The Round of 6 began today at Martinsville Speedway. Out of the six drivers, one of them was looking to lock themselves in the final four at Homestead.
Chase Elliott and Daniel Suarez led the field to green. Elliott easily got out in front and led lap 1, with Suarez slipping back to third, and Cole Custer taking the second position. Custer reeled in Elliott and took the lead on lap 11. Elliott fell back to third, with Johnny Sauter passing him for second. Eventually, Sauter took the lead from Custer on lap 28. Right before the caution clock expired, Josh White and Kyle Donahue spun in turns 1 and 2 to bring out the first caution on lap 49. Leaders hit pit road, with Elliott regaining the lead by winning the race off pit road.
Restart lap 57, Elliott and Custer led the field to into turn 1. Elliott once again, jumped ahead with the lead. Elliott with a strong truck held the lead until lap 107, when the second caution came out for Spencer Gallagher, who blew a right front tire and hit the wall. The leaders made their scheduled stops, with Elliott still in the lead after pit stops.
The race went back green on lap 115, Elliott got the advantage down the backstretch, but Custer followed closely behind in second. The race went clean and green until lap 148, when Tommy Joe Martins went spinning around in turn 2, to bring out the third caution of the race. Leaders hit pit road once more, this time though, John Hunter Nemechek and Cameron Hayley took two tires, and won the race off pit road. More strategy was being played as, Daniel Hemric and Kaz Grala stayed for track position.
Hemric and Grala led the field to restart on lap 155, Grala slipped up with older tires, and this let Hemric easily maintain the lead., Although, Nemechek who had two fresher tires than Hemric, took the lead away with less than 45 to go. Just 7 laps later, Harrison Burton making his truck debut, went spinning around in turn 1. Replays show, Timothy Peters gave Burton a tap behind, which caused him to spin out. Burton made no contact with the wall, but went a lap down in the process.
Restart with 31 to go, Nemechek hung onto the lead, with a hard charging Elliott in second. When the race hit the 25 to go mark, things got a little bit dicey. Johnny Sauter took the lead away from Nemechek, but the caution came out for Ben Kennedy spinning in turn 1, then got hit from John Wes Townley. With the help of replays, Ben Rhodes gave a bump to Kennedy, thus sending Kennedy around in the process.
With 19 to go for the restart, Sauter maintains the lead on the backstretch. Elliott followed closely behind in second. Elliott then, continued to run Sauter down hard, and raced him clean for the last remaining laps. Sauter eventually, held off the hard charging Elliott to win the Texas RoadHouse 200 at Martinsville Speedway.
This was Sauter's second win of 2016
With this win in the Round of 6, Sauter is now locked in the final four championship race at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
Sauter led twice for 50 laps.
There were 5 cautions for 33 laps, with 5 leaders among 6 lead changes.
Chasers Results
(1st)- Johnny Sauter
(4th)- Christopher Bell
(5th)- Timothy Peters
(8th)- William Byron
(17th)- Matt Crafton
(18th)- Ben Kennedy
Next race: Friday November 4th, 2016, LongHorn 350 at Texas Motor Speedway.
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