Jump: "Honestly, I was trying a bit to demolish (Busch) & # 39;

HAMPTON, GA. – Johnny Sauter won Kyle Busch's mid-race at Saturday's Gander Outdoors Truck Series at Atlanta Motor Speedway. But he could not reproduce the movement in the last laps, because Busch reached his record.^{North Dakota} career victory in the truck series.

"Honestly, I was trying to destroy it a bit and I just could not make it," said Sauter, who finished second. "I was attached to him and I hoped he would run away, but he did a great job of blocking.

"So, looking back, maybe (I'd like) to go to the top, but I do not feel like I would have the momentum to get him out of the corner. I could think differently after watching the retransmission. "

RELATED: Complete results of the race

Although Sauter did not catch the checkered flag, the # 13 driver was one of three ThorSport Racing drivers who finished in the top five of the 130 laps. Grant Enfinger and Ben Rhodes were third and fifth fourth driver respectively Matt Crafton finished 14^th). At one point, the four drivers of the team ran from first to fourth position, which allowed a group of pilots to figure well and finalize them completely a few weeks ago.

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"It's great, I'm obviously a late addition to the party," said Sauter, whose departure was announced Feb. 13. "These guys were very fast towards the end of last year, it seemed to me, so when the opportunity came up and that Duke (Thorson) (the owner) m & # 39; gave the ring, I said to myself, "Well, yes, let's do it." … I think we'll be able to wear this for a while. "

The No. 99 Rhodes race for this season was announced on the same day as Sauter's, the 21-year-old driver piloting ThorSport's # 27 and # 41 entries in previous years. His strong run at Daytona International Speedway last week was interrupted by the "Big One". He therefore enjoyed the top-five finish this week.

"What's funny is that we had sort of different packages for drivers," Rhodes said. "We were all different but in a good way it showed strength and unity with the team. The range of pilots at ThorSport, I think, is pretty impressive this year, between Grant and Crafton and Sauter. …

"I think that as a team, we can improve some things at the store and that will result in a very good gross speed compared to the carrier."