Heart of Healthcare 200 Recap

Kansas Speedway

Dawson Sutton scored a 15th-place finish in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Heart of Healthcare 200 at Kansas Speedway.

Returning to the track where he has a career-best finish of fifth last season, Sutton qualified eighth. On lap one, a bottleneck on the initial race start caused contact with another competitor. That contact resulted in heavy damage on the left rear and ultimately a cut tire.

When Sutton tried to bring the No. 26 Rackley Roofing / W.A.R. Shocks Chevrolet to the attention of his pit crew, he spun at the entrance of pit road, which brought out the first caution. To make matters worse, NASCAR deemed Sutton had intentionally caused the caution and held him for two laps on pit road. The rookie rejoined the field three laps down but got the free pass at the end of stage one.

A pair of free passes in stage two allowed Sutton to rejoin the lead lap for stage three, and he worked his way through the back half of the field. A caution that flew in the middle of a round of green flag pit stops helped Sutton make up lost track position, and he restarted 11th with 32 laps remaining.

Following the seventh and final caution, Sutton restarted 10th and made some quick track position and moved into the top five. As the field shook out and aerodynamics became a larger factor, the damage to the left rear dropped Sutton to a 15th-place finish when the checkered flag flew.

Points Update: Sutton remains 17th in the championship standings and is tied with Matt Mills. He sits just 13 points behind Jack Wood and 72 points below Ben Rhodes, who holds the 10th and final playoff spot.

Rookie Standings: Sutton remains second in the rookie standings to Giovanni Ruggiero, who holds a 47 point advantage. He remains seven points ahead of Andres Perez De Lara and Connor Mosack, who are tied. Toni Breidinger and Frankie Muniz round out the rookie standings.

Season Stats: 9 starts, best finish 9th (Texas)

Inside the helmet with Dawson Sutton

“I don’t really get it. I didn’t mean to spin out, but they do it to everybody so I can’t be too mad. At the beginning, I didn’t really have much luck cutting a left rear tire on the first lap. I knew it was coming; I just didn’t know when and then when I spun out, it made everything worse. I had some really unlucky circumstances early, but came back toward the end there, especially with a lot of damage. Everything counts in the Truck Series, so to come back and finish 16th, I’m not mad at it. At the end, my team put me in a good spot there late in the race. I had a really good restart and we just needed to be a little bit better on the balance there at the end. Fortunately, I had a great team behind me and these guys put in a lot of work. We had a really fast truck before it got damaged, but we’ll bounce back here next weekend at North Wilkesboro, so I’m excited for it.”

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ABOUT RACKLEY W.A.R:
Rackley W.A.R. offers motorsports competition, technology, development, marketing, management, and a suite of other industry-related services for professional race car drivers, race teams and industry sponsors. Rackley W.A.R. competes nationally in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series with driver Dawson Sutton as well as operating a championship driver development program that competes in premier, regional Super and Pro Late Model events. Rackley W.A.R. is headed and co-owned by Curtis Sutton (Rackley Roofing, Inc.) and Willie Allen (Willie Allen Racing and W.A.R. Shocks & Suspension).

ABOUT RACKLEY ROOFING:
For 2024 Rackley Roofing Co. Inc. is proud to celebrate 50 years in business! Established in 1974, Rackley Roofing has become one of the leading industrial and commercial roofing contractors in Tennessee. As a full-service roofing company, Rackley dedicates in-house crews who each focus on one specialty. The company only hires highly skilled, full-time roofing experts, enabling Rackley Roofing to offer unparalleled service that exceeds customer expectations.

Among numerous industry awards throughout the years that accolade Rackley’s commitment to safety, positive growth, diversity and excellence, the company was honored with the distinct recognition of Roofing Contractor of the Year in 2022, an industry benchmark.