FORT WORTH, Texas — Report by Race Chaser Online Managing Editor Jacob Seelman — Robert Laberge/Getty Images North America photo —
Sorry Kyle Busch, there’s a new king of 1.5-mile tracks in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series — and he just so happens to be the two-time defending champion.
Though Busch maintains the overall advantage atop the series’ 1.5-mile win list, Matt Crafton has proved he is the new force on intermediate-style facilities and backed up the label in dominant fashion on Friday night — leading 77 laps and holding off Kyle Busch Motorsports hotshoe Daniel Suarez on a two-lap dash to the checkered flag to win the Winstar World Casino 400.
The victory was Crafton’s second at Texas (after winning the June race a year ago), third in four series races on 1.5-mile tracks this season and the eighth of his NCWTS career — six of those coming on mile-and-a-half race tracks.
“Those restarts were hairy,” said Crafton. “We spun the tires so bad on the restart before (the last one). I have to thank my teammate Johnny Sauter for giving me a good push on the second to last restart. We finally got a pretty good restart on that last one.”
The three series victories in 2015 are a career-high for the Tulare, Calif. native, surpassing his previous best of two set a season ago.
Crafton’s dominant night also extended his points lead over teenage rivals Tyler Reddick (+25) and Erik Jones (+32) as the veteran searches for a third-straight series title — both young guns experiencing problems throughout the event that have left them mired in deeper holes than they entered with.
Jones kicked the night off strong by leading the first four laps from the pole, but an early slip-up in turn two cost him the top spot and allowed Crafton to duck by for the lead at lap five and check out to a half-second advantage. The duel would heat up again though six laps later, when Jones got back past at lap 11 and began to distance himself from the rest of the field.
The truck on the move early was Reddick’s No. 19 Brad Keselowski Racing Ford, which started 16th but only took a dozen laps to move inside the top 10. Reddick would continue his climb forward, moving up to sixth at lap 20 just as the first caution of the night flew for debris and brought all the leaders down pit road.
Quick pit work by Crafton’s ThorSport Racing crew allowed him to retake the point for the first restart of the night on lap 25, but a less-than-stellar run through the gearbox once the green flag flew again put Jones back to into the lead — the 19-year-old built up a second advantage before the second yellow of the night at lap 32 when Brandon Jones lost a left front tire and socked the wall after contact with fellow young gun Mason Mingus.
That caution would set up a three-lap, side-by-side battle between Erik Jones and Crafton on the ensuing restart, but Jones put the battle to rest by the time the lap count hit 40 circuits, running away to a 3.5-second advantage before making his scheduled green-flag pit stop at lap 72 as pit service shuffled up the top positions.
Crafton and Tyler Tanner both led laps during the green-flag exchange, but when the cycle finally concluded at lap 80, Jones retook the lead with a six second gap back to Crafton — that gap would be erased with a caution right at the halfway point (lap 83) when Spencer Gallagher spun in turn two.
The caution would be a huge break for Reddick — who was hit with a penalty for driving through too many pit stalls during his green-flag stop and was just serving the drive-through when the caution came out — allowing him to remain on the lead lap and in contention.
As Reddick stayed in contention, KBM, Jones and the No. 4 crew fell out of contention with what was first diagnosed as a faulty battery, and then later identified as an alternator issue on board the young gun’s Toyota Tundra. Jones lost a lap as the crew changed batteries, and though he got back to the lucky dog position on lap 112, the final green-flag pit cycle would doom his chances of getting back in touch with the leaders.
Jones ultimately finished 15th after two more battery changes, and elected not to comment following the race — frustration mounting as a race that was seemingly his to lose slipped away for the fourth-straight week.
Jones’ problems would become Crafton’s blessing, as the Menards/Ideal Door No. 88 assumed the lead and paced the field until lap 119 when he made his final pit stop during a second green-flag cycle. Once Crafton reassumed the lead at the end of pit stops with 36 laps to go, he maintained a nearly-five second advantage before Timothy Peters’ engine expiring with 20 laps to go unfurled the caution yet again and set up a shootout to the finish.
The trucks returned to the green flag with 14 laps to go, and Suarez gave Crafton no heed — leading lap 154 and making contact with Crafton before the latter seized the point back with 12 laps remaining. However, Daniel Hemric spun from fourth after blowing a tire off turn four to bring out the caution on lap 160 of the scheduled 167-lap distance — setting up the race-deciding two lap dash to the checkered flag.
For Suarez, a second-straight runner-up effort left the NASCAR Next and Drive 4 Diversity alumni smiling but frustrated, knowing how close his No. 51 team has been to a victory in recent weeks.
“I need to talk with Kyle maybe to get some advice [on restarts],” Suarez said. “I felt like we had a really, really fast truck, [but] I felt like maybe it was a little too loose to race on the bottom. It was fine maybe to race side by side a few laps with new tires, but with old tires it was either wreck or try. I was close a couple times, so I didn’t want to wreck and just throw away a good second place.
“I’m happy, but I just feel like we’re getting closer and closer. We’ll get one soon,” Suarez said.
John Wes Townley powered forward late to take a career-best third place finish, with Johnny Sauter and Austin Theriault rounding out the top five.
Joe Nemechek finished sixth with rookie Cameron Hayley and Justin Boston behind him, and Hemric rebounded from his tire failure to come home ninth. Ben Kennedy completed the top ten as the last truck on the lead lap.
Reddick suffered from a second pit-road penalty (too fast exiting) on his final green-flag stop, had to return to pit road a second time for a loose wheel and then stalled on pit road under the final caution after getting the free pass — the problems trapped the BKR Ford off the lead lap and Reddick came home 11th in the final rundown.
Despite the fact that Crafton now has a comfortable lead in the title race, the veteran says he is “not satisfied” despite soaking in the highlights of another win.
“We’re happy, we’re happy for sure,” Crafton admitted. “We’re definitely not satisfied [though.] We’ll be satisfied when we get to Homestead and we’ll see where we are there.”
The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series returns to action on June 13 from Gateway Motorsports Park. Darrell Wallace Jr. won the event last season.
RESULTS: NASCAR Camping World Truck Series; Winstar World Casino 400; Texas Motor Speedway; June 5, 2015
- Matt Crafton
- Daniel Suarez
- John Wes Townley
- Johnny Sauter
- Austin Theriault
- Joe Nemechek
- Cameron Hayley
- Justin Boston
- Daniel Hemric
- Ben Kennedy
- Tyler Reddick
- Spencer Gallagher
- Mason Mingus
- Tyler Young
- Erik Jones
- Ray Black Jr.
- Tyler Tanner
- Korbin Forrister
- Jennifer Jo Cobb
- Ryan Ellis
- Timothy Peters
- Brandon Jones
- Timmy Hill
- Jordan Anderson
- Norm Benning
- Justin Jennings
- B.J. McLeod
- Donnie Neuenberger
- Michael Affarano
- Adam Edwards
