William Byron scored his first career Camping World Truck Series victory on Friday at the 1.5-mile oval at Kansas Speedway. The young driver scored the win despite a NASCAR Overtime finish. Byron led the field for 34 laps around the Midwest track for a total of two different times.
“It was crazy the last couple of restarts and I had the lead there on the green flag run and I was really just praying for no cautions, but you have to earn it and my crew chief, Rudy Fugle, really told me about that on all the restarts,” said Byron shortly after the win. “He’s like, ‘This is how you earn it,’ so I just can’t thank Liberty University enough. This is a dream come true. I was six years old watching Truck races. Didn’t start racing until I was 14 and just to be in a Toyota Tundra like this is amazing.”
Defending race winner Matt Crafton brought his No. 88 Menards Toyota to a runner-up finish in the Toyota Tundra 250. Crafton started the evening in 13th after missing round two of single-truck qualifying earlier in the day. The veteran driver now holds one top five and three top 10 finishes after four races.
“I’m still learning these things and the aero is so important and so easy to make positions up on restarts or just killed on them,” said Crafton in a press conference. “I’ve had a couple good ones and a couple bad ones and it sucks to end up fourth after running second most of the race and taking the lead at one point, but this is the run we needed after Daytona – we were really fast. Atlanta, we had the truck to beat, and Martinsville we kind of struggled and ended up crashing again, so just really thankful to get out of here with a top-five and actually finish the race. You’ve got to give a big congratulations to my teammate William (Byron). It’s cool to seen him running so well and I’m excited for the rest of the year. I’m glad that we don’t have to take any more weeks off now.”
Daniel Hemric finished the event in third after starting the day in ninth. Hemric will leave Kansas Speedway with his second top five and third top 10 finish through 30 career starts.
Clint Bowyer ran his first Camping World Truck Series race since Pocono Raceway last August. Bowyer took his No. 24 GMS Racing machine to a fifth-place finish. The veteran Sprint Cup Series driver started 16th.
“Man, that was a fun race. We started the race loose and it tightened up pretty quick, but Joey (Cohen, crew chief) and the boys made some nice adjustments to get the Georgia Boot Chevrolet running better on the long runs,” said Bowyer in a post-race release. “GMS Racing has put together such a great program that we knew we would be running in the top five by the end. I wish the race had ended with us in Victory Lane, but I’m happy with where we ended up.”
Several drivers found themselves into trouble throughout the Toyota Tundra 250. First began between Parker Kligerman, John Hunter Nemechek and John Wes Townley. The incident ended the night for Kligerman and Nemechek and Townley were able to continue.
Timothy Peters will leave Kansas with the Camping World Truck Series points lead by eight points over Daniel Hemric. Ryan Truex, who finished sixth, will sit 10 points behind Peters. Tyler Young and John Hunter Nemechek round out the top five.
The next race for the Camping World Truck Series will be next weekend at Dover. Coverage will begin at 5:30 p.m. ET. on FOX Sports 1, SiriusXM NASCAR Channel 90 or MRN.
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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