NASCAR announced late Saturday afternoon that the No. 13 Truck of Johnny Sauter has been disqualified from the Vet Tix Camping World 200 NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series race at Atlanta Motor Speedway after failing post-race inspection.
Sauter’s truck was disqualified for what a NASCAR statement called “a race tire violation.”
“The 13 truck had an issue with one of its tires and did not pass our at-track inspection and led to a violation ... basically no treatment or no modifications of any kind,” NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series managing director Brad Moran told reporters. “We had an issue with one of the tires which led to the DQ of the No. 13 truck.
“There was no tip-off. We randomly chose one Ford, Chevrolet and Toyota. They were all very close to each other on pit road. It makes it easy to manage it and to have our officials get to all three sets fairly quickly, basically confiscate them and keep our eyes on them. It was not a tip-off, it was one set of tires from all three OEMs (original equipment manufacturers).”
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Moran said the tire on Sauter’s truck failed the “dunk tank test,” where tires are inserted into a tank of water to determine if there is any modification to the tires that are against the rules such as air bubbles from small intentional pin holes or have illegal compounds placed upon the tire.
“Yeah, it was a typical dunk tank test, correct,” Moran said. “They go into a dunk tank and we’re looking at certain things that could be letting air out in different ways. There are many different methods and ways and unfortunately we just had a tire that didn’t pass the test,” Moran said.
He also said the illegal tire was taken from a set that was on Sauter’s truck during Stage 2 of the event. Moran added there will not be any further penalties, meaning Sauter or his team will not be issued L1 or L2 penalties that could call for heavy monetary fines, point reductions or personnel suspensions.
Sauter’s original finish of 17th has been changed to last in the 40-car field.
Click here for updated results and standings.
Two other trucks -- the No. 18 of third-place finisher Christian Eckes and the No. 56 of 22nd-place finisher Timmy Hill -- were penalized for having “one lug nut not safe and secure,” according to NASCAR.