The Sugarland Shines 250 NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series race was relatively calm until the checkered flag flew. Originally, Johnny Sauter was named as the race winner. But, in the end, it was Spencer Boyd and the No. 20 Youngs Motorsports who provided the ultimate upset after NASCAR ruled that Sauter forced Riley Herbst below the yellow line. Sauter was penalized after the finish and Boyd was declared as the ultimate victor at Talledega Superspeedway.
“A guy like me was pretty happy finishing second to Johnny Sauter, then 30 seconds later, they’re like you won and I’m like, man, second doesn’t feel so good anymore,” Boyd told MRN Radio. “This is awesome. Tyler Young and the whole Young family, I started out in the 20 Truck this year, we started out strong. Finished fourth at Daytona, had A1 Auto on board for most of the year. I knew we had a good Superspeedway truck and I wasn’t driving this thing two weeks ago.”
“Alabama Roofing Professionals coming on board, putting this deal together. My mom and dad coming out here to watch me race, they don’t make it all of them, it’s awesome! Freedom Warranty, Kickass Beef Jerky, there’s so many people. The Young family is a small team, but they’re making moves, Gus Dean and Tyler Dippel, we got a great group of guys. The guys work hard, the spotter (Freddie Kraft) was amazing, my crew, no mistakes on pit road all day. Really blessed to be here right now, I’m so excited!”
Talladega Superspeedway was the beginning of the Round of 6 in the 2019 Playoffs. After an unfortunate outcome at Vegas, Matt Crafton qualified on the pole. Among the other five playoff drivers Tyler Ankrum qualified second, Brett Moffitt was eighth, Stewart Friesen was 10th, Austin Hill qualified 13th and Ross Chastain will start in 17th.
Stages were 20/20/54 to make up the 94 lap race. Jordan Anderson was the only driver sent to the rear after missing the driver’s meeting.
Stage 1: Lap 1- Lap 20
The first caution of the race came out on Lap 8 for the No. 18 of Harrison Burton who spun around in the tri-oval. Ross Chastain had to come down pit road after having a flat tire. There was no major damage to either truck. The red flag eventually was flown as the No. 33 of Mason Massey blew up which caused an extensive cleanup.
Stage 1 went back green on Lap 14 and it remained green the rest of the way until Lap 20 with
Sheldon Creed taking the stage victory. Moffitt, Chastain, John Hunter Nemechek, Friesen, Riley Herbst, Hill, Ben Rhodes, Todd Gilliland and Austin Wayne Self rounded out the top-10 finishers for Stage 1.
Stage 2: Lap 26- Lap 40
Chastain was the race leader to begin the stage as he stayed out under the stage yellow. Speaking of yellows, the second caution flew on Lap 29 for the No. 02 of Tyler Dippel who hit the wall on the backstretch after slight contact with Timothy Peters.
Nemechek also had damage to his hood after a few drivers ahead of him checked up. He eventually went to the garage and wound up with a disappointing 30th place finish.
After the only caution for Stage 2, the leaders were able to race out until Lap 40. Grant Enfinger played strategy by pitting with three to go and assumed the lead when Stage 3 began.
This time around, Friesen ended up winning the stage. Moffitt, Wayne Self, Creed, Sauter, Ankrum, Gus Dean, Anthony Alfredo, Gilliland and Crafton were the top-10 finishers for Stage 2.
Stage 3: Lap 46- Lap 98
A few laps after Stage 3, technical teammates, Friesen and Moffitt were penalized for locking bumpers and had to serve a pass-through penalty.
On Lap 65, the final round of green-flag pit stops began. There were no incidents, other than Clay Greenfield, Ankrum, Friesen and Moffitt who were penalized for being too fast on pit road. After the stops cycled out, Sauter went back to the lead on Lap 74. However, just as soon as stops were done, a caution occurred on Lap 81 for Alfredo who spun prior to the tri-oval.
This set up a restart with eight to go and another caution flag was flown on Lap 87 for a wreck in Turn 4. Chastain went to throw a block to protect the lead but ended up wrecking instead. Codie Rohrbaugh, Timothy Peters, Natalie Decker, Greenfield, Bryan Dauzat and Enfinger were all involved. The red flag was brought out again for clean up.
A late-race restart came with three to go but there was another caution for Dean and his No. 12 machine who went sliding and hit hard on the backstretch wall.
Eventually, this set up an overtime restart with two to go. Sauter was out front and doing everything he needed to do to protect his lead for a possible race win. When the checkered flag flew on Lap 98, Sauter was the first truck to cross the line but it was later determined that he forced a truck (Herbst) under the yellow line coming to the finish, which is not allowed.
Because of this, Sauter did not end up winning and it was later determined that Boyd won instead.
“I knew we could draft up and make a lot of moves, and take the surges pretty easily, it felt really good,” Boyd added to MRN Radio. “We could go from 20th to fifth, back to 20th and we rode for a little bit. The next thing you know, my spotter Freddie, three to go, we’ve got to go and be aggressive when I tell you to fill a whole. We did it, we got to the middle and avoided that wreck, that was crazy. We were taking the runs when we could, I pushed the 51 (Herbst), just pushing them was exciting. Then I was in second and Johnny was up there doing his thing and we ended up winning at the end of the day.”
“I’ll take the call, four years ago I was selling cars. For me to be in NASCAR’s victory lane is amazing, my family has done so much.”
Boyd just led one lap and it was the last one, which was the most important one. Sauter, who was the original victor ended up 14th.
There were seven cautions for 29 laps and two red flags that slowed the Sugarland Shines 250. There were 24 lead changes among 15 drivers.
Playoff Standings
- Brett Moffitt, +45
- Stewart Friesen, +22
- Austin Hill, +12
- Matt Crafton, +1
Below the cut line - Tyler Ankrum, -1
- Ross Chastain, -2
Official Results
- Spencer Boyd, led one lap
- Todd Gilliland
- Riley Herbst
- Brett Moffitt, led seven laps
- Stewart Friesen, led eight laps
- Austin Hill, led two laps
- Tyler Ankrum, led six laps
- Matt Crafton, led one lap
- Sheldon Creed, led 20 laps
- Grant Enfinger, led three laps
- Harrison Burton
- Ben Rhodes
- Korbin Forrister
- Johnny Sauter, led 28 laps
- Anthony Alfredo, one lap down
- Natalie Decker, one lap down
- Bryan Dauzat, one lap down
- Norm Benning, two laps down
- Jesse Iwuji, two laps down
- Gus Dean, OUT, Crash
- Jordan Anderson, eight laps down
- Ross Chastain, OUT, Crash
- Timothy Peters, OUT, Crash
- Codie Rohrbaugh, OUT, Crash
- Clay Greenfield, OUT, Crash
- Brennan Poole, OUT, Rear end
- Jennifer Jo Cobb, OUT, 19 laps down
- Angela Ruch, OUT, Engine
- Austin Wayne Self, OUT, Overheating
- John Hunter Nemechek, OUT, Radiator
- Tyler Dippel, OUT, Crash
- Mason Massey, OUT, Engine
Up Next: The NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series takes a couple of weeks off once more before returning to the track on Saturday, October 26.
