Matt Crafton will take home his third win of the 2015 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series season on Friday night with his victory at the Texas Motor Speedway. Crafton, battling with Erik Jones early on in the night, led 77 of the 167 laps that made up the WinStar World Casino 400K. The finish on Friday will mark his sixth top-five finish through seven races this season.
In his FOX Sports 1 interview in victory lane, Crafton talked about the wild restarts. “Those restarts were hairy. Spun the tires so bad on the restart before that,” said Crafton. “I have to thank Johnny Sauter, my teammate, he gave me a good push on the second to last restart and we finally got a pretty good restart on that last one. Man, it’s like you’re running side-by-side-by-side, but these guys never gave up working on this Menards Toyota Tundra and it’s all about these guys building me good trucks.”
Daniel Suarez came short once again on Friday at the Texas Motor Speedway. Suarez finished in the runner-up spot for the second consecutive time of the 2015 season. He came into the night looking to become the first driver from Mexico to capture a win inside the top three national series of NASCAR. He tried his best to get around Crafton on the restart with two laps remaining.
Suarez told FOX Sports 1 after the race he felt inexperience came into play. “I don’t know. I need to talk with Kyle (Busch, owner) to get some advice to race hard,” said Suarez. “I felt like we had a really fast Toyota Tundra ARRIS truck. I felt we were a little loose on the bottom. It was fine to race side-by-side for a few laps with new tires but with old tires it was either to wreck or to try it and I was close a couple times and I didn’t want to wreck and throw away a good second-place. I’m happy, but I feel like we’re getting closer and closer – we’ll get one soon.”
John Wes Townley captured his best career finish in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Friday at the Texas Motor Speedway. Townley had momentum coming into the race after taking the green flag in the fifth starting spot. His previous best came last season with a fourth at the Charlotte Motor Speedway in May.
Erik Jones, who started the night on the pole, had a great race going until battery issues gave the team problems. They were unable to diagnose the situation and forced the team to make a battery change three different times. Jones will take home a disappointing finish of 15th.
Timothy Peters had some problems during the race after losing his engine on lap 147. Peters started the night in the seventh position when the green flag started the 250-mile event.
The next race for the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series will be at the Gateway Motorsports Park in St. Louis. Coverage will begin Saturday at 8:30 p.m. ET. live on FOX Sports 1 and FOX Sports Go. The Motor Racing Network will provide the live radio broadcast.
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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