Skip navigation
Favorites
Sign up to follow your favorites on all your devices.
Sign up

Johnny Sauter wins Truck race at Bristol

Sauter Wins

Johnny Sauter passed John Hunter Nemechek with five laps remaining in the UNOH 200 at Bristol Motor Speedway to win his fifth Truck race of the year in the regular season finale. This is Sauter’s first Truck win at Bristol.

Stewart Friesen raced Sauter in the closing laps for what was an apparent bid for second until Nemechek faltered in the closing laps when his engine lost power to an undisclosed mechanical failure.

Friesen followed Sauter around the faltering Nemechek to second. This is the third time this season that Friesen has finished second. He is is still looking for his first Truck win.

Nemechek held on to finish third, but seemed to have the truck to beat until he lost power. Nemechek took the lead from pole sitter Christopher Bell on lap 31 and went on to win Stage 1 and 2 of the race.

Parker Kligerman and Todd Gilliland rounded out the top five.

STAGE 1 WINNER: John Hunter Nemechek

STAGE 2 WINNER: John Hunter Nemechek

ADVANCING TO THE PLAYOFFS:Johnny Sauter, Brett Moffitt, Noah Gragson, Ben Rhodes, Stewart Friesen, Grant Enfinger, Justin Haley and Matt Crafton.

HOW JOHNNY SAUTER WON:He took the lead for the first time at the beginning of the final stage when Nemechek pitted, lost it briefly to Gragson on the restart, and regained the top spot on lap 131. Nemechek ran Sauter down in traffic, retaking the lead on lap 177. Battling Friesen hard in the closing lap kept Sauter from losing the second spot and when Nemechek faltered, he was in position to take advantage.

WHO HAD A GOOD NIGHT: Making his Truck debut, Stefan Parsons stayed on the lead lap until lap 95. He lost another lap late in the race and finished 17th to earn a top 20. … Also making his debut, Codie Rohrbaugh finished 16th. … Ross Chastain got his weekend off to a good start with a 12th-place finish in the Truck race. He will also race in the Xfinity Series Friday night and Cup on Sunday.

WHO HAD A BAD NIGHT: After finishing fifth at Daytona in the season opener, Scott Lagasse Jr. spun and crashed on lap 16 in just his second Truck start of the season. … Myatt Snider was fighting to stay on the lead lap and battling for a position with Gragson when the two made contact coming to the end of Stage 2. Snider spun into the inside wall and did major damage.

NOTABLE: Christopher Bell acclimated quickly to the No. 51 truck. He won the pole after taking over for an ailing Harrison Burton and then jumped out to an early lead and paced the field for 31 laps. He faded at the end when his power steering failed.

QUOTE OF THE NIGHT: “Uncle Johnny (Sauter) races me hard and that was a couple of bad ass Silverados going at it. … The lap traffic was to our advantage. We could roll when they moved up. … That was probably the most fun I’ve had all year, bumping and grinding. There are no better guys to race with than John Hunter and Johnny.” - Stewart Friesen on Fox.

WHAT’S NEXT: Chevrolet Silverado 250 at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park on Aug. 26 at 2:30 PM on FS1.