Johnny Sauter takes Chicagoland Truck win as playoff grid is set

Johnny Sauter passed Christopher Bell with 27 of 150 laps remaining in Friday night’s TheHouse.com 225 and held off Chase Briscoe to win the regular season finale at Chicagoland Speedway.

The win is Sauter’s second of the season (he also won at Dover) and 15th of his career.

Bell finished third and will be the top seed in the Truck series playoffs. Ryan Truex was fourth and Grant Enfinger completed the top-five.

Joining Sauter and Bell in the 2017 layoffs are Matt Crafton, Briscoe, John Hunter Nemechek, Austin Cindric and Kaz Grala.

See the complete playoff grid after the points reset HERE.

“We had a great truck yesterday (in practice) and we were worried with the Cup guys and the Xfinity guys here, the track might change a little bit,” Sauter said in Victory Lane. “I can’t thank Hendrick horsepower enough.

“This is what we needed. This is the momentum, this is a shot in the arm. I can’t thank my guys enough – this truck was on rails tonight.”

Crafton spun on Lap 106 to bring out the caution and set what would likely be the final pit stops of the race. Briscoe was the first off pit road, followed by Bell and Truex.

Justin Haley stayed out under the caution and inherited the lead on the restart on Lap 111. Bell quickly made his way to the lead on the restart with 40 laps remaining.

Bell appeared to be in control until Sauter ran him down for the lead with 27 laps remaining.

Stage 2

With 15 laps remaining in the 35-lap second segment, Bell passed Briscoe to take the lead for the third time in the race and held on for the Stage 1 victory.

Briscoe ended up second, Crafton was third, Sauter was fourth and Cindric completed the top-five.

It’s the fifth Stage win of the season for Bell, the series points leader.

With about 10 laps left in Stage 2, Sauter was powering up through the field and slammed into Noah Gragson to take fifth place from the rookie.

“I just ran into that (expletive) idiot, I did it on purpose,” Sauter said over his team radio right after the incident.

After a round of pit stops before the start of the final stage, Bell led the way, followed by Crafton and Cindric.

Stage 1

Truex held off Sauter in a one-lap dash to claim the Stage 1 victory.

The one-lap restart was set up when a caution was displayed for Myatt Snider, leaving just one lap before the conclusion of the 35-lap stage.

“We’re we just a little but off the first stage,” Truex said during the stage break. “I feel like we’re one or two adjustments way from winning this thing.”

Rhodes finished third, Nemechek was fourth and Briscoe completed the top-five.

During pit stops between Stages 1 and 2, Rhodes was penalized for an uncontrolled tire on pit road and sent to the rear of the field on the restart.

Gray Gaulding stalled on the track to bring out the race’s first caution on Lap 4. Kevin Donahue hit the wall on Turn 2 to bring out the second caution on Lap 12.

Cla	#	Driver	Manufacturer	Laps	Time	Laps Led
1	21	Johnny Sauter	Chevrolet	150	1:49'51	28
2	29	Chase Briscoe	Ford	150	2.005	18
3	4	Christopher Bell	Toyota	150	7.108	72
4	16	Ryan Truex	Toyota	150	11.333	29
5	98	Grant Enfinger	Toyota	150	14.251
6	27	Ben Rhodes	Toyota	150	15.686
7	8	John Hunter Nemechek	Chevrolet	150	16.588
8	18	Noah Gragson	Toyota	150	16.834
9	33	Kaz Grala	Chevrolet	150	19.095
10	51	Myatt Snider	Toyota	150	19.930
11	13	Cody Coughlin	Toyota	150	25.611
12	92	Regan Smith	Ford	149	1 lap
13	02	Tyler Young	Chevrolet	149	1 lap
14	24	Justin Haley	Chevrolet	149	1 lap	2
15	19	Austin Cindric	Ford	148	2 laps
16	88	Matt Crafton	Toyota	148	2 laps	1
17	45	Justin Fontaine	Toyota	148	2 laps
18	49	Wendell Chavous	Chevrolet	144	6 laps
19	50	Josh Reaume	Chevrolet	143	7 laps
20	44	Austin Wayne Self	Toyota	143	7 laps
21	1	Jordan Anderson	Chevrolet	133	17 laps
22	83	Camden Murphy	Chevrolet	102	48 laps
23	6	Norm Benning	Chevrolet	101	49 laps
24	10	Jennifer Jo Cobb	Chevrolet	27	123 laps
25	15	Gray Gaulding	Chevrolet	25	125 laps
26	14	Ted Minor	Chevrolet	23	127 laps
27	74	Mike Harmon	Chevrolet	12	138 laps
28	0	Tommy Regan	Chevrolet	11	139 laps
29	63	Kevin Donahue	Chevrolet	10	140 laps
30	36	B.J. McLeod	Chevrolet	10	140 laps
31	87	Joe Nemechek	Chevrolet	7	143 laps
32	57	Mike Senica	Chevrolet	0	150 laps