Elliott Sadler held off Kasey Kahne to win Saturday’s inaugural truck race at Pocono Raceway!

photo credit: Chris Trotman/Getty Images for NASCAR

The margin of victory? 0.445 seconds.

Sadler and Kahne swapped the lead throughout the race, but when it came down to two attempts at a green-white-checkered finish, Sadler had to hold off both, Kahne and Matt Crafton for his first NASCAR victory in six years.

“When I got to the white flag and I looked and all those guys were racing so hard with each other, I though OK I’m in pretty good shape,” Sadler said. “The restarts were crazy because it was drafting so much down into turn one.”

Sadler became the 21st driver to pull off the trifecta and score wins NASCAR’s top-3 series: Sprint Cup, Nationwide and Camping World Truck Series.

“You sit at home a lot wondering if you’re ever going to make it back to Victory Lane,” Sadler said. “This time, I know it’s recent, I know it’s today, but it feels like the biggest win of my career.”

“There’s a lot of naysayers out there, and there’s a lot of people that write me off, not giving me a chance to make a comeback and be a strong presence again in this sport,” Sadler said. “To be able to come here and sit on the pole and win the race and race against people like Kasey Kahne and Denny Hamlin, who I think are two of the best racecar drivers we have in our sport, means a great deal to me.” It’s the first NASCAR win for Sadler since Sept. 5, 2004 at Fontana, California in a Sprint Cup Series race.

Sadler was fast from the start and lead a race-high 31 laps to Kahne’s 17 of 55.

“I thought it was a really awesome race,” Kahne said. “I felt like we had the truck to beat. Elliott (Sadler) was really quick and he did a good job, but I feel like we should have been there. Just didn’t get it done.”

Matt Crafton held on for a third place finish.

“I honestly didn’t know with the race what to expect here,” Crafton said. “I’ve only seen this place on TV and let me tell you TV doesn’t do this place justice at all. I only have 75 laps total here, 20 in practice and then the 55 here in the race, and that’s it. We were out to lunch yesterday but once we got me up to speed and I figured this place out we shot up towards the front. I know the fans here saw a great race with a lot of action packed into a very short sprint but I wish we had another 50 laps to go. We run 100 laps at Daytona. Who knows, with another 25 laps of experience here we might be the ones sitting in victory lane.”

Aric Almirola finished fourth followed by rookie Justin Lofton, Mike Skinner, rookie Austin Dillon, Timothy Peters, Denny Hamlin and Jason White inside the top-10.

For the (unofficial) race results, click here (nascar.com)

There were 6 caution flags for 18 laps and 6 lead changes among 4 drivers: E. Sadler 1-20; K. Kahne 21-32; E. Sadler 33-37; T. Bodine 38-39; D. Hamlin 40-44; K. Kahne 45-49; E. Sadler 50-55

Todd Bodine continues to lead the standings by 149 points over 2nd place, Aric Almirola.

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Aug. 7     Nashville Superspeedway