Matt Crafton celebrates in victory lane after winning Friday night’s NASCAR Camping World Truck Series season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Photo by Jeff Curry/Getty Images
Matt Crafton did everything he needed to do to try and win his third straight NASCAR Camping World Series title – he stayed out of trouble, he led the most laps, and he won the race.
But it still wasn’t enough.
Crafton led 93 of the 134 laps in Friday night’s Ford EcoBoost 200 to lock up his sixth win of the season, but at the end of the night it was 19-year-old rookie Erik Jones who was crowned as the youngest champion in series history.
Jones too, stayed out of trouble and crossed the finish line in sixth place, giving him a 15-point edge over Tyler Reddick to give Kyle Busch Motorsports their first-ever drivers title and fourth owners championship.
John Hunter Nemechek finished second the race behind Crafton, followed by Reddick, Ben Kennedy and Timothy Peters.
Crafton passed Jon Wes Townley following a restart on lap 88 and led the final 46 laps on route to his 11th-career truck series victory.
Crafton had held the points lead since the third race of the season until a DNF at Pocono in August knocked him from the top spot. An accident last weekend at Phoenix all but put him out of contention.
“It’s just that one that column – the DNF column where we’ve made those mistakes. I’ve made mistakes and I’ve wrecked us and we’ve ran out of fuel and we’ve done just about everything this year,” said Crafton. “If you look at the last five races with how many laps we’ve led in these last five races and we just had a monkey on our back. It’s….great to be up here in victory lane getting another trophy.”
Erik Jones celebrates after winning the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series during the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Photo by Sean Gardner/NASCAR via Getty Images
Jones entered the final race of the season with a 19-point lead over Reddick and a 32-point gap over Crafton and needed a finish of just 15th or better to clinch the title.
“Man, it’s been a fun ride throughout the whole season and just getting to this point and the things we went through – so many adversity we had in the middle, early-part of the season – to really see it all come around and get back to championship form here the latter part of the season and then get the championship, man, you couldn’t ask for a better end of the year.”
At the age of 19 years, 5 months and 21 days old, Jones becomes the youngest champion in the 20-year history of the series, beating the previous youngest champion, Austin Dillon.
Jones first drew the attention of truck owner Kyle Busch after passing Busch to win the 2012 Snowball Derby, a prestigious super late model held in Pensacola, Fla. The following year, KBM signed Jones to drive for the team in a limited schedule for the 2013 and ’14 seasons before bringing him up to full time in 2015.
It proved to be a championship-winning move for Busch and his team, who have now won three straight owners titles and four overall to go along with their first drivers championship.
“He put it to me – he beat me in a Super Late Model race. I enjoy racing all the kinds of things that I do and when I go run the super late model things, I tend to pick up on the talents that are out there, the younger kids, and Erik (Jones) was probably most impressive,” said Busch. “I remember the first time we raced against each other he blew my doors off and about 40 laps later he blew up so I was like, ‘Okay, good, I don’t have to deal with him at the end of this one,’ but it was the Snowball Derby actually later on that season that he was able to battle with me and then some other guys to get the win in that race and it was pretty impressive.
“We’ve been in existence for five seasons and this is obviously – six seasons, I guess – our fourth championship, but our first driver’s championship and it means so much more to have the opportunity to help these younger drivers and to help these kids that are coming up thought the ranks to succeed and be successful and to do that with Kyle Busch Motorsports and Toyota. There’s nothing greater than to have that feeling and to build that company from the ground up from nothing and to take it to what it is today.”
Jones is signed as a development driver for Joe Gibbs Racing and will move up to a full-time Xfinity Series ride for the team in 2016, but for now, he’s still taking it all in.
“I think it’s going to take some time to sink in, you know, but just an awesome season,” said Jones. “Only three years ago I was just getting my first opportunity in the Truck Series and just can’t thank Kyle Busch Motorsports – Kyle and Samantha (Busch, team owners) – enough for really starting this whole deal out and giving me the opportunity to go out and try to prove myself and it’s come a long way since then and I couldn’t be happier.
