Now that the Daytona 500 is history, and Matt Crafton brought home an 18th-place finish in an emergency relief role for injured Kyle Busch, Joe Gibbs Racing will have to turn its attention to the future.
Busch suffered a broken right leg and a broken left foot after his No. 54 Toyota slammed nose-first into a concrete wall inside Turn 1 during Saturday’s XFINITY Series race. Unknown at this point is the number of races Busch will miss as he recovers from his injuries.
Whether Crafton races again in the No. 18 Toyota as Busch mends, he’s due a vote of thanks from JGR for an excellent effort under exigent circumstances. Crafton flew back down to Daytona on Saturday night and started the Daytona 500 without the chance to run a single practice lap.
“Pretty gnarly,” Crafton said of the experience. “It was very, very tough, but that’s what we get paid to do, drive race cars and figure it out quick…
“It was a learning curve. The first half (of the race) we just rode around and tried to learn, learn, learn. I made a mistake. I had a pretty good surge up top, and I tried the bottom and shuffled myself all the way to the back. I should have had a little better finish there at the end, but it is what it is.”
Source: Reid Spencer / NASCAR Wire Service
