Austin Dillon became the first rookie in Series history to win five poles in his first year, collecting the honor just a few hours before the green flag dropped, and the youngest pole winner at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Young Brian Ickler took the reigns of the No. 18 Kyle Busch Motorsports Toyota Tundra, Todd Bodine looked to further pad his 257 point lead, Aric Almirola was looking to make up ground, and Ron Hornaday was ready to roll the dice and make up for his 24th place finish in New Hampshire. So who would have lady luck on their side in Las Vegas? Dillon got a great start and jumped ahead of his 35 competitors, as Johnny Sauter, James Buescher and Matt Crafton all battled for the second spot. As they crossed the start finish line Justin Lofton, Almirola and Greg Pursley made it three wide with Lofton taking the position. Meanwhile back up front a very tight No. 13 of Sauter continued to hold up the No. 31 of Buescher, who’s team Turner Motorsports announced this week that they were taking over Braun Racing effective immediately. Ickler was running on the bumper of veteran Kenny Schrader as the pair battled for eighth, but Ickler was unable to hold off the No. 5 of Mike Skinner. On lap 10, Buescher was able to pass Sauter for second, and Dillon continued to drive away from the field. The first caution of the night came out on lap 12 for Pursley loosing an engine. Johanna Long had problems as soon as the race started and she also went back to the garage with terminal damage. Crafton, Schrader and Almirola were among the few trucks to hit pit road under the yellow. Dillon led the field to the green on lap 18, once again having a clean restart and pulling ahead of Buescher and the rest of the field. Bodine was able to get by Buescher the following lap to get second. Skinner and Sauter’s side by side battle allowed the No. 33 of Hornaday to catch them, jumping to the outside and taking the spot. Caution again came out on lap 22 after an incident involving India’s Narain Karthikeyan and Jeffrey Earnhardt. The leaders all took the opportunity to come down pit road, mainly going for gas only while the leader Dillon opted for four fresh tires. Buescher won the race off pit road, followed by Hornaday, Schrader and Dillon coming out third. The green flag came out again on lap 27, with Timothy Peters Ricky Carmichael running side by side for the top spot as Carmichael took the spot; meanwhile there were multiple three wide battles for position behind them. On lap 28 Hornaday was able to take the lead from Carmichael and Dillon had worked his way up to fourth. On lap 33 Peters took Carmichael for second, with the No. 4 falling into the clutches of Dillon. The pair raced side by side for over a lap, with the No. 31 of Buescher running on their bumpers. Carmichael was able to keep the spot from Dillon. Sauter and Skinner were running side by side for eighth on lap 39 when Sauter spun Skinner into the infield grass, the No. 5 Tundra getting airborne at one point, bringing out the third caution of the race. On lap 50 the green flag set up for a side by side battle between Hornaday and Buescher, with Buescher getting by the No. 33 for the lead. Lance Fenton spun in turn four to bring out the fourth caution on lap 61. The leaders once again came down pit road. Almirola, Peters, Dillon, Jason White and Crafton were the top five coming off pit road. The race restarted on lap 64 and right away Dillon was on the move, jumping to second on lap 68 and taking the lead from Almirola on lap 71. Ryan Sieg, who had been running third after staying out, dropped off the pace and to pit road on lap 75. Meanwhile, Dillon continued to lead Almirola by just over two seconds. Eighty one laps in, Dillon led new second place driver Buescher by over four seconds. Overheating brought Timothy Peter’s top ten run to an end on lap 91, when he had to bring his Red Horse Racing Toyota to the pits and eventually behind the wall. On track, points leader Bodine took third from Hornaday. Caution came out for the fifth time on lap 96 for debris, bringing the field to their fuel window. Dillon led the field down pit road for the last scheduled stop of the race. Dillon won the race off pit road, followed by Buescher, Bodine, Ickler and Carmichael. With 47 laps to go Dillon and Buescher ran side by side, battling for the lead and as Buescher took the spot Bodine moved in to steal second from Dillon. Dillon ran third, holding off Almirola as behind them Hornaday went way up the track and lost several spots. Almirola and Ickler ran side by side for fourth, allowing the front three to pull away and Carmichael to catch them. Almirola was able to take the spot as Dillon took second from Bodine. With 42 laps remaining Dillon had caught Buescher and the two began a hard side by side battle, with Dillon taking the lead a lap later. Caution came out with 40 laps to go for the sixth time, again for Narain Karthikeyan, who made hard contact with the outside wall after losing his right front tire. Hornaday, complaining of a tight race truck and with the front end dragging, made a pit stop under the yellow and would restart 17th. They restarted again with 36 laps to go, with Buescher overtaking Dillon for the lead again and a three wide battle for second between Sauter, Dillon and Bodine behind! Dillon was able to reclaim the lead a lap later Ickler and Carmichael’s battle for sixth cooled down when the field was placed under caution for the seventh time for debris. Dillon chose the inside line and led the field to the green with 28 laps to go, and had a much better restart, with Buescher falling back to fifth with Bodine. But the No. 31 was on the move and took third while Hornaday made a three wide battle further in the pack for eighth. Bodine, Almirola and Ickler were also racing closely for fifth, sixth and seventh, with Ickler all over the back of Almirola. With 23 laps remained it was Crafton and Bodine running side by side for fourth, the outside line proving to be an advantage for Crafton who cleared the points leader to maintain his spot. The battle between Crafton and Bodine wouldn’t settle down, though, and Bodine took the spot with 14 laps to go; the side by side racing allowed Almirola to catch up to the pair. Up at the front, Dillon had a five second lead over second place Sauter. A spin in turn four couldn’t stop Austin Dillon from collecting his second career Camping World Truck Series win in the Smith’s Food and Drug Stores 350 at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The Camping World Truck Series won’t race for another month when, on October 23rd they take to Martinsville Speedway for the Kroger 200. Coverage begins at 12:30 pm Eastern time only SPEED.
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