Crafton looks to go ‘one better’ at Martinsville

“We were lined-up and ready to make something happen last fall when those guys in front of me decided to take each other out,” Crafton said of October’s Kroger 200. “We absolutely felt like we had a Menards Tundra to finish one spot better than we did in the spring but it just wasn’t meant to be.”

In the 2013 Kroger 250, Crafton — whose 17th-place Martinsville finish last fall was barely a hiccup on his way to last season’s NCWTS drivers’ championship — finished a fast-closing second behind record-tying ThorSport Racing teammate Johnny Sauter.

ThorSport’s third career one-two finish was in the same order as the first two — Sauter beating Crafton — and the senior ThorSport driver, who’s starting his 13th season racing for owners Duke and Rhonda Thorson would like nothing better than to mix it up.

“Johnny kicked-off last season winning two-straight and that was great,” Crafton said. “But our team won at Kansas — three out of the first four for ThorSport — and me and my guys want to win more, this season so we feel like Martinsville’s the best place to start.”

In the closing laps last fall Crafton was third behind Richard Childress Racing “allies” Kevin Harvick and Ty Dillon when the pair tangled exiting Turn 2. Crafon couldn’t avoid their nearly-stopped trucks and the damage to his Tundra knocked him to the back end of the top 20.

“Junior (crew chief Carl Joiner Jr.) and my guys know exactly what we need to do at Martinsville — we had darn good Tundras there twice last year,” Crafton said. “If that doggoned shoving match hadn’t broke out in front of us last year I still feel like we had a shot to win in the fall.

“And you know, in the spring, if we had 25 more laps to race there might’ve been a different ThorSport Tundra in Victory Lane.”

Crafton, who with his team set a 19-year Truck Series record by completing every lap — in all, 3,391 — raced in 22 events last season, continued that roll in the 2014 Daytona opener. There’s no reason it can’t continue.

“Junior and I feel like our 2014 Tundra is going to continue the level of performance we had last season, and at Martinsville that was pretty good,” Crafton said. “In the end we had a truck that would stop, turn and dig up off the corner and obviously that’s what you need at Martinsville.”

While most of the Truck Series field has been idle since the Daytona opener in February, Crafton’s been active weekly. He served as stand-by driver for Richard Childress Racing Sprint Cup pilot Paul Menard while Menard and wife Jenn awaited the birth of their first daughter, Remi.

Crafton also made his fourth career NASCAR Nationwide Series start, all of them for RCR and three of them top-10 finishes, in March at Las Vegas.

After opening inspection on Thursday afternoon, Martinsville’s Truck weekend’s on-track activity opens with extra practice time on Friday. The trucks hit the track from 9 – 11:45 a.m. ET and for final practice from 3 – 4:25 p.m. The latter session will be televised live on FOX Sports 1.

The Truck Series’ inaugural — since Daytona’s qualifying session was rained-out — multi-segment, elimination-style group Keystone Light Pole Qualifying session to set the36-truck starting lineup is Saturday at 11:10 a.m., again with live coverage on FOX Sports 1, beginning at 11.