Matt Crafton becomes the first repeat winner in the Camping World Truck Series in 2016 after wheeling his No. 88 Menards Toyota Tundra to victory lane on Saturday at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Crafton led the field twice throughout the 134-lap, 200-mile race for a total of 47 laps in his bright yellow machine.
Crafton talked about how strong his truck was all afternoon long.
“Just everywhere, it would go really anywhere it wanted to and that’s why I love racing in the day,” Crafton said after the race. “If it was a night race, we wouldn’t have to lift near as much and we were coming completely out of the throttle and the drivers, we had to work a whole lot harder in the seats than what we do if it’s a night race. I think that separates some of us whenever we come to these places and you have to slip and slide a little bit more.”
The win did not come easy for Crafton as he started the event in 17th after qualifying was washed out on Friday due to rain. The team made a number of changes after final practice on Thursday that would more than likely help make it better for the race. Those changes worked as he scored his 13th career victory.
“The crazy part about it, we didn’t make a whole lot of changes. They made all the changes last night – two nights ago Junior (Carl Joyner, crew chief) and I went to dinner and sat until 11:00 and thought of a ton of things,” said Crafton on FOX Sports 1. “We had a list of about 20 or so things and I think he changed 15 or more things. We got about halfway through the changes yesterday that he was telling me that he did and I was like, ‘I’m good, I don’t need to know anything else you did to it.’
Kyle Busch will leave Charlotte Motor Speedway with a runner-up finish. Busch started the day in fifth and had some up and down moments all throughout the event. He would be hit with a pit road penalty that would send him to the rear of the field. The Las Vegas native holds one victory and two top five finishes in two starts this season.
Johnny Sauter came close at the end but not close enough as he’ll walk away with a third-place finish in his No. 21 GMS Racing machine. Sauter led the field for one lap while pit stops cycled around towards the end of the race. Sauter, winner of the season opener at Daytona, holds three top five and three top 10 finishes through six races.
Spencer Gallagher found himself in a bind early on after spinning his tires on the initial start of the race. Gallagher was unable to rebound to the front as he would slowly slip back just outside the top 10. The Las Vegas native will leave the 1.5-mile oval with a sixth-place finish.
Daniel Suarez came very close to scoring his first NASCAR national series victory today at Charlotte Motor Speedway. However, with fuel mileage coming into play, Suarez was forced to make a pit stop within the last five laps of the race. He would even have more problems as the truck would stall out on pit road due to low amounts of fuel. The native of Mexico will leave Charlotte with a 23rd place finish.
Matt Tifft, who brought home a fifth-place finish, was the highest finishing Sunoco Rookie of the Year Contender. Tifft started the day ninth in his No. 11 Red Horse Racing Toyota Tundra.
There were only three cautions throughout the entire event. The first involved the No. 1 Chevrolet of Andy Seuss off turn two. The following caution was due to time expiring on the caution clock and Christopher Bell brought out the final caution on lap 71 for a spin in turn four.
The next race for the Camping World Truck Series will be a stand-alone event at Texas Motor Speedway. Coverage will begin at 9:00 p.m. ET. on FOX Sports 1. Motor Racing Network and SiriusXM NASCAR will have the radio call.
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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