BRISTOL, Tenn: Matt Crafton started deep in the field in Saturday afternoon’s WEATHER GUARD Truck Series race at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway, but a methodical approach to the race rewarded the ThorSport Racing driver with his third top-10 NASCAR CRAFTSMAN® Truck Series finish of the season.
Crafton started the No. 88 Menards Ford F-150 20th. Throughout the first two stages of the race, he used his veteran prowess to stay out of trouble and finish Stage 1 in 14th.
By the end of Stage 2, Crafton had gained six positions on the track to finish eighth and collect three stage points toward his fourth Truck Series championship in 2024.
From the onset of Stage 3, Crafton continued to march forward and, with 35 laps to go, found himself in the tire tracks of leaders Christian Eckes and Kyle Busch.
Crafton challenged Busch for the runner-up position for several laps until the final yellow flag of the night waved inside the final 30 laps of the race.
On the restart, Crafton lost a position to Zane Smith who utilized the momentum of the high lane to overtake the No. 88 ThorSport Racing Ford F-150 and drop Crafton to fourth.
Crafton attempted to chase down Smith for the podium position and re-challenge for the race lead but ran out of laps and had to settle for a fourth-place run at the checkered flag.
“We just had really, really good long-run speed,” said Crafton after the race. I think we know why it was so good on the long run, but these guys work hard and never give up on an old guy. Felt so good to have a group that believes in ya and just keeps digging. They bust their butt week in and week out.
“I wanted to get to them guys so bad. I was like, OK, long run, long run, I got ‘em, I got ‘em, and the yellow came out. Dang it. Like I said, thank you to guys very, very much and this Menards Ford F-150, we’ll get it back in Victory Lane soon.”
With his first top-five of 2024 in the books, Crafton noted that his performance on Saturday night is what his No. 88 ThorSport Racing team is capable of producing this season.
“That’s where this truck and this whole group belongs,” added Crafton. “It was just terrible on the short run and you saw where we qualified 20th and I didn’t think we were as bad as we were, but just had no short-run speed.”
Crafton discussed how the handling of his truck allowed him to catch Kyle Busch and leader Christian Eckes in the waning laps of the race. And if the caution would not have waved for a tango between top-10 runners Stewart Friesen and Daytona winner Nick Sanchez, he may have been able to contend for the win.
“Our long-run speed was incredible. I hated, hated that caution right there at the end because I think I had something for him the longer we ran – just working on Kyle and ‘em. I didn’t want to get hung down underneath him and burn the right front off because I was getting a little, little bit snug, but I was like I gonna make this count whenever I do get under him and clear him and go get (Christian) Eckes and then the caution came out.”
With his third top-10 finish in 2024 after four races, Crafton and his Sandusky, Ohio-based team look to carry the momentum to the first road course of the season next Saturday afternoon at Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas.
“We needed that, definitely a good run,” said Crafton. I love going to the road courses, where you have to lift and shift and do a lot of fun stuff instead of holding it wide open at some of these places that we went to at the beginning of the year. So, all in all, I’m pumped for the rest of the season.
Leaving Bristol, Crafton is unofficially eighth in the championship standings, 44 points behind leader Tyler Ankrum with 19 races remaining in 2024.
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01 or email at [email protected].
