Tifft Scores a Top-10 Finish at Phoenix

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In: NASCAR Truck Series News
Matt Tifft was not playing games when he made his final start of the 2015 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series season Friday night at Phoenix (Ariz.) International Raceway in the Games.NASCAR.com Tundra. Tifft worked his way up from 17th place to run in the top 10 most of the race and end the night with an eighth-place finish.
  
Tifft started the Lucas Oil 150 from 17th place but did not stay there long. He cracked the top 10 by lap 35, despite the truck being a little tight at both ends of the track. A fast pit stop on lap 41 for four tires helped him gain three positions to restart the race seventh on lap 45.
 
He was able to maintain seventh place until a restart on lap 110 following a four-tire pit stop under caution. When the race resumed Tifft quickly fell back to 10th and thought he had a tire going down. He caught a very lucky break when a caution came out just as he was about to pit again. He was able to ride it out until he could pit under caution on lap 116. After changing four tires the team discovered it was actually a loose wheel which caused his problem. He restarted 10th with 30 laps to go.
 
Tifft was up to sixth place after a caution involving championship contenders Matt Crafton and Tifft’s Kyle Busch Motorsports (KBM) teammate, Erik Jones, which occurred in front of him. He was still fighting a tight condition in the Tundra and fell back to eighth with 10 laps remaining. Tifft never gave up and was able to finish the race in eighth place, tying his best finish of the season in the Truck Series.
 
“We had a good night,” Tifft said. “We moved forward through the field really quickly. We were already up to 11th by the first caution after starting 17th. The first part of the race I thought we were really good. We could maintain sixth to eighth place, but we needed to be a little bit freer to get any more than that. The Games.NASCAR.com Tundra was pretty fast, but was just a little bit too tight on that last run. It was a good top-10 run to finish out my season.”
 
Timothy Peters won the race followed by John Hunter Nemechek, John Wes Townley, KBM’s Daniel Suarez and Tyler Reddick rounded out the top five. KBM’s Erik Jones finished 10th after sustaining damage in the late-race accident, but continues to lead the championship standings with one race remaining. The No. 54 team fell one position to 13th in the owner’s point standings.

KBM PR

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