Matt Tifft Earns Best Career Series Finish at Charlotte Motor Speedway

Matt Tifft and the No. 11 NASCAR Heat Toyota Tundra team picked up a fifth-place finish in the North Carolina Education Lottery 200 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. This was Tifft’s best career finish in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. Tifft was ninth fastest in the only practice session on Thursday evening, and on Friday, qualifying was rained out, so the race lineup was set per the NASCAR Rule Book. Due to the inclement weather, the race was also postponed until Saturday afternoon. When the green flag fell under sunny skies, Tifft rolled off ninth, but encountered an extremely tight handling condition on his Toyota Tundra immediately. Crew chief Scott Zipadelli called Tifft to pit road twice for four Goodyear tires and Sunoco fuel, but despite multiple adjustments, was unable to find a good balance on the Tundra. During the final caution period on lap 73, Tifft returned to pit road to top off with fuel, then was able to save enough to stay out for the rest of the race and pick up positions as other teams had to pit for fuel. Tifft finished fifth, which was his highest series finish to date.
 
Start – 9
Finish – 5
Driver Points Position – 21
Owner Points Position – 11
Laps Led – 0
 
Matt Tifft Quotes:                                          
“We had a little bit of damage on the first lap, but we were just way too tight all day. When you have those situations and you’re in the back like that, you have to play the strategy piece. Scott Zipadelli (crew chief) did an awesome job with that, obviously bringing home my first top-five in the Truck Series.”
 
“It was really cool having NASCAR Heat Evolution on the truck, it’s awesome what they’re doing for the sport with video games. Red Horse Racing has worked hard this whole year and the funny thing is that we’ve had really, really fast trucks and we didn’t get the finishes we wanted. Today may be the opposite, but we’ll take top-fives as they come.” 

RHR PR