The defending champion in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series took time out of his busy schedule to talk to Behind the Wheel Producer Anita Goodan.
Crafton had his daughter with him during this interview as he talked about the upcoming truck series race at Kansas Speedway, his career and his championship:
Matt Crafton survived two green-white-checkered attempts and captured his fourth career win Sunday night in the Kroger 250 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (NCWTS) race at Martinsville Speedway.
The race had been postponed after rain washed out the chance to race Saturday night. In fact, qualifying was called off due to rain and the field was set by how drivers finished in practice. That gave Darrell Wallace, Jr. (Bubba) the pole. He led the first 11 laps and then the caution came out. Timothy Peters took the lead away from Wallace, but he took it back on lap 30. A caution came out five laps later which would be used as the competition caution.
All he had to do was start the Ford Ecoboost 250 race at Homestead-Miami Speedway Friday night and he would clinch the championship. When the command to start engines was made, Crafton did just that and won his first NCWTS championship in his 13-year career.
The race wasn’t as easy as getting the championship for Crafton. He was involved in an accident on lap 137 that caused a lot of damage to his truck. The pit crew worked hard to get him back out on the racetrack to make sure his truck remained in contention for the owner’s championship. A piece of metal was hanging under the front bumper of the truck and Crafton kept going to ensure that track position was not lost. He drove his truck into the champion circle a little battered, but the crunched metal didn’t photobomb his winning smile as he held onto the NCWTS trophy.
Matt Crafton and the primary sponsor of his No. 88 Toyota Tundra, Menards, have renewed agreements with ThorSport Racing for the 2014 season in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (NCWTS).
The 2014 season will mark the 10th consecutive year that Crafton will drive the Menards truck for ThorSport and 13th year overall with the team.
He’s 17 and he’s a winner in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. Erik Jones drove the No. 51 Toyota truck for Kyle Busch Motorsports into victory lane in the Lucas Oil 150 at Phoenix International Raceway Friday night becoming the youngest driver in history to win in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (NCWTS).
Ross Chastain didn’t let him have the win easily as they were door-to-door on the final restart of the race with less than 15 laps to go. Chastain had cleared Jones for two laps when Jones came roaring past him to take the lead for the last time of the night. Jones finished more than a second ahead of second place runner Chastain when Jones took the checkered flag.
