CRAFTON OUTLASTS COMPETITION EN ROUTE TO CHARLOTTE WIN
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For the second consecutive week Matt Crafton is celebrating in victory lane. This time at the site of his first ever win in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, Charlotte Motor Speedway.
Crafton led a race-high 47 laps on the way to his second win of the season. The two-time series champion knew his truck was dialed in for a big afternoon.
"This thing was unbelievable from the time we dropped the green," Crafton said. "I mean we just made air pressure adjustments, at least that's what I was told. Pretty much after the first lap I knew that they were going to be in trouble, I knew we had something to contend for a win. Then we went through (turns) one, two, three and four and I'm like this feels really good unless it really, really falls off or something dramatic happens, I felt we could battle for a win for sure."
The win marks the first time in Crafton's championship career he has won back-to-back races and the driver of the No. 88 DampRid/Menard's Toyota is proud to have accomplished this feat after being close before.
"It feels very, very good," Crafton said. "Somebody brought that to my attention last week after we won Dover that it's never been done for me. We won Atlanta last year and we were leading on a Green -White-Checkered at Martinsville, lost it and then went and won the following one after that. We've come close and it feels very, very sweet to say we've done it back-to-back."
"Maybe we can go for three."
Kyle Busch, who piloted the No. 18 SiriusXM Radio Toyota, managed to lead 27 laps but was forced to the rear of the field following a pit road speeding penalty. Busch recovered well but couldn't grab the final spot on his comeback and had to settle for a second place finish.
Busch now has nine top-ten finishes at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
"Our truck was okay there early on in the first half of the race we were pretty good and then in the second half of the race something happened on the right front," Busch said. "Once we got back in traffic after that bad pit stop where we got a penalty and something broke so I was just super, super tight after that, laying on the splitter."
Crafton's former teammate Johnny Sauter, now with GMS Racing, made a long fuel run in the race's final stages to hang on for a third place finish. Sauter led a lap before being passed by Crafton with less than five laps-to-go. The finish is Sauter's third career top-ten finish at CMS.
Brad Keselowski Racing's Tyler Reddick finished in the fourth position.
Rookie Matt Tifft was able to keep his No. 11 NASCAR Heat Toyota clean all race and managed to drive home in the fifth position. The finish for Tifft is the best in his short NCWTS career.
Tifft, who was named to the NASCAR Next class of 2016 earlier this week, battled changing race conditions all race.
"We started the race just a bit too tight," Tifft said. "I fought through traffic just a little bit there. It kind of got us in a spot where we were in a position to come down and top off the fuel and ultimately that was the biggest payoff for today. We were able to play a little bit of strategy and luckily we were able to stay out and that played to our favor. We've had really fast trucks over at Red Horse (Racing) but it's the first time we've been able to finish out a race so it's really cool."
Spencer Gallagher finished in sixth place followed by Timothy Peters, Christopher Bell, Daniel Hemric and rookie William Byron rounding out the top-ten.
After a busy month of May, the truck series now takes a break until it returns to action Friday, June 10th at Texas Motor Speedway.
NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Race Number 6
Unofficial Race Results for the 14Th Annual North Carolina Education Lottery
200 - Friday, May 20, 2016
Charlotte Motor Speedway - Concord, NC - 1.5 Mile Paved
Total Race Length - 134 Laps - 201 Miles
Leader
Fin Str Trk Driver Team Laps Pts Bns Driver Rating Status Tms Laps
1 17 88 Matt Crafton Damp Rid/Menards Toyota 134 37 5 133.0 Running 2 47
2 5 18 Kyle Busch(i) SiriusXM Toyota 134 0 121.6 Running 4 27
3 4 21 Johnny Sauter Water Pulse Chevrolet 134 31 1 91.2 Running 1 1
4 6 29 Tyler Reddick Cooper Standard Careers for Veterans Ford 134 29 79.0 Running
5 9 11 Matt Tifft # Toyota 134 28 65.8 Running
6 2 23 Spencer Gallagher Allegiant Travel Chevrolet 134 27 69.5 Running
7 20 17 Timothy Peters Red Horse Racing Toyota 134 27 1 106.2 Running 1 11
8 15 4 Christopher Bell # Toyota Toyota 134 25 84.2 Running
9 8 19 Daniel Hemric DrawTite Ford 134 25 1 116.9 Running 2 15
10 1 9 William Byron # Liberty University Toyota 134 24 1 116.3 Running 1 25
11 14 71 Brandon Jones(i) Hope For The Warriors Chevrolet 134 0 77.2 Running
12 21 8 John H. Nemechek Chevrolet 134 21 85.3 Running
13 16 00 Cole Custer # Haas Automation Chevrolet 134 20 82.3 Running
14 3 33 Ben Kennedy Jacob Chevrolet 134 19 84.7 Running
15 18 13 Cameron Hayley Cabinets by Hayley Toyota 134 18 81.6 Running
16 11 05 John Wes Townley Jive Communications/Zaxby's Chevrolet 134 17 59.5 Running
17 12 41 Ben Rhodes # USA Cars Toyota 134 16 67.5 Running
18 13 92 Parker Kligerman BTS Tire & Wheel/Advance Auto Parts/Valvoline Ford 133 15 60.3 Running
19 23 02 Tyler Young Randco Chevrolet 133 14 46.7 Running
20 10 98 Rico Abreu # Safelite Auto Glass/Curb Records Toyota 133 14 1 81.2 Running 1 1
21 24 22 Austin Self AM Technical Solutions Toyota 133 12 49.2 Running
22 22 81 Ryan Truex SeaWatch Toyota 133 11 60.7 Running
23 7 51 Daniel Suarez(i) ARRIS Toyota 132 0 80.3 Running 2 6
24 25 66 Jordan Anderson Columbia, SC Famously Hot Chevrolet 132 9 43.0 Running
25 28 44 Tommy Joe Martins Diamond Gusset Jeans Chevrolet 132 9 1 39.0 Running 1 1
26 19 86 Brandon Brown Jeff Gordon Children's Foundation Chevrolet 132 7 46.5 Running
27 26 63 Bobby Pierce Mitler Bros./Champion Oil Chevrolet 130 6 35.5 Running
28 31 10 Jennifer Jo Cobb Driven2Honor.org Chevrolet 128 5 30.7 Running
29 29 07 Garrett Smithley(i) Chevrolet 111 0 34.8 Running
30 27 50 Travis Kvapil Gas Buddy Chevrolet 106 3 29.7 Running
31 30 49 Timmy Hill Chevrolet 82 2 24.7 Suspension
32 32 1 Andy Seuss FDNY Chevrolet 20 1 24.3 Accident
Race Comments: Matt Crafton won the North Carolina Education Loterry 200 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, his 13th career NASCAR Camping World Truck Series victory. Prior to the start of the race, the following truck dropped to the rear of the field for the reason indicated: No. 44 (missing drivers meeting).
Failed to Qualify: (4) 2, 75, 30, 20.
Time of Race: 1 Hrs, 25 Mins, 01 Secs. Average Speed: 141.855 MPH Margin of Victory: 5.748 Seconds
Caution Flags: 3 for 14 laps: Laps: 24-28 (#1 accident turn 2 [10]); 68-71 (Caution clock expiration [63]); 73-77 (#4 spin turn 4 [44]).
Lead Changes: 14 among 9 drivers: W. Byron # 1-25; T. Martins 26; R. Abreu # 27; K. Busch(i) 28-40; D. Hemric 41; K. Busch(i) 42; D. Hemric 43-56; K. Busch(i) 57-68; T. Peters 69-79; M. Crafton 80-122; D. Suarez(i) 123-124; K. Busch(i) 125; D. Suarez(i) 126-129; J. Sauter 130; M. Crafton 131-134.
Top 10 Driver Points: (1) M. Crafton 161;(2) T. Peters 149;(3) D. Hemric 144;(4) S. Gallagher 139;(5) W. Byron # 135;(6) R. Truex 129;(7) J. Nemechek 127;(8) T. Reddick 125;(9) C. Bell # 124;(10) J. Sauter 120.
Keystone Light Pole Award : Not Awarded, # Mahle Clevite Engine Builder of the Race : Triad Racing Technologies (TRT), #88
Mobil 1 Driver of the Race : Matt Crafton, #88 Sunoco Rookie of the Race : Matt Tifft, #11
(i) Ineligible for driver points in this series
Next Race: Jun. 10, 2016 - Texas Motor Speedway