AP on Truck Racing

This article, credited to the Associated Press, was in today’s San Diego Union-Tribune, but I cannot find it in the online edition, and I can find no reference to it on the Internet. You will just have to take my word that the quotes are accurate, and that I saw what I will tell you I saw when I watched the race on Sunday.

Driving four wide, the lead on the line, Ron Hornady Jr. bumped Johnny Sauter, sending their trucks into tire-smoking slides.

Well, they had been four wide at one point, but not for several seconds leading up to the accident. When Hornady lost his truck they were two wide, and he slid up and drove sideways into Sauter. I’m not sure what constitutes a “bump” but...

At nearly 45-degree angles, going over 150 mph, both drivers white-knuckled their steering wheels. Somehow, miraculously they both straightened out.

Actually, it was close to 90-degree angles, and AP rather understates the drama here. It was a very spectacular moment.

Sauter stayed in front after his improbable save, holding off the hard charging Hornady to win a wild, rain-delayed…

It was a pretty good race overall, and was actually delayed by a hailstorm, but the only really wild part of the race was that one moment, and the “hard charging” part is beyond hyperbole. Hornady burned up his rear tires saving his truck and was never within a couple hundred yards of Sauter after that incident. Sauter was pretty much on cruise control to finalize the win.

The article refers to Hornady making several charges to the front despite,
“a troublesome fender problem that had his left rear tire billowing smoke.” Well, actually emitting a few rather worrisome puffs of smoke. If there were any “billows” neither I nor any of the announcers saw them.

“Me and Ron always have animosity,” it quotes Sauter as saying. “We have animosity sitting around drinking beers.”

Except after this race, when Hornady ran from his truck to Winner’s Circle to congratulate Sauter on the win and both of them were laughing their rear ends off together. It was an enjoyable moment of sportsmanship which AP didn’t seem to feel was worth mentioning.