Johnny Sauter wins Truck Series season-opening pole, his first at Daytona

Johnny Sauter will kick off the 2021 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series season by leading the field to green. He won the pole for the NextEra Energy 250 at Daytona International Speedway after setting a qualifying time of 49.733 seconds at 180.966 mph earlier on Friday. It is his ninth career pole in the series and first on a superspeedway.

The pole marks a strong start to 2021 for Sauter and his ThorSport Racing team, who returned to using Toyota trucks after three years with Ford. Toyotas dominated the series’ only practice on Thursday as they occupied all but one of the top ten spots on the chart; Sauter was third quickest. Rookie and practice leader Chandler Smith qualfied sixth.

While it is his first pole at Daytona, it will be his fourth front-row starting position in the track’s races, having started second for three straight seasons from 2016 to 2018. He has also won three times at the track, the first of which in 2013 was with ThorSport. The other two in 2016 and 2018 came with GMS Racing, who enjoyed a solid qualifying effort of their own as reigning champion Sheldon Creed was the second fastest.

Creed was the first to break the 180-mph mark at 180.288 before being surpassed by Sauter. Their team-mates Grant Enfinger—the 2020 Daytona race winner—and rookie Chase Purdy qualified third and fourth, respectively, which provides the front row with immediate drafting partners for the race.

“You just have that feeling sometimes when you can push, when you don’t really have the help behind you that you need but you still can get there. I kinda felt that yesterday,” Sauter told FS1. “We all know qualifying here doesn’t have a lot to do with the driver, so just proud of everybody’s effort.

“It’s cool to start on the pole, I think Grant is third so I got a good pusher there. Hopefully we can set sail and try to stay out of trouble tonight and get a win.”

Forty-six drivers attempted to make the thirty-six-truck field (for races without qualifying, forty drivers will be allowed). The ten who failed to make the lineup were Parker Kligerman, Joe Nemechek, Todd Peck, Spencer Davis, Dawson Cram, Norm Benning, Jesse Iwuji, Ray Ciccarelli, Clay Greenfield, and Tim Viens. Nemechek, Peck, Davis (2019), Benning, Ciccarelli, Greenfield, and Viens (2017) also DNQ’d in their previous attempts at Daytona.

Various drivers suffered misfortunes during the session. After his Thursday practice was plagued by numerous mechanical issues, Greenfield’s woes continued when his truck slowed to a stop in turn four. James Buescher, who returned to NASCAR last season after a five-year hiatus, had his time disallowed after going below the double-yellow line, but the 2012 champion made the field via provisional for former title winners. In an especially bizarre incident, the #83 of Viens lost its driveshaft as crewmen pushed it through pit road. Viens did not practice on Thursday.

Qualifying results

Position	Number	Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Best Time	Best Speed (mph)
1	13	Johnny Sauter	ThorSport Racing	Toyota	49.733	180.966
2	2	Sheldon Creed	GMS Racing	Chevrolet	49.920	180.288
3	98	Grant Enfinger	ThorSport Racing	Toyota	50.012	179.957
4	23	Chase Purdy	GMS Racing	Chevrolet	50.015	179.946
5	24	Raphaël Lessard	GMS Racing	Chevrolet	50.069	179.752
6	18	Chandler Smith	Kyle Busch Motorsports	Toyota	50.099	179.644
7	4	John Hunter Nemechek	Kyle Busch Motorsports	Toyota	50.183	179.344
8	21	Zane Smith	GMS Racing	Chevrolet	50.204	179.269
9	1	Hailie Deegan	David Gilliland Racing	Ford	50.214	179.233
10	25	Timothy Peters	Rackley WAR	Chevrolet	50.296	178.941
11	26	Tyler Ankrum	GMS Racing	Chevrolet	50.301	178.923
12	42	Carson Hocevar	Niece Motorsports	Chevrolet	50.308	178.898
13	17	David Gilliland	David Gilliland Racing	Ford	50.308	178.898
14	88	Matt Crafton	ThorSport Racing	Toyota	50.333	178.809
15	45	Brett Moffitt	Niece Motorsports	Chevrolet	50.355	178.731
16	10	Jennifer Jo Cobb	Jennifer Jo Cobb Racing	Chevrolet	50.371	178.674
17	51	Drew Dollar	Kyle Busch Motorsports	Toyota	50.388	178.614
18	16	Austin Hill	Hattori Racing Enterprises	Toyota	50.447	178.405
19	22	Austin Wayne Self	AM Racing	Chevrolet	50.491	178.250
20	3	Jordan Anderson*	Jordan Anderson Racing	Chevrolet	50.504	178.204
21	38	Todd Gilliland	Front Row Motorsports	Ford	50.536	178.091
22	15	Tanner Gray	David Gilliland Racing	Ford	50.536	178.091
23	99	Ben Rhodes	ThorSport Racing	Toyota	50.610	177.830
24	20	Spencer Boyd	Young’s Motorsports	Chevrolet	50.668	177.627
25	40	Ryan Truex	Niece Motorsports	Chevrolet	50.687	177.560
26	9	Codie Rohrbaugh	CR7 Motorsports	Chevrolet	50.707	177.490
27	02	Kris Wright	Young’s Motorsports	Chevrolet	50.748	177.347
28	52	Stewart Friesen	Halmar Friesen Racing	Toyota	50.794	177.186
29	30	Danny Bohn	On Point Motorsports	Toyota	50.881	176.883
30	19	Derek Kraus	McAnally-Hilgemann Racing	Toyota	51.153	175.943
31	56	Gus Dean	Hill Motorsports	Chevrolet	51.191	175.812
32	28	Bryan Dauzat	FDNY Racing	Chevrolet	50.778	177.242
33	12	Tate Fogleman	Young’s Motorsports	Chevrolet	50.856	176.970
34	04	Cory Roper	Roper Racing	Ford	50.864	176.942
35	75	Parker Kligerman	Henderson Motorsports	Chevrolet	50.932	176.706
36	8	Joe Nemechek	NEMCO Motorsports	Ford	51.156	175.932
37	96	Todd Peck	Peck Motorsports	Chevrolet	51.360	175.234
38	11	Spencer Davis	Spencer Davis Motorsports	Toyota	51.397	175.107
39	41	Dawson Cram	Cram Racing Enterprises	Chevrolet	51.473	174.849
40	33	Jason White	Reaume Brothers Racing	Chevrolet	51.733	173.970
41	6	Norm Benning	Norm Benning Racing	Chevrolet	51.948	173.250
42	34	Jesse Iwuji	Reaume Brothers Racing	Toyota	52.273	172.173
43	49	Ray Ciccarelli	CMI Motorsports	Chevrolet	52.284	172.137
44	68	Clay Greenfield	Clay Greenfield Motorsports	Toyota	No Time	No Time
45	83	Tim Viens	CMI Motorsports	Chevrolet	No Time	No Time
46	44	James Buescher	Niece Motorsports	Chevrolet	Time Disallowed	Time Disallowed

