back to second. Austin Dillon gained one spot following a 12^th place showing in Kansas, knocking Matt Crafton down a spot to fourth. Timothy Peters rounds out the top five.

Next weekend, the Camping World Truck Series races into Texas Motor Speedway for the WinStar World Casino 400k. The race will be run on Friday, June 10^th, and will be broadcast live on SPEED at 9PM ET.