Matt Crafton topped the field in Saturday night’s NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Hyundai Construction Equipment 200 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. The win is the sixth of Crafton’s Truck Series career. Photo by Matt Sullivan/NASCAR via Getty Images
Matt Crafton was unbeatable Saturday night, as he led 85 of the 130 laps to score the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series victory in the Hyundai Construction Equipment 200 at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
Crafton took the lead with a quick pit stop under a lap 50 caution, and would show the rest of the field the tailgate of his No. 88 Fisher Nuts/Menards Toyota Tundra for the rest of the race, as he powered to a dominating win at the Hampton, GA speedway.
The victory is the sixth of Crafton’s series career and his first at Atlanta.
“This Menards Toyota Tundra was fast, fast,” said Crafton. “I was really disappointed with qualifying, but it didn’t have a whole lot of single lap speed by itself. I knew once they dropped the green and this thing took off and ran three laps – I thought we had something for these boys and they were going to be in trouble.”
While Crafton charged from a 15th place staring spot on the drop of the green flag, Ben Kennedy took the early lead, only to see it go away on lap 2 when Erik Jones moved to the top spot. Jones would hold that position until the first round of pit stops under caution on lap 18.
While the leaders hit pit road, Brad Keselowski stayed out and took over the lead.
With Keselowski on older tires, it only took two laps for Jones to drive around the 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup champion to retake the top spot. Meanwhile, behind the leaders, Crafton continued to charge. He moved around Keselowski to take the third position on lap 31, and then drove by Daniel Suarez to take second.
The caution flew again on lap 50 when Cody Ware made hard contact with the turn 2 wall. Ware climbed out uninjured.
Under caution, the leaders again hit pit road. Jones’ team had an issue, setting him back eight spots. It would be the first of several pit road miscues that would haunt the No. 4 team all night. Meanwhile, Crafton raced off pit road in the lead.
One of the strongest challenges Crafton faced all night came on the lap 57 restart from Suarez. The two Toyotas raced side-by-side for several laps before Crafton finally cleared Suarez. Crafton would continue to command the race thorough the final set of green flag pit stops with 31 laps to go.
From that point, there was no catching Crafton, as the final segment of the race went green without incident.
“This is my favorite race track by far,” Crafton said. “You search and you move around so much – now that I have this win, it’s an amazing feeling. It’s all about these guys behind me. Everybody believing in me and never giving up.”
The win moves Crafton to within two markers of early points leader Reddick. Crafton is the defending series champion and is the first driver to win back-to-back Camping World Truck Series titles, having won the championship in 2013 as well.
Dillon finished in second, his second top three finish of the day after scoring a third place in the Xfinity Series racer earlier in the afternoon.
“It was a great day,” said Dillon. “Anytime you can come out of a racetrack like Atlanta that’s so tough to drive with two top-three finishes in two of the top three series, it’s awesome. Very happy with the way the day went.
“From the get-go, we were good, we were able to drive up through up through ‘em a bit. I wish we would have had a caution and maybe had a better shot at Crafton, but the Toyota guys are real strong right now.”
Kennedy caught Suarez in the closing laps to take third, while Tyler Reddick finished in fifth.
Sauter, Jones, James Buescher, Timothy Peters and Joe Nemechek rounded out the top 10.
Seven cars were on the lead lap at the end of the race. The race was slowed three times by caution flags.
NASCAR Camping World Truck Series
Atlanta Motor Speedway – Hampton, GA
Hyundai Construction Equipment 200 – Feb. 28, 2015
1. (15) Matt Crafton, Toyota, 130, $45285.
2. (14) Ty Dillon(i), Chevrolet, 130, $26957.
Thus the Sildenafil citrate is called the cialis sale usa amerikabulteni.com for some reasons. This medicinal treatment has been approved by several health organizations as cialis samples amerikabulteni.com a safe and effective treatment of sexual dysfunction. A generic levitra uk person who faces erectile dysfunction is lacking potency of reaching an erection during the intercourse. Over the generic levitra last thirteen years, a positive link has been made between ED and heart disease. 3. (1) Ben Kennedy, Toyota, 130, $27620.
4. (4) Daniel Suarez(i), Toyota, 130, $21261.
5. (11) Tyler Reddick, Ford, 130, $18707.
6. (13) Johnny Sauter, Toyota, 130, $16667.
7. (2) Erik Jones #, Toyota, 130, $17112.
8. (8) James Buescher, Chevrolet, 129, $13612.
9. (16) Timothy Peters, Toyota, 129, $15807.
10. (7) Joe Nemechek, Chevrolet, 129, $16701.
11. (18) Ryan Sieg(i), Chevrolet, 129, $13446.
12. (5) John Wes Townley, Chevrolet, 129, $15557.
13. (9) Spencer Gallagher #, Chevrolet, 129, $15501.
14. (3) Cameron Hayley #, Toyota, 129, $15445.
15. (10) Brad Keselowski(i), Ford, 129, $13657.
16. (6) Justin Boston #, Toyota, 129, $15168.
17. (20) Caleb Holman, Chevrolet, 127, $12807.
18. (29) Garrett Smithley, Chevrolet, 126, $14919.
19. (12) Daniel Hemric #, Chevrolet, 126, $14807.
20. (26) Korbin Forrister #, Chevrolet, 125, $15252.
21. (19) Bryan Silas, Chevrolet, 123, $14586.
22. (21) Tyler Young, Chevrolet, 123, $14475.
23. (28) Jordan Anderson, Chevrolet, 123, $12085.
24. (24) Wendell Chavous #, Chevrolet, 120, $12002.
25. (22) Ray Black Jr. #, Chevrolet, 119, $14375.
26. (27) Jennifer Jo Cobb, Chevrolet, 118, $12947.
27. (30) Morgan Shepherd(i), Chevrolet, 118, $11891.
28. (17) Mason Mingus, Chevrolet, Accident, 110, $11631.
29. (25) Brandon Brown, Chevrolet, Oil Line, 91, $11603.
30. (23) Cody Ware #, Chevrolet, Accident, 48, $12103.
31. (31) Norm Benning, Chevrolet, Rear Gear, 12, $9603.
Average Speed of Race Winner: 140.711 mph.
Time of Race: 01 Hrs, 25 Mins, 22 Secs. Margin of Victory: 8.752 Seconds.
Caution Flags: 3 for 13 laps.
Lead Changes: 6 among 5 drivers.
Lap Leaders: B. Kennedy 1; E. Jones # 2-18; B. Keselowski(i) 19-24; E. Jones # 25-44; M. Crafton 45-57; D. Suarez(i) 58; M. Crafton 59-130.
Leaders Summary (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led): M. Crafton 2 times for 85 laps; E. Jones # 2 times for 37 laps; B. Keselowski(i) 1 time for 6 laps; B. Kennedy 1 time for 1 lap; D. Suarez(i) 1 time for 1 lap.
Top 10 in Points: T. Reddick – 87; M. Crafton – 85; E. Jones # – 80; J. Sauter – 72; J. Buescher – 63; B. Silas – 60; B. Kennedy – 58; R. Black Jr. # – 58; J. Nemechek – 58; K. Forrister # – 56.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.