Sauter’s Gamble Pays Off, Beats Bodine for First Victory

Johnny Sauter went 112 miles between pit stops Saturday and outran pole-sitter Todd Bodine following a red-flag restart to win the NASCAR Busch series Tropicana Twister 300 at Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, Ill., the first victory in his career.

Sauter last pitted on Lap 125, along with Bodine and Joe Nemechek, for fuel and four tires. The trio was able to maintain track position when the race was stopped on Lap 195 after Kasey Kahne crashed in Turn 4.

“I don’t feel it was a fuel-mileage win,” Sauter said. “I definitely knew we were going to have enough. We just stuck to our guns.”

Bodine finished second, followed by Jeff Burton, who had the fastest car most of the day, and Nemechek.

The caution came after many of the early contenders had made final pit stops under green to take fuel. NASCAR officials stopped the field on the backstretch for five minutes, setting up the dash to the finish.

Points leader Greg Biffle was one of those who pitted and found himself a lap down. He finished eighth and padded his points lead to 47 over Jason Keller and 150 over Jack Sprague. Biffle had to start from the back of the 43-car field because he changed engines after Friday’s qualifying.

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Buddy Lazier turned the International Race of Champions event at Chicagoland Speedway into a one-man show.

The 2000 Indy Racing League champion led all 67 laps on the 1 1/2-mile oval and was the front man in a 1-2-3 IRL sweep--the first time open-wheel drivers have done that since April 1996, when Al Unser Jr. led Robby Gordon and Scott Pruett across the finish line at Talladega Superspeedway.

“I went into the race last in the points, and starting up front and having clean air was what made it happen for me,” Lazier said.

Lazier started up front because IROC fields--with the exception of the traditional season opener at Daytona--are set in reverse order of points. Saturday’s race was the third of four this season.

Lazier went into the inaugural Chicagoland IROC event planning to race hard at the start to try to stay in front and break the draft if possible.

He averaged 161.374 mph in the all green-flag race, becoming the first open-wheel racer to win an IROC event since the IRL’s Eddie Cheever Jr. prevailed two years ago at Michigan Speedway.

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Cristiano da Matta, one victory away from setting a CART record for most consecutive victories, easily captured the pole during final qualifying for the Marconi Grand Prix of Cleveland.

Da Matta, who has four straight wins, was more than four-tenths of a second faster than any other car during qualifying--a huge gap in auto racing--and more than one second quicker than six drivers.

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Mike Bliss set a NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series record for margin of victory, winning the Kroger 225 at Kentucky Speedway in Sparta by 18.197 seconds.

It was the third victory of the year and the second in a row for Bliss and his red and yellow IWX Motor Freight Chevy.

He won last week at Kansas City, Kan., and at Pikes Peak earlier this year.

The previous record for margin of victory was 13.186 seconds, set by Sprague at Phoenix in 1997.

Bliss qualified second on Friday, despite breaking his nose in a softball game the previous day.

He wore bandages on his forehead and across his nose during the race.