Weekend Recap: Pocono, Texas

Weekend Recap: Pocono, Texas

Camping World Truck Series: WinStar World Casino 400 @ Texas

Johnny Sauter redeemed himself this past weekend at Texas Motor Speedway. Just one year after he switched lanes too early on a late restart at this track, causing him to surrender the lead due to being black flagged and penalized, Sauter righted a wrong he did unto himself. 

Sauter took the lead from his ThorSport Racing teammate Matt Crafton with twenty laps left and pulled away to score his first victory of the season and his fifth career Camping World Truck Series win. The win helped break a streak of awful luck for Sauter who hadn't finished better than 20th in the past three races. "There's no sweeter vindication", said Sauter in reference to his mess up in last year's race. Crafton, Joey Coulter, Brendan Gaughan, and Nelson Piquet Jr. rounded out the top five.

Points leader Justin Lofton maintains a five point lead over Timothy Peters after scoring a ninth place finish, keeping Lofton's impressive streak of finishing top-10 in all seven races this year alive.

Sprint Cup Series: Pocono 400 presented by #NASCAR @ Pocono

Joey Logano finally decided to shut his critics up.

Logano captured his second career Sprint Cup victory and did it the right way this time. What I mean is that Logano's first career win came in his rookie season of 2009 in a rain shortened race at New Hampshire where he won off of fuel strategy and wasn't even close to having the fastest car. It's a cheeky way to win if you ask most people, including the drivers. Now, Logano has solidified himself in Sprint Cup by winning the real way.

Logano moved veteran and future Hall of Fame driver, Mark Martin, out of the lead with less than ten laps left and pulled away to win comfortably. It's funny that Logano had to get Martin loose (take the air off the back of his car by getting up under the rear end to make it feel as if he was going to spin out) to take the lead, which is never the nicest way to go about making a pass, and it was Martin who praised Logano as the next great NASCAR driver when Logano was only 15. Regardless, Martin wasn't too frustrated by the move.

The 22-year-old Logano has been under much speculation that he is not worthy to race in the Sprint Cup Series because he has failed to produce good results. Most people believe Logano should still be in the lower tier Nationwide Series to develop more before returning to the Sprint Cup Series. It was even brought up this season that his team, Joe Gibbs Racing, may not re-sign Logano at the end of the season due to his lack of performance. But a win like this should take all of that speculation away and Logano will be able to race with a clear mind now, the proverbial "monkey" is off his back. Said Logano, "I hope [the win] shuts 'em all up."

Martin, Tony Stewart, Jimmie Johnson, and Denny Hamlin rounded out the top five. The points leader coming into the race was Greg Biffle, but after a less than stellar race for The Biff, teammate Matt Kenseth overtakes the points lead by ten points over new 2nd place man Dale Earnhardt Jr. Biffle drops to 3rd in the points with Hamlin 4th and Johnson 5th.

*The Nationwide Series was off this weekend, they will resume their schedule this weekend at Michigan International Speedway along with the Sprint Cup Series. The Camping World Truck Series is off until June 28th when they hit the track at the Kentucky Speedway.