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[/media-credit]So far this season, Matt Crafton is having one of the best seasons of his career as he currently leads the point standings.
“The season has been good so far,” he told me earlier this week. “It hasn’t great so far that we’ve got two top five finishes and a top 10. The last race at Darlington we had a really truck. That will help towards building for the next race at Martinsville and build off the momentum for the team and having momentum is huge in this sport.”
The last race at Darlington was a trying race for the No. 88 team as they got stuck back outside the top 20 late in the going with a late pit stop. Though Crafton proved that his team is ready to make a run at the championship as he drove back to a fourth place finish.
“It was cool that we had as good as a truck as we did to come back to finish fourth,” he said. “That was awesome. I think if we had better track position, we would’ve had a better shot.”
One of the keys to Crafton’s run at Darlington was working with teammate Johnny Sauter, who he has a good relationship with.
“It’s awesome,” he said. “Things are great. If we’re off a little bit in practice, you can over there and see what they’re doing and get your program with what they’re doing. We actually went to them at Darlington. And that’s go back and forth as they can come to us.”
Crafton is set to go for the championship after watching ThorSport Racing grow through the years.
“It would be everything,” he said. “I mean, that’s what we all strive for. We’re all here to win the championship. That weekend is one thing, but its all part of working towards that.”
He got the call to drive for them in 2000, after winning the Featherlite Southwest Series Championship. When he first joined, they were a team that was just starting out, though have since grown to a three-truck organization. ThorSport Racing announced last week that they’d be adding a third truck to the organization with Dakoda Armstrong behind the wheel.
“I remember when it was just one team and not a whole trucks and to keep adding to it makes it better and better every year,” he said. “That’s pretty awesome to have another truck at the race track; I look forward to working with him.”
Key highlights to his career to date include his first racing memory of winning his first ever go-kart racing and his first career Camping World Truck Series win at Atlanta, followed by the win at Charlotte. Though one track that he has yet to win at that’s on his radar is Bristol, following the second-place finish last year.
Outside of his driving commitments, Crafton has also been working with Travis Pastrana in helping him learn the ropes of driving stock cars.
“He is going to be a good racecar driver,” he said. “He has been good to work with. He has already done well. To finish sixth in his first ever start and then the second one, he got caught up in someone else’s mess.”
