Matt Crafton took the victory last night at the Texas Motor Speedway for the 18th annual WinStar World Casino 400K after leading a career high of 118 laps of the 167 lap event. Crafton started the night from the second spot after Justin Lofton started on the pole position. Crafton originally was six laps short on fuel but was able to save just enough to earn his fifth career NASCAR Camping World Truck Series win.
“I didn’t know we were so close there. I rode around conserving and conserving, then would run another five laps, and they said to conserve fuel again,” said Crafton. “It was done on the track and on pit road as these guys and this truck was just unbelievable all evening long.”
He also added that this is the same truck that finished second to Kyle Busch two times and also took them to a victory last season.
After starting on the pole, and finishing just one position short in his second truck series start of the season, was Justin Lofton. Lofton earned the pole during qualifying yesterday afternoon with a fast time of 30.054 seconds, 179.677 mph. With just two starts this season, Lofton has finished both of those, with his last start at the Charlotte Motor Speedway, inside the top-10. These solid finishes should give the 28-year-old momentum to hopefully find a ride for the rest of the year. Lofton lost the race by 13.302 seconds, which is a new series track record at the Texas Motor Speedway.
Finishing in the third spot after also managing to save fuel all night long was Joe Nemechek. Last night was his first NASCAR Camping World Truck Series start at the 1.5-mile oval. During the middle of the event, Nemechek did get stuck towards the back, but was able to make up ground after several cars pitted in the last twelve laps to get the solid finish and hopes this will give the team plenty of momentum going into Gateway Motorsports Park next weekend when his son drives the No. 8.
Ben Kennedy came out of the event as the highest finishing rookie driver after a 14th-place finish to end the night. Despite being the highest finishing rookie of the race, it wasn’t all smiles for the driver after starting the race from the 18th spot with only 27 drivers on the entry list.
Matt Crafton leaves the Texas Motor Speedway with the drivers points lead by 11 over teammate Johnny Sauter. Ron Hornaday currently sits third with 23 points behind the leader going into Gateway next weekend. The fourth and Fifth spots sit Ryan Blaney and Timothy Peters who ride 25 and 27 points respectively behind the points leader.
The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series will roll into the mid-west for the series return at the Gateway Motorsports Park for the first time since 2010. Race coverage will begin at 8:00 p.m. Et, live on FOX Sports 1. The Motor Racing Network will provide the live radio coverage of the event.
About Me: Brett has been following the sport of NASCAR since the beginning of the 2006 NASCAR Sprint Cup season. Since Brett was 13, he has had a passion of chasing a job in sports that not many get the opportunity of doing. He has been in the NASCAR media since the middle of the 2010 season. Since then, he has been a part of many racing podcast shows to improve his talents. He has written for racingonfuel.com and theracingwheel.com. Currently, Brett writes for motorsportsnat.com and TracksideChatter.com. You can find him on twitter @NASCAR_Brett.
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