Rowdy Roughed up, Matt Crafton Wins
Matt Crafton survived a make-or-break restart and a two-lap overtime battle for his first-ever NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series win on Friday night at Lowe’s Motor Speedway near Charlotte. The Thor Motorsports Chevrolet driver snapped his 178-race Craftsman Truck losing streak, the longest any Craftsman Truck driver has gone before his breakthrough victory.
“Finally, we can shut them up,” said Crafton, tears in his eyes. “Now they can say, ‘When’s the next one coming?’ Track position was everything. I have a really good group of guys; we’ve been together for two years now. We’re a small group of guys, but we’re going to win more races. I can promise you that.”
The race was - as most Craftsman races are - wild and unpredictable to the end. Pole-winner Kyle Busch dominated, leading 86 laps before late-race contact with Ron Hornaday (they were in the top five at the time) damaged his Toyota and put him deep in the field. But he rallied to finish eighth.
The final laps featured the Hornaday-Busch contact, an apparent pass for the lead by Johnny Benson–it was denied when officials said Benson jumped the restart–and Todd Bodine’s bump that wrecked Hornaday while they were in the top five. Officials penalized Bodine for causing the crash.
“He just flat tried to kill me,” Hornaday said of Bodine. “You don’t spin somebody out on the straightaway. We were pretty good friends. We were just getting to like each other. I don’t know what’s going to happen now. I really don’t.”
Said Bodine: “I know everybody is going to find this hard to believe; I was trying to help him. I wasn’t trying to wreck him. I was trying to give him a good shove to get up there and race Matt because there was no way I was going to.”
Crafton, who took the lead from Benson just before the Bodine-Hornaday caution, held off McCumbee for the overtime win, with Gaughan, Darnell and Crawford in a pack for third, fourth and fifth.
Despite finishing 23rd, Hornaday still leads the points, but his margin is down to five more than Crawford. Bodine is 38 behind in third and Crafton is 45 behind in fourth.
Technorati Tags: Kyle Busch, Ron Hornaday, Todd Bodine, Auto Racing, Johnny Benson, Craftsman Truck Series, Dale Earnhardt, McCumbee
