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NEWTON, Iowa — The caution comes out with 13 laps to go. Chase Briscoe holds the lead, having just passed Johnny Sauter for the point position four laps earlier in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series M&M’s 200 Presented by Casey’s General Stores at Iowa Speedway.
What do you do? Strategy decisions abound with the race victory and five precious playoff points on the line, not to mention potentially locking yourself into the playoff with a win if you’re Briscoe.
Briscoe comes for two tires and is first off pit road, but is in second because Sauter elected to stay out on older tires. Thickening the plot is that John Hunter Nemechek lines up behind Sauter in fourth as the first truck with four new tires, and several others behind Nemechek have four fresh Goodyears.
Nemechek’s crew chief Gere Kennon says that the Briscoe team’s decision to pit last week for four tires late at Gateway — a race Nemechek won, as well — was on the team’s mind. In that race, Briscoe drove up from just outside the top 10 to second in the final eight laps.
“The race track changed enough that it (was) rough and wearing all four tires out on our truck, and so that was the only call to make with only 10 laps to go,” Kennon says about Friday’s Iowa race. “It was the thing to do.”
The tires paid off for Nemechek who took the lead from Sauter with six to go and scored his second win of the year. Sauter was able to hang onto second place, while Briscoe dropped back a bit and would hit the wall from what he described as “overdriving” a loose truck to finish seventh.
But what went into those calls? For GMS Racing’s Sauter, it was something he learned from Briscoe, as the rookie caught the veteran for the lead.
RELATED: Sauter thanks Briscoe for the lesson
“Chase Briscoe took me to school pretty good running the top,” Sauter said after his runner-up finish. “He found me some grip up there. Obviously, when he passed me, I moved up there and our lap times went back to tit for tat.”
Sauter elaborated on the decision to stay out, which crew chief Joe Shear Jr. took the blame for during an interview on FS1 following the round of pit stops.
“To be honest with you, I really wasn’t that nervous not having tires having moved up to the third groove there,” Sauter said. “It felt like we put sticker tires on when I moved up there. There was just so much grip up there I couldn’t believe it. Obviously, I kind of knew when they told me the 8 truck (Nemechek) was lining up right behind us there … he had four tires. You are in a rough spot there. Good job to those guys. Not a whole lot of deliberating. I find it best when I just be quiet and drive.”
Briscoe came into Iowa fresh off back-to-back runner-up finishes and was running in second for much of the night prior to taking the lead on Lap 183. And then that final caution came out.
The Brad Keselowski Racing driver told NASCAR.com after the race that he felt like he was in a really tricky spot.
“That’s just the tough part of when you’re leading,” Briscoe said on pit road after the race. “It’s one of those deals where it’s how do you want to lose it. We had to take tires. I don’t know how many guys were on two and how many were on four.
“I was really tight firing in and I was way loose off. I just hate it for my guys. This has been a long time coming seems like for a win every week, but we just haven’t been able to pull it off.”