Starting lineup

Start	Number	Driver	Team	Manufacturer
1	13	Johnny Sauter	ThorSport Racing	Toyota
2	2	Sheldon Creed	GMS Racing	Chevrolet
3	98	Grant Enfinger	ThorSport Racing	Toyota
4	23	Chase Purdy	GMS Racing	Chevrolet
5	24	Raphaël Lessard	GMS Racing	Chevrolet
6	18	Chandler Smith	GMS Racing	Chevrolet
7	4	John Hunter Nemechek	Kyle Busch Motorsports	Toyota
8	21	Zane Smith	GMS Racing	Chevrolet
9	1	Hailie Deegan	David Gilliland Racing	Ford
10	25	Timothy Peters	Rackley WAR	Chevrolet
11	26	Tyler Ankrum	GMS Racing	Chevrolet
12	42	Carson Hocevar	Niece Motorsports	Chevrolet
13	17	David Gilliland	David Gilliland Racing	Ford
14	88	Matt Crafton	ThorSport Racing	Toyota
15	45	Brett Moffitt	Niece Motorsports	Chevrolet
16	10	Jennifer Jo Cobb	Jennifer Jo Cobb Racing	Chevrolet
17	51	Drew Dollar	Kyle Busch Motorsports	Toyota
18	16	Austin Hill	Hattori Racing Enterprises	Toyota
19	22	Austin Wayne Self	AM Racing	Chevrolet
20	3	Jordan Anderson*	Jordan Anderson Racing	Chevrolet
21	38	Todd Gilliland	Front Row Motorsports	Ford
22	15	Tanner Gray	David Gilliland Racing	Ford
23	99	Ben Rhodes	ThorSport Racing	Toyota
24	20	Spencer Boyd	Young’s Motorsports	Chevrolet
25	40	Ryan Truex	Niece Motorsports	Chevrolet
26	9	Codie Rohrbaugh	CR7 Motorsports	Chevrolet
27	02	Kris Wright	Young’s Motorsports	Chevrolet
28	28	Bryan Dauzat	FDNY Racing	Chevrolet
29	52	Stewart Friesen	Halmar Friesen Racing	Toyota
30	12	Tate Fogleman	Young’s Motorsports	Chevrolet
31	04	Cory Roper	Roper Racing	Ford
32	30	Danny Bohn	On Point Motorsports	Toyota
33	19	Derek Kraus	McAnally-Hilgemann Racing	Toyota
34	56	Gus Dean	Hill Motorsports	Chevrolet
35	33	Jason White	Reaume Brothers Racing	Chevrolet
36	44	James Buescher	Niece Motorsports	Chevrolet
DNQ	75	Parker Kligerman	Henderson Motorsports	Chevrolet
DNQ	8	Joe Nemechek	NEMCO Motorsports	Ford
DNQ	96	Todd Peck	Peck Motorsports	Chevrolet
DNQ	11	Spencer Davis	Spencer Davis Motorsports	Toyota
DNQ	41	Dawson Cram	Cram Racing Enterprises	Chevrolet
DNQ	6	Norm Benning	Norm Benning Racing	Chevrolet
DNQ	34	Jesse Iwuji	Reaume Brothers Racing	Toyota
DNQ	49	Ray Ciccarelli	CMI Motorsports	Chevrolet
DNQ	68	Clay Greenfield	Clay Greenfield Motorsports	Toyota
DNQ	83	Tim Viens	CMI Motorsports	Chevrolet