Truck Series Chase grid update
Johnny Sauter won the Camping World Truck Series race at Texas Motor Speedway on Friday night, stamping himself as the favorite to win the inaugural Chase playoffs in the series. See who stands where heading into next Friday night's penultimate race at Phoenix, after which two of the following drivers will be eliminated from the title hunt.
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Ben Kennedy, 3035 points
Kennedy finished 13th at Texas and is the one driver who appears to be in serious trouble heading to Phoenix. He's 13 points behind the cut line and likely will need to win at PIR to make the Championship 4 for the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
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Timothy Peters, 3047 points
Peters finished 14th Friday, last amongst the Chasers. But he's still in the fight, only one point behind Matt Crafton in fourth and the final transfer spot.
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Matt Crafton, 3048 points
Crafton might normally be OK with a second-place run like the one he had at Texas. But he was leading until Sauter passed him with three laps to go — and the difference between winning to punch your ticket into the final round and being right on the cutoff line is huge.
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Christopher Bell, 3051 points
Bell appeared to have a truck earlier Friday night that might contend for the win. But he fell back a bit and then got into it late with the truck driven by Cameron Hayley, and honestly was fortunate to hang on for an 11th-place finish.
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William Byron, 3052 points
The star of the series all season long might be in second, but it's still a precarious position with only five points separating the drivers currently in second through fifth in the Chase standings. He finished sixth Friday, but would love to add another win to his series-high total of six at Phoenix to remove any doubt about advancing to Homestead.
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Johnny Sauter, 2 wins in this Chase round, 3072 points
Sauter is gathering momentum at precisely the right time of the season. He didn't need to win at Texas, but seized the moment once he was in position to do so. The rest of the Chase field knows he's going to be tough to deal with at Homestead.
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