Lofton Conquers Charlotte to earn his first career win

[media-credit name=”Brad Keppel” align=”alignright” width=”209″][/media-credit]Charlotte NC – Justin Lofton earned his first career victory at Charlotte Motor Speedway, joining two other rookie winners in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (NCWTS) in 2012. It was the 55th start for the Westmoreland CA native. At age 26, Lofton held off a hard charging Brad Keselowski to take the checkers.

Lofton’s best career finish had been third twice, most recently at the Daytona International Speedway in the NCWTS season-opener. Owner Eddie Sharp invested all his cards and funds to this team. “I’m just tickled to be apart of it,” said Sharp, who at the end of last year bought a good portion of equipment from KHI Motorsports. “I love being in this series, and I love being a part of NASCAR,” said Sharp.

“The stars aligned,” said Lofton, who attributes some of his win to timing. He gives credit to Todd Bodine as his mentor. With this win, Lofton takes over the points lead in the NCWTS by one point over Timothy Peters. “This is definitely my favorite place now,” said Lofton. He will ride the wave of confidence to Dover and Texas.

The Camping World Truck Series delivered four-wide door to door racing and an action packed event. With a distance of 134 lap scheduled in the 10th Annual North Carolina Education Lottery 200, the fans witnessed nail biting competition, multiple cautions and on track shuffling.

An after race discussion between Ron Hornaday Jr. and Brad Keselowski had the potential of fireworks, but was quickly simmered down by multiple officials. An altercation between their cars on tone of the final restarts led to a raunchy discussion between the two on pit lane.

Keselowski spoke to the media regarding his second-place finish, he was very proud of his team’s effort and a “phenomenally good car,” Keselowski said. In reference to his incident with Hornaday, Keselowski was looking for a little respect. The second place finish is Keselowski’s second top-10 of 2012. A win in the NCWTS still eludes the Rochester Hills, Michigan driver.

Third place finisher Todd ‘Onion’ Bodine had a decent run. This is the fourth top-10 for Todd Bodine in 9 starts at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Rounding out the top five was the No. 18 of Jason Leffler and the No. 9 of Hornaday. Finishing in sixth was Jason White. Joey Coulter would cross the finish line in seventh; his evening was not without interest. He had lost a lap when the radiator clamp broke, pushing out water on the RCR Chevrolet.

Jeb Burton, son of former Sprint Cup competitor Ward Burton was the top finishing rookie. He ran the raced and finished the event in eighth place. Burton is trying to get more track time and is in search of a full-time sponsor. He is trying to keep a positive outlook and advance his career in the NCWTS.

The top-ten included point’s leader Timothy Peters and the polesitter Ty Dillon.

Race leaders included Ryan Sieg, Keselowski, Dillon, Lofton and James Beuscher. Ty Dillon led the field to the green flag. Dillon who pilots the No. 3 Bass Pro Shop Chevrolet in the Truck Series earned his pole award with a speed of 181.616. This is his first pole in eight Camping World Truck Series Races, and his fourth top-ten start in 2012

Notable cautions include an incident between Paulie Harraka in the No. 5 and David Reutimann, which sent the No. 5 spinning down the track. The Child Help Ford went back up the track and sustained rear end damage after striking the outside retaining wall. The No. 31 machine of James Buescher was involved. He would return to the track and finish 22nd.

The No. 14 of Brennan Newberry brought out multiple cautions during the event. The Bakersfield, CA native received some driver side door damage in the initial incident, but suffered throughout the event. He finished in 27th.

The NCWTS returns to on-track action at Dover International Speedway on June 1.