{"id":43872,"date":"2017-09-18T12:35:53","date_gmt":"2017-09-18T19:35:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/?p=43872"},"modified":"2017-09-18T12:35:53","modified_gmt":"2017-09-18T19:35:53","slug":"truex-jr-allgaier-and-sauter-prevail-at-chicagoland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/truex-jr-allgaier-and-sauter-prevail-at-chicagoland\/","title":{"rendered":"Truex Jr., Allgaier and Sauter Prevail at Chicagoland"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Truex
The Stars of NASCAR put it all on the line at Chicagoland Speedway (Photo by Jeff Zelevansky\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The stars of NASCAR put it all on the line this weekend at Chicagoland Speedway to pull off some of the most important victories of the 2017 season.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

TheHouse.com 225<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Truex
Johnny Sauter celebrates in victory lane after winning the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series TheHouse.com 225 at Chicagoland Speedway (Photo by Sean Gardner\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In the final regular-season Camping World Truck Series race of the 2017 season, 2016 champion Johnny Sauter proved that he would do what it took to defend his crown after winning Friday night\u2019s TheHouse.com<\/a> 225.<\/p>\n

Despite NASCAR young gun Ryan Truex obtaining the pole and Stage 1 win in this race, the brother of Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series driver Martin Truex, Jr. fell short of a race win after losing his lead to first regular season Camping World Truck Series champion Christopher Bell. Bell, who would also win Stage 2 of the 150-lap race, fell in turn to Truck Series veteran Sauter on Lap 123, freeing Sauter to drive his way to a first-time win at Chicagoland Speedway as well as his 15th<\/sup> win in 214 starts.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis truck was unbelievable,\u201d said Sauter, who stayed on the track during a caution late in the first stage and had to battle back through the field. \u201cThis is just what we needed: the shot in the arm for the upcoming playoffs.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Truex
NASCAR Camping World Truck Series drivers competing for the 2017 title pose with the championship trophy at Chicagoland Speedway (Photo by Sean Gardner\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Thanks to his performance, Sauter will join Christopher Bell, John Hunter Nemecheck, Matt Crafton, Chase Briscoe, Austin Cindric, Ben Rhodes and Kaz Grala in the hunt for the 2017 Camping World Truck Series Championship going into next weekend\u2019s Playoff kickoff at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

TheHouse.com 300<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Truex
Justin Allgaier celebrates in victory lane after winning the NASCAR XFINITY Series TheHouse.com 300 at Chicagoland Speedway (Photo by Sean Gardner\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

While the 2017 Playoff field was decided for the Camping World Truck Series, the stars of NASCAR\u2019s XFINITY Series took to Chicago\u2019s 1.5-mile paved track for Saturday\u2019s TheHouse.com 300 NASCAR XFINITY Series regular-season finale. The wave of the green flag, as well as the Stage 1 and 2 wins, would be dominated by pole-sitter Erik Jones, driver of the No. 20 NBA 2K18\/GameStop Toyota.<\/p>\n

Despite this, Jones lost the win at Chicago\u2019s famed track as Illinois native Justin Allgaier received a push from regular-season champion and JR Motorsports teammate Elliott Sadler on lap 186 for the race win.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is incredible,\u201d said Allgaier, who won for the second time this year. \u201cI have been fortunate enough to go to Victory Lane at this track in the past, but that was based more on fuel mileage more than anything else. Today, my team did a great job. Coming down to the end, I didn\u2019t think we had a shot. I thought we were going to be top five, maybe, but we got great restarts and a lot of good momentum, and now we have a chance to go to Homestead and fight for this championship.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Truex
XFINITY Series drivers competing for the 2017 title pose with the championship trophy at Chicagoland Speedway (Photo by Sean Gardner\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Along with the young JR Motorsports driver, the remaining field of XFINITY Series drivers vying for the 2017 Playoff championship include Daniel Hemric, Michael Annett, Brendan Gaughan, Blake Koch, Cole Kuster, William Byron, Brennan Poole, Jeremy Clements, Ryan Reed, Matt Tifft and regular series champion Elliott Sadler.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Tales of the Turtles 400<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Truex
Martin Truex Jr. celebrates in Victory Lane after winning the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Tales of the Turtles 400 at Chicagoland Speedway (Photo by Brian Lawdermilk\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

While competitors in two of NASCAR\u2019s upper echelon Series completed their regular season, the stars of the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series charged into Chicagoland on a mission for the 2017 Championship at this weekend\u2019s Playoff opener. Led to the wave of the green flag in Sunday\u2019s Tales of the Turtles 400 by the No. 18 of Kyle Busch, who also grabbed the Stage 1 win, this race quickly changed hands after Busch caught a double whammy at the start of Stage 2. Eight laps after a restart on Lap 88, Busch returned to pit road due to a loose wheel. On the stop, one of his crewman \u2014 from the crew he had acquired from Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Daniel Suarez\u2019s team to start the Playoffs \u2014 was flagged for stepping over the wall too soon. Busch served a pass-through penalty under green, never got back to the lead lap and finished 15th in one of the fastest cars in the race.<\/p>\n

Busch\u2019s loss would be Chase Elliott\u2019s gain. Elliot led 42 laps and picked up the Stage 2 win. While Elliott also picked up a few added Playoff points, the newest driver of the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet was no match for the No. 78 of Martin Truex Jr.<\/p>\n

Truex, who had to overcome a few problems of his own on pit road, marched to the front of the field shortly after Elliott\u2019s Stage 2 win and quickly found his way to his fifth victory of the season and the top of the Cup Series Playoff Standings at the tail end of this opening Playoff race.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery time you go to Victory Lane it\u2019s special, and even more so today,\u201d said Truex. \u201cThere are just so many people to thank, including my team as well as everyone at Toyota Racing Development (TRD). It is all such a dream come true, and we are having the time of our lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

Along with Truex, Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Playoff drivers like Chase Elliot also claimed the top six positions in this race. Kevin Harvick was at or near the front all afternoon and ran third. Denny Hamlin was fourth, followed by Kyle Larson and Brad Keselowski.<\/p>\n

Truex will have to continue this momentum going into next weekend\u2019s action in New Hampshire if he wants to stay on top. Stay tuned to RacingJunk.com<\/a> for all the latest in NASCAR news.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The stars of NASCAR put it all on the line this weekend at Chicagoland Speedway to pull off some of the most important victories of the 2017 season.<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":39,"featured_media":43873,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3424,3470,5029,22],"tags":[4872,1619,3133,3254,2849,127,41,1632,2649],"class_list":["post-43872","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nascar","category-news","category-racing","category-event-coverage","tag-chicagoland-speedway","tag-ellen-richardson","tag-johnny-sauter","tag-justin-allgaier","tag-martin-truex-jr","tag-nascar","tag-news","tag-racing","tag-xfinity-series"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/Chicagoland-Feature-Photo.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p42YSK-bpC","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43872","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/39"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43872"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43872\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43879,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43872\/revisions\/43879"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43873"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}