- Tundra driver Matt Crafton was victorious in Saturday’s NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (NCWTS) race at Virginia’s Martinsville Speedway.
- Crafton started from the 13th position and led the final 63 laps (of 200) at the half-mile speedway to capture his fifth checkered flag of the 2015 season and second at the historic short track.
- In addition to Crafton’s win, Tundra drivers Cameron Hayley (third), Timothy Peters (sixth), Johnny Sauter (ninth) and Erik Jones (10th) tallied top-10 results in Virginia.
- For Jones, the 10th-place result allows him to continue leading the NCWTS points by 10 over second-place Crafton.
- In addition to Jones’ 10-point lead in the NCWTS standings, Tundra drivers Crafton (second), Sauter (fourth), Peters (fifth), Hayley (sixth) and Kennedy (ninth) also rank in the top-10 in the point standings after 20 of the 23 events in 2015.
MATT CRAFTON, No. 88 Menards Toyota Tundra, ThorSport Racing
Finishing Position: 1st
How were you able to get such a good restart at the end of the race?
“I don’t know if he (John Hunter Nemechek) hit the curb or he got loose under me, I just know I had a really good restart there and I don’t know if he just overdrove that corner a little bit getting into three. He ran into me a little bit and we had a little bit of a bad past from earlier this year, but all in all this thing was really good on long runs. The second to the last run it got really tight and me and Junior (Carl Joiner, crew chief) talked about it on the radio and we made a little change right there and it was game on right there at the end.”
What makes you so good at Martinsville?
“I can’t give away all my secrets, racing here quite a few times and just paying attention and a lot of things. These guys just keep working on these things and we had great horsepower all day today. Triad is really working and we beat them up a lot on getting these restarts and getting this thing off the bottom of the corner and it had a lot of that. It’s all about these guys behind me.”
How do you feel about cutting down the points lead that Erik Jones had entering this race?
“We’ve got a long ways to go.”
How big is this victory with three races remaining?
“It’s very big, if you look at the last few races – Talladega, Las Vegas and we’ve led the most laps in all those. I have no idea what we led today, but we led enough and we led the right one. We’ve had very fast trucks and it’s all about what Junior (Carl Joiner, crew chief) and every one of these guys have been building and bringing to the race track. Finally, we have to finish off what we started for the last two weeks and I felt that we should have won the last two. Talladega, you never know because it’s a crap shoot at the end, but we had a very fast truck. I just tried to manage my stuff all race and just keep my nose clean and be there at the end and just not make any mistakes and the second to last run, I got a little tight and he just worked his magic and away it went.”
Did the SAFER barrier change how narrow the track felt on restarts?
“I honestly didn’t even know they added the SAFER barriers until I was reading it online today. You just go out there and you run your laps. It really made no difference, I guess it’s just three foot narrower, but I had no idea.”
Are you looking forward to Texas next weekend being back in the championship hunt?
“I’m looking forward to it, I’m looking forward to the next three and they’re very, very good race tracks for us and we won the spring race there this year and we won there last year as well. We’re bringing back the same truck. I’m looking forward to them and if the cards fall and we have good luck, maybe we’ll have something for them at Homestead. If it’s meant to be, it will be and if not, we’ll go onto next year.”
When will you start to look at the points?
“I’ll look at it at Homestead and see where we need to finish there. I don’t care and if we go out and execute and do the same thing we did today and the same thing we’ve done the last two races and have luck on our side and not have any problems like we did at Talladega and not have any problems like we did at Las Vegas, we can win the championship. That’s God willing and everything goes our way, but if not then we’ll come back next year and fight strong.”
What does it mean to have this success after struggling to win early in your career?
“It’s awesome, I just have to thank Duke and Rhonda Thorson (team owners) and Menards for sticking with me through all those winless years that we had and finally we started getting some wins here and there and then at the end of the day we added this guy over here (Carl Joiner, crew chief) and at that point it was game on and he’s made a huge difference in this whole program and Duke and Rhonda give us every piece to the puzzle that we need to win races. We just have to go out and execute at that point.”
