To have a career as a racecar driver is something that drivers cherish as they get to enjoy their job each weekend. When you can cap those weekends off with a trip to victory lane, it just makes it sweeter. Though in between the beginning of the race and the trip to victory lane, there’s sometimes some cool moments that when you sit back and reflect on, you call them a ‘blast’.
On Friday night at Texas Motor Speedway, Matt Crafton had one of those moments.
He looked to be off to an easy victory, over eight seconds ahead of second, when the caution flew with 20 laps to go for Timothy Peters blowing up. The No. 88 Menards ThorSport Racing pit crew got Crafton off of pit road first, giving him the best spot to restart from. He then battled with Daniel Suarez on the restart for four laps, before clearing him, once again looking to set sail. However, it wouldn’t be over there with another caution flying with seven to go for a flat tire for Daniel Hemric.
Crafton would get a good restart, taking the advantage off of turn four heading to the white flag to lead the rest of the way for the win.
Reflecting on the race in the media center post-race, Crafton said he had a blast racing with Suarez at the end of the race. He added that they were more even on the first restart than the second restart as a result of the tires being newer.
“They were fresh on that run when we took off and you can run along the bottom at that point,” he explained. “I knew if I didn’t get him cleared at that point, I was going to have to really work on him and we were side-by-side – it felt like 10 laps, but I knew it wasn’t that long. He almost had me clear a couple times and if he had me cleared, I felt he may have won the race.
“The last restart, we had a little bit more wear on the  tires and definitely couldn’t get into the throttle quite as hard there. I wasn’t really happy with restarts on my end; definitely need to work on that a little for sure.”
It looked as though the pair made contact at one point over the course of the battle, in which Crafton says no harm, no foul on the deal, calling it a lot of fun.
“That was just good side-by-side racing going in turn one,” he commented. “I was just trying to go down to get a little bit of air off of his side and stall him a little bit, and I think he was trying to go up the track a bit to get a better entry into the corner and we kind of bounced off each other.”
He attributes the solid racing that they had to the type of racing the layout of Texas Motor Speedway and tire combination allows.
“At the beginning of a run, you could run 5-10 laps around the white line and then the groove would slowly move up, migrate,” he commented. “We were literally running from the center up in turns three and four, and that’s a blast. You have no idea as a racecar driver how much fun that is to run at the bottom and 40 laps into a run, you’re right up against the fence, running the lap times that you do. You have to really work the throttle and drive the thing.”
For Crafton, the victory on Saturday night marked the eighth victory of his career, and the third victory of the season. He offered total credit to his ThorSport Racing team, saying that “it’s all about these guys bringing awesome Tundras to the track each week. I’m the lucky guy that gets to drive them”. He credited team owners Duke and Rhonda Thorson for giving him and crew chief Carl Joiner Jr. “every tool and part” that they need to get better.
“Since 2001, Duke has told me ‘you stick with me through this and we’re going to build it slowly each and every year’,” he added. “That’s what made it so sweet to get the wins and the championships for Duke and Rhonda because like we said, we’ve had to work so hard at it. He hasn’t just went in and went gung ho and been gone; he’s been in it for the long haul.”
Over the past two years, Crafton has won the championship, but only had one win in 2013 and two wins in 2014. With his third win in the first seven races this year, it’s a big accomplishment for the No. 88 Menards team.
“That’s one of the goals that we set out to have – lead more laps and score more wins than the previous two,” Joiner Jr. Â said. “So I’m really proud of our guys back in Sandusky, Ohio – our little island up there. We’re just building good trucks and Matt is on his game and we’re all jelling really good. Duke and Rhonda Thorson give us the money that we need. All the parts are just working. I can’t thank everybody enough.”
The victory also allowed Crafton to take home the second cowboy hat of his career, but he admits that getting his first Texas win last year and the first cowboy was a touch sweeter. However, both years, there has been one crucial thing missing from victory lane.
“I harped on (track promoter) Eddie (Gossage) really bad during media day about getting me the six shooters and pretty disappointed in Eddie for not getting me the guns,” he commented. “I called him out in victory lane, for sure.”
