In an astonishing NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (NCWTS) finale, Kyle Busch won Friday night’s Ford EcoBoost 200 at Homestead-Miami (Fla.) Speedway, while Matt Crafton claimed the 2013 truck series championship, the first for ThorSport Racing.
The win was the fifth of the season for Kyle Busch, who also collected the NCWTS owner’s championship on a tie-breaker, as the Kyle Busch Motorsports (KBM) organization had five wins compared to ThorSport Racing’s lone victory at Kansas Speedway earlier this year.
“There’ve been a lot of great things that we’ve been blessed with, first an owners’ championship in our first year out with our race team (2010) and now again here in 2013 with a different crew chief (Rudy Fugle) and a lot of different drivers behind the wheel,” Busch said.
“Having Denny Hamlin and Scott Bloomquist, Chad Hackenbracht and Erik Jones … and, of course, without Erik Jones’ win last weekend (at Phoenix), we wouldn’t be in this position this weekend to come out here and have the opportunity with those bonus points to be close enough.
“Matt had to have trouble [for us to take the title], and unfortunately he did.”
Ryan Blaney, the Sunoco rookie-of-the-year finished second for Brad Keselowski Racing in a race sponsored by his manufacturer. Jeb Burton, who contended for the win late rebounded from an unplanned meeting with the wall to finish third, while Brendan Gaughan was fourth and Ron Hornaday Jr. in a sixth Turner Scott Motorsports entry rounded out the top-five.
John Wes Townley finished sixth, with Red Horse Racing teammate German Quiroga seventh, Ross Chastain, Timothy Peters and defending race winner Cale Gale comprised the remainder of the top-10.
Busch, who scored his 35th career NCWTS triumph in his 11th start of the season started the 22nd race of the year from the 12th position, but roared to the front literally from the moment that green flag flew.
While Ryan Blaney and Johnny Sauter swapped the lead through the race’s first 39 circuits, Matt Crafton muscled his way to the top spot for 12 laps, until pole sitter Blaney reclaimed control on Lap 62.
Meanwhile, Rowdy began closing the gap on the group ahead of him and took the top spot from the BKR driver on Lap 66. Stout racing by the pack saw the No. 29 Cooper Standard Ford F-150 of Blaney once again shoot to the top on Lap 78 and he held the point for 16 laps until Busch reclaimed the lead on Lap 94.
The fourth caution flag of the night waived on Lap 95 when Blaney, one of the dominate trucks of the night made contact with the wall in Turn 4.
Busch, the Las Vegas, Nevada native led the field back to green and withstood several challenges for Austin Dillon, making an infrequent start on the tour driving for Sharp-Gallagher Racing. While, the current Nationwide points leader led just three of the final 35 circuits, Busch assumed sole control on Lap 117.
The finishing order was jolted by three green-white-checkers, which ignited off a late race caution for Jeb Burton, who pancaked the wall in his No. 4 Arrowhead Chevrolet Silverado.
While Busch elected to keep his No. 51 ToyotaCare Toyota Tundra on the 1.5-mile speedway, the back half of the lead group elected to make the trip down pit road for tires, which set a tone of excitement for the impending restart.
The first green-white-checker run lasted until the pack exited turn two onto the backstretch, where Joey Coulter and champion Matt Crafton made contact sending the two vehicles into the outside wall. Brennan Newberry was also collected. While, Crafton suffered damage in the incident, his ThorSport Racing team managed to keep his No. 88 Menards Toyota Tundra on the lead lap after multiple trips to pit lane.
On the second green-white-checkered, it was ThorSport Racing teammate Johnny Sauter who took a loop in his No. 98 Nextant Aerospace / Curb Records Toyota to bring out the final yellow flag of the night.
Taking the final restart of the season, Busch pulled away from second-place contender Gaughan, while Blaney and Burton put on the charge to climb into podium position, both passing the No. 62 South Point Chevrolet Silverado with Busch extending himself to his second truck win at Homestead-Miami (Fla.) Speedway.
Blaney commented on his runner-up performance by saying, We had a really good night tonight, sat on the pole, which I wasn’t really expecting, but I knew we were going to have a really good race car, and we were really good in the beginning. After that first pit stop, we kind of fell back a little bit. I was really loose after that, and that’s not really where you want to be here, running right next to the wall. It would just take so long for us to get going after that, and then we could finally start making up time.
“I’m not sure what lap it was, maybe lap 90, we got into that wall there leading Kyle, just trying to keep on leading. You’re running so close to the edge every single lap at this racetrack, six inches from the wall, sometimes you slip up and there’s no getting out of the wall once you touch it. That was my mistake.
“But the guys made a great call at the end to come in and take two tires to give me a shot at it. Just didn’t quite get there in time.”
“Well, it felt good to be that competitive again,” said Burton, who recorded his fifth top-five of the season. “We’ve kind of been through a slump a little bit lately with our finishes, and my guys did a good job for me. We’ve struggled a little bit in qualifying today, but right when the green flag dropped, we were coming to the front, and they did awesome today with pit stops and gave me a good truck in the race.
“I was catching Kyle right there, biding my time, and I was going to wait for five to go and make a run at him, and I was getting closer and closer and I ran in a little too hard and got a little air tight and got into the wall and we came down and pitted and I thought our night was really done then.
“We got some tires and they beat the damage off of it, and we were 25th with six laps to go and we drove back up to third. Pretty happy with that, a little disappointed that we didn’t get the win, though.”
Following the final checkered flag of the season, Crafton scored his worst finish of the season, 21st and finished outside the top-10 for just the third time in 2013. Still, Crafton wrapped up the championship by taking the green flag in his 316th start. The 14-year veteran also completed every lap, all 3,391 of them in 2013.
“It’s an honor,” an emotional Crafton said after the race. “To be able to do it for (team owners) Duke and Rhonda Thorson that have been doing this for 18 years and give them their first championship … and me driving for them for 13 years full time … for (sponsor) Menard’s and all the people that have been behind me, and every one of these guys that work on this truck, it’s an honor to be able to give them this championship. These guys are the ones that work so hard. I’m just the one who gets to celebrate and look like a hero, because I get to drive a great truck all year.”
Crafton, Blaney and Busch will accept their honors on Monday night in Miami, Florida at the Loews Hotel for the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series banquet.
Pre-season testing for the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series from Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway is scheduled in January 2014 for two days, January 13 and 14.
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
