Redemption! Johnny Sauter wins at Texas

Photo by Lisa Janine Cloud for Skirts and Scuffs

Maybe it was Grandma's chicken and dumplings that helped Johnny Sauter earn his first Charlie 1 Horse hat.

Or maybe, despite his disavowal that the track "owed him one," Texas Motor Speedway paid Johnny Sauter back for the one that got away. There was no "God bless America" parting shot from the winner of the WinStar World Casino 400 tonight, only words of praise for his team, his country, and the military, and for his Grandma's chicken and dumplings he ate today while visiting his grandparents in the Dallas area.

Last year in this race Sauter lost a heartbreaker by committing a lane violation when coming to the "green" part of a green-white-checkered finish. "Yeah, I think about that all the time. It's hard not to think about it." Starting in 20th, he and the No. 13 Hot Honeys/Curb Records Toyota team worked hard to keep this race from getting away. Sauter avoided the Lap 138 clash between then-leaders Ty Dillon and James Buescher and took the lead on Lap 146.

The victory is Sauter's fifth in his 93 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series starts, and only his second top-10 finish this season.

Sauters's ThorSport Racing teammate Matt Crafton brought the No. 88 Menards/Goof Off Toyota in second, unable to really challenge for the lead on those last laps. Joey Coulter and the RCR/Darrell Gwynn Foundation Chevy finished third.

The race's highest finishing rookie, Ty Dillon, explained that while he claimed responsibility for the incident that had him with hometown driver James Buescher, who were looking as if they were on the dirt at Eldora, the incident came about because he was trying to win the race and Buescher was, too. Dillon said Buescher was mad, but "I told him I wasn't just going to move over for him. I came here to win."

Team Onion's quest for a seventh win at TMS came to an end on Lap 32 when the No. 11 ToyotaCare Toyota blew an engine. Todd Bodine told the television crew that "It wasn't anybody's fault, it was a part failure."

Justin Lofton retains the points lead over Timothy Peters by a slim 5 markers, with Ty Dillon, James Buescher, and Parker Kligerman not far behind.

Full results:

Fin	#	Driver
1	13	Johnny Sauter
2	88	Matt Crafton
3	22	Joey Coulter
4	2	Brendan Gaughan
5	30	Nelson Piquet, Jr.
6	18	Jason Leffler
7	3	Ty Dillon
8	33	Cale Gale
9	6	Justin Lofton
10	29	Parker Kligerman
11	17	Timothy Peters
12	9	Ron Hornaday, Jr.
13	81	David Starr
14	32	Miguel Paludo
15	31	James Buescher
16	8	Ross Chastain
17	23	Jason White
18	98	Dakoda Armstrong
19	39	Ryan Sieg
20	14	Brandon Miller
21	24	Max Gresham
22	57	Norm Benning
23	84	B.J. McLeod
24	65	Scott Stenzel
25	99	Bryan Silas
26	93	Brent Raymer
27	9	John Wes Townley
28	5	Paulie Harraka
29	73	Rick Crawford
30	11	Todd Bodine
31	7	Johnny Chapman
32	10	Jennifer Jo Cobb
33	74	Mike Harmon
34	0	Chris Lafferty
35	27	Brandon Knupp