Dillon dominates en route to first career Truck win

NEWTON, Iowa -- Rookie Austin Dillon scored his first Camping World Truck Series victory Sunday, dominating the Lucas Oil 200 at Iowa Speedway.

In his 12th Truck start, Dillon, 20, led 187 of 205 laps and beat Johnny Sauter to the finish line by .635 seconds.

Lucas Oil 200

Results

Pos.	Driver	Make
1.	Austin Dillon	Chevrolet
2.	Johnny Sauter	Chevrolet
3.	Matt Crafton	Chevrolet
4.	Ken Schrader	Chevrolet
5.	James Buescher	Chevrolet

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Dillon, grandson of owner Richard Childress, gave Richard Childress Racing its first Truck Series victory since Sauter's brother Jay won at Texas in October 1999.

It was also the first time the black No. 3 won in any series since Dale Earnhardt's death in 2001, a fact not lost on the promising Dillon.

"It's pretty awesome. Like I've said from the beginning of the year, I wanted to do it for the fans, too. I know they want to see it out front," Dillon said. "I'm glad to sit in the No. 3. It's my favorite number to run, and hopefully I can run it for a long time."

He will if he runs like he did Sunday, expertly piloting a truck third-place finisher Matt Crafton called "stupid fast."

Dillon's dominant run was nearly spoiled by Sauter, who was able to snatch the lead on a restart on Lap 150 after a caution for Jason White's accident in Turn 3.

"I saw sparks coming from the 23 truck [White], and I knew there was about to be a caution, and I was trying to make those last few laps in about 2 seconds instead of 24 seconds because I knew that Sauter was going to be tough," Dillon said.

Dillon was able to reclaim the lead on Lap 154, but there were two more late-race restarts -- including one that pushed the race beyond the scheduled 200 laps -- but Sauter was unable to mount a serious challenge.

Sauter thought he had a chance to reel in Dillon on the final restart but a stumble at the line when Dillon checked up caused him to get off the throttle and broke his momentum.

"[Sauter] had beat me on a restart earlier, so I mixed up my pickup point for the green just like I did when I was dirt racing," Dillon said. "I had a little advice from Pop Pop [Childress] on the radio coming to the green, and the experience he has definitely helped."

It allowed Dillon to cruise to victory in the final two laps.

"I anticipated the start a little, and I looked over and I didn't see him so I had to jump off the gas," Sauter said. "The rule is the second-place guy can't beat the leader to the line and I didn't want to risk a black flag so I had to get off the gas and we were just playing defense after that."

The top four drivers in the standings -- Todd Bodine, Aric Almirola, Ron Hornaday and Timothy Peters -- all experienced trouble.

Almirola crashed hard on Lap 75 to bring out the second caution. He finished 28th and dropped 88 points behind Bodine, who finished 17th, three laps back. Hornaday sustained major damage to the front of his truck and finished 34 laps back in 24th. Despite finishing the race with his hood missing, Hornaday swapped places in the standings with Peters, who finished 27th after losing his engine on Lap 104.

The race Sunday was the first for the Truck Series since June 12 at Michigan. The drivers won't get another break for two months, during a nine-race stretch that will be critical to their championship hopes.

Dillon, the first rookie to win the pole for three consecutive races, moved up four spots in the standings to seventh. He's got a chance to be a real factor in the points race by the time the circuit takes another break.

"There's nobody that can sit here and tell you they had a better truck than he did," Sauter said of Dillon. "He dominated the race."

Dillon is the series' second-youngest winning driver and third-youngest winner at age 20 years, 2 months, 37 days. Kyle Busch is the youngest, winning his first truck race at 20 years, 18 days. Busch won his second race nine days later.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.