“It goes back that I can’t think of a better way to repay these guys and I can’t think of a better way to thank Kyle (Busch, team owner) for all these years – just getting a driver’s championship for him. He’s wanted one since the company started and to bring it home for myself and for KBM (Kyle Busch Motorsports), you couldn’t really ask for a better ending than that.”
NASCAR Camping World Truck Series
Homestead-Miami Speedway – Homestead, FL
Ford EcoBoost 200 – November 20, 2015
1. (1) Matt Crafton, Toyota, 134, $53598.
2. (2) John Hunter Nemechek #, Chevrolet, 134, $32308.
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4. (3) Ben Kennedy, Toyota, 134, $25597.
5. (12) Timothy Peters, Toyota, 134, $22449.
6. (5) Erik Jones #, Toyota, 134, $20382.
7. (10) Johnny Sauter, Toyota, 134, $20164.
8. (7) Daniel Hemric #, Chevrolet, 134, $19945.
9. (11) Cameron Hayley #, Toyota, 134, $19727.
10. (13) John Wes Townley, Chevrolet, 134, $20458.
11. (8) Spencer Gallagher #, Chevrolet, 134, $19399.
12. (18) Austin Theriault #, Ford, 134, $19206.
13. (14) Rico Abreu, Chevrolet, 134, $19070.
14. (19) Jesse Little, Toyota, 134, $16710.
15. (16) Scott Lagasse, Jr.(i), Chevrolet, 134, $17201.
16. (15) David Gilliland(i), Ford, 133, $16464.
17. (22) David Levine, Ford, 133, $16355.
18. (27) Ray Black, Jr. #, Chevrolet, 133, $18496.
19. (23) Tyler Young, Chevrolet, 133, $18386.
20. (20) Mason Mingus, Chevrolet, 132, $18755.
21. (25) Timmy Hill, Chevrolet, 132, $18032.
22. (28) Travis Kvapil, Chevrolet, 132, $17758.
23. (21) Kyle Weatherman, Ford, 131, $15372.
24. (32) Dexter Stacey, Chevrolet, 131, $16044.
25. (9) Christopher Bell, Toyota, Out of Fuel, 130, $15976.
26. (24) Jennifer Jo Cobb, Chevrolet, 128, $14607.
27. (31) Korbin Forrister #, Chevrolet, 127, $14389.
28. (29) Garrett Smithley, Chevrolet, 126, $12799.
29. (30) Jordan Anderson, Chevrolet, 115, $12553.
30. (6) Daniel Suarez(i), Toyota, Accident, 84, $11553.
31. (17) Brandon Jones #, Chevrolet, Accident, 67, $11053.
32. (26) Brandon Brown, Chevrolet, Transmission, 2, $9553.
Average Speed of Race Winner: 126.725 mph.
Time of Race: 1 Hrs, 35 Mins, 10 Secs. Margin of Victory: 2.942 Seconds.
Caution Flags: 4 for 18 laps.
Lead Changes: 14 among 6 drivers.
Lap Leaders: M. Crafton 1-30; J. Nemechek # 31-48; T. Reddick 49; J. Townley 50; D. Suarez(i) 51-60; J. Nemechek # 61-62; M. Crafton 63; J. Nemechek # 64-65; M. Crafton 66-67; J. Nemechek # 68; M. Crafton 69-78; J. Nemechek # 79; M. Crafton 80-83; C. Bell 84-88; M. Crafton 89-134.
Leaders Summary (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led): M. Crafton 6 times for 93 laps; J. Nemechek # 5 times for 24 laps; D. Suarez(i) 1 time for 10 laps; C. Bell 1 time for 5 laps; J. Townley 1 time for 1 lap; T. Reddick 1 time for 1 lap.
Top 10 in Points: E. Jones # – 899; T. Reddick – 884; M. Crafton – 877; J. Sauter – 809; T. Peters – 804; C. Hayley # – 766; D. Hemric # – 733; J. Townley – 730; B. Kennedy – 690; S. Gallagher # – 677.
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