How much do you points race now with two championships?
“After Junior (Carl Joiner, crew chief) and I and the team won the first championship, I wanted that first championship so bad and I’m not going to lie, I points raced a lot. You always saw me around the top-five and I didn’t win enough races as I said and then after we won that first championship, we made a promise to each other than winter that we weren’t going to point’s race anymore. We got that one championship, we’re just going to go into each season and see how many races we can win and see how many laps we can lead and when we get to Homestead, we’ll see where it’s at. I always say that each and every week we’re going to see where we’re at when we get to Homestead, but that’s our motto and we made that pact to each other two years ago and we’re living and dying by it now.”
Is this considered a good season even without a championship?
“Oh yeah, absolutely you consider it a great season. You win five races and if you don’t win the championship then it wasn’t mean to be. We’ve done our job for the most part and I’ve made mistakes, the team has a whole has made mistakes and we win as a team and we lose as a team. We don’t point fingers and we have three more to go and see if we can get three more and see where it comes down at Homestead.”
CAMERON HAYLEY, No. 13 Cabinets by Hayley Toyota Tundra, ThorSport Racing
Finishing Position: 3rd
Are you pleased with the result from today’s race?
“We ran top-three all day. Our lowest position was third – a really good run for our Carolina Nut Tundra, I couldn’t be happier with the guys. All weekend long, the worst we did was third in practice. I couldn’t be happier. The racing got really rough out there. John Hunter (Nemechek) has it coming to him later in Phoenix. There is no reason why you should just drive into someone that hard, but I guess its short track racing and just a great run for us.”
TIMOTHY PETERS, No. 17 Autos by Nelson Toyota Tundra, Red Horse Racing
Finishing Position: 6th
JOHNNY SAUTER, No. 98 Smokey Mountain Herbal Snuff Toyota Tundra, ThorSport Racing
Finishing Position: 9th
ERIK JONES, No. 4 Toyota Tundra, Kyle Busch Motorsports
Finishing Position: 10th
How disappointing was the race for you today?
“It’s disappointing for sure. This team is capable of a lot more than that. Our Tundra I thought was a lot better than that in practice, but just a fight all day and we missed it a little bit as an organization. I think it showed, we were just off most of the day for the three trucks. We’ll work on it and get it better – Texas is a strong one for us, we were strong there in the spring and Phoenix we’ve always been good and Homestead we’ll be fine at as well. Looking forward to it.”
What did you struggle with on the race truck?
“Just not a great race truck all together. I thought our Tundra was pretty good in practice, but as the day went on and we kind of got into it, it just started to show that we weren’t where we thought we were and we just weren’t able to really rebound from that and make the right adjustments to make it back to where we needed to be during the day. Pitting there at the end, I thought that would be the right call to take four (tires), but obviously it didn’t work out. We just got back farther in traffic with all the cautions and things just didn’t work out for us.”
Is it a helpless feeling when trucks are blocked in front of you with nowhere to go?
“There is, you just hope you make it through it in some sort of way whether it be at the top or the bottom. I thought the top was going to be the way to go and unfortunately that didn’t work out for us. Just wasn’t really our day all together, but it’s a shame we gave away the cushion we had in the points, but we are still up by 10. We’ll take it and move on to the next one.”
Do you feel confident going into the final three races for the championship?
“I do, I think this was the one where I was worried that this day would happen and it did. I didn’t want it to happen, but I kind of saw it coming. Texas I feel like is definitely a stronger point for us as well as Phoenix and Homestead. We’ll go into those two with just as much enthusiasm as we have had all year and try to get us three more wins.”
BEN KENNEDY, No. 11 Local Motors Toyota Tundra, Red Horse Racing
Finishing Position: 14th
DANIEL SUAREZ, No. 51 ARRIS Toyota Tundra, Kyle Busch Motorsports
Finishing Position: 16th
GRAY GAULDING, No. 54 Krispy Kreme Toyota Tundra, Kyle Busch Motorsports
Finishing Position: 21st
