By Jerry Jordan, Editor
TALLADEGA, AL – Johnny Sauter was leading the Sugarlands Shine 250 on the white flag lap of the Gander Outdoors Truck Series race at Talladega Superspeedway but he was in a Catch 22 scenario – he could let Riley Herbst make a run on him or throw a block to force the young driver below the yellow out-of-bounds line and risk being penalized. Sauter chose the latter and NASCAR reacted.
“it was pretty clear cut,” said NASCAR Senior Vice President of Competition, Scott Miller.
It was the first time in recent memory that NASCAR had penalized a driver for the offense and Sauter didn’t take it well. However, photos of the incident show NASCAR made the right call even though Sauter said he “got hooked” and was already heading for the infield.
“I got hooked, I got turned sideways, so once a guy makes contact with you, you are obviously already hooking to the infield,” a frustrated Sauter said after the race. “To me, it’s a garbage call but, whatever. I mean, we just need a few more rules in NASCAR, just a few more.”
Miller disputed the decry from Sauter and said not only did Sauter block Herbst below the yellow line his No. 13 ThorSport Ford was also below the yellow line. The incident happened in the tri-oval on the Talladega Superspeedway frontstretch.
“Obviously, you guys all saw what happened and it is made very clear in the rulebook, in the drivers’ meeting video and all of the dialogue we have with the drivers about what you can and can’t do when it comes to the yellow line,” Miller said. “It was clearly a violation of what we ask of the drivers when it relates to the yellow line, so there was no other call for us to make except for what we did.
“He actually did two things wrong. He had his whole car (truck) below the yellow line and you can’t force another car (truck) below the yellow line and he did both.”
Miller said the reason why Sauter was originally told to go to victory lane was because the tower had not had a chance to review the finish of the race, as there was a question that arose about the yellow line rule. He said the tower is first focused on making sure there are no crashes in the field that would need the caution to fly and also monitoring the finishing order.
“There’s obviously a lot of moving parts in the tower, so when the cars are coming to the line, our first order of business is the watch and make sure there are not cars flipping through the tri-oval,” Miller said.
For his part, Herbst was okay with the call but feels like that had Sauter not run him into the grass on the tri-oval, he would have won the race. He said his truck was fast but rather than punt Sauter when he through the block, he thought about the big picture for Kyle Busch Motorsports because his 51 Toyota is running for an owner’s championship.
“I think NASCAR made the right call,” Herbset said. “If I didn’t win the race, then Johnny definitely didn’t win the race.”
Herbst said his spotter got him in a great position coming off Turn 4 and he “baited” Sauter by going high on the track and it worked. But when Sauter realized what happened, he threw the block all the way down to the yellow line.
“He run me all the way to the grass,” Herbst said. “I could have stayed in the grass and wrecked the whole field and cost KBM and owners championship.
“It’s frustrating because I definitely could have got the Toyota Tundra into victory lane, for sure.”
Herbst was credited with third in the race and Sauter was moved back to 14th.
Not really seeing a disputing photo, but in video you can see Sauter’s truck get out of shape before either truck gets to the yellow line. Herbst complaining about being blocked is garbage. Blocking is and always will be a part of racing rather you like it or not. As for this rule, it needs to be looked at, because Inside passes can’t be blocked without being penalized, truck race is prime example.
NASCAR rarely calls this penalty – in fact, we can’t remember when they have – but this was pretty blatant. Thank you, for your input and observation. Jerry Jordan, Editor