Matt Tifft Records 17th-place finish at Texas Motor Speedway

Matt Tifft’s first-career NASCAR Camping World Truck Series start at Texas Motor Speedway concluded with a 17th place finish at the drop of the checkered flag. Tifft began the day by posting the third-quickest time in the only practice session, and followed that up by advancing to the pole round of qualifying, earning the fourth spot on the starting grid in the No. 11 Waste Connections Inc. Toyota Tundra. From the outset, the 147-lap contest had a green-flag flavor, and was only slowed three times by the caution clock. As track conditions changed under the lights, Tifft immediately battled an extremely loose condition through both corners, and came to pit road running 13th at the race’s first caution on lap 40. Crew chief Scott Zipadelli offered air pressure, wedge, track bar, and spring rubber adjustments, to rectify Tifft’s handling conditions. By lap 80, Tifft went down a lap to the race leaders, still fighting the same balance characteristics, but earned the Lucky Dog free pass to regain his lap on the race’s second caution on lap 83. The following run would play out the same way for Tifft and the No. 11 team, losing a lap and receiving the Lucky Dog award on the final caution on lap 126. Over the final 18-lap dash to the checkers, Tifft gained a position and collected a 17th-place finish. With one race remaining in the Round of Six, the No. 11 team is positioned 15 points behind the cutoff in the Owners’ Chase Grid.

“Every week, these No. 11 guys never quit working to get our trucks better, and we tried a lot of things tonight, but never hit on the right balance. We had good speed in our Tundra in practice and qualifying earlier today, but when the sun went down, we were way too free to contend up towards the front. We wanted to give all the folks from Waste Connections, Inc. something to cheer for tonight, but we kept our heads in the game to stay on the lead lap and keep ourselves in the mix in the Owners’ Chase. We’ll unload at Phoenix next week, see what we have, and race for a top-five finish and hopefully get ourselves into the final four at Homestead.”

RHR PR