Toyota NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (NCWTS) Post-Race Notes & Quotes
Charlotte Motor Speedway
Race 6 of 24 – 201 miles, 134 laps
Saturday, May 21, 2016
TOYOTA NCWTS DRIVER FINISHING POSITIONS at Charlotte Motor Speedway
1st, MATT CRAFTON
2nd, KYLE BUSCH
5th, MATT TIFFT
7th, TIMOTHY PETERS
8th, CHRISTOPHER BELL
10th, WILLIAM BYRON
15th, CAMERON HAYLEY
17th, BEN RHODES
20th, RICO ABREU
21st, AUSTIN SELF
22nd, RYAN TRUEX
23rd, DANIEL SUAREZ
TOYOTA DRIVER NCWTS POINT STANDINGS following Charlotte Motor Speedway (race 6 of 24)*
1st, MATT CRAFTON 161 points
2nd, TIMOTHY PETERS 149 points
5th, WILLIAM BYRON 135 points
6th, RYAN TRUEX 129 points
9th, CHRISTOPHER BELL 124 points
12th, CAMERON HAYLEY 113 points
16th, BEN RHODES 98 points
18th, RICO ABREU 85 points
20th, AUSTIN SELF 70 points
*unofficial point standings
TOYOTA NOTES
· Toyota driver Matt Crafton drove his Tundra to victory lane in Saturday afternoon’s rain-postponed NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (NCWTS) race at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
· This is Crafton’s second win of the year and the first time the two-time series champion has won back-to-back races.
· Crafton led a race-high 47 laps (of 134) en route to the sixth consecutive national series NASCAR win for Toyota – dating back to the NCWTS win by William Byron at Kansas.
· Tundra driver Matt Tifft (fifth) earned his first career top-five finish.
· Kyle Busch (second), Timothy Peters (seventh), Christopher Bell (eighth) and Byron (10th) also claimed top-10 finishes for Toyota at the mile-and-a-half oval.
TOYOTA QUOTES
MATT CRAFTON, No. 88 Damp Rid/Menards Toyota Tundra, ThorSport Racing
Finishing Position: 1st
Were you surprised with how strong your truck was in the last half of the race?
“The crazy part about it, we didn’t make a whole lot of changes. They made all the changes last night – two nights ago Junior (Carl Joyner, crew chief) and I went to dinner and sat until 11:00 and thought of a ton of things. We had a list of about 20 or so things and I think he changed 15 or more things. We got about halfway through the changes yesterday that he was telling me that he did and I was like, ‘I’m good, I don’t need to know anything else you did to it.’ We were honestly, I knew we were off at Dover in practice, but this was the worst we’ve been in a long time during practice and they wholesaled this thing and from lap one on I knew it was game time. The first one I slid through the box and just had a goofy pit box there and had another one, but this Menards Toyota Tundra was right there at the end.”
What does it mean to have beat Kyle Busch today?
“It was definitely very, very good to be able to beat him. He’s won a lot of races here and anybody who can beat Kyle Busch in one of these Truck races, you’re doing something. And I definitely know that we beat him today.”
What adjustments did you make on the truck during the race?
“It was a lot of air pressure adjustments honestly. It was amazing – lap one I drove it down into three and four and I thought, ‘Ooh, I think we have something here boys.’ It felt really good, unless it goes away really fast. It just kept going and it kept going and I’m like, ‘My goodness, this thing is good.’ Then we ran that long run and we came in and I slid through the pit box and I had to go all the way back I think to 19th again and drove back through them again and this Menards Toyota Tundra was unbelievable on short run and long run.”
Where was your truck the strongest?
“Just everywhere, it would go really anywhere it wanted to and that’s why I love racing in the day. If it was a night race, we wouldn’t have to lift near as much and we were coming completely out of the throttle and the drivers, we had to work a whole lot harder in the seats than what we do if it’s a night race. I think that separates some of us whenever we come to these places and you have to slip and slide a little bit more.”
Did you know how good your Tundra was on lap one?
“I literally did – I was like, wow. This thing went through one and two, well the first original start everybody got jumbled up and went through one and two and then three and four and I’m like, ‘This thing feels really good right here.’ Then we fell back to the 20s at that point and we started driving back through them and I was like, ‘Oh my goodness these boys are in trouble today.”
Did you know this is the first time you’ve won races back-to-back?
“No, actually I did know that because somebody just brought that to my attention last week and said can you do it. Last year we came really close, we went to Atlanta and then we were second at Martinsville and got beat on a green-white-checkered and it feels very good to have a back-to-back.”
Were you frustrated with some young drivers early in the race?
“Does that mean you were listening to that? Sorry. I was a little animated. The problem is that it was early in the race and we were racing and I had some huge runs on people and I go to pass and literally there were two different times down the back straightaway they drove me from the top of the wall all the way underneath the white line down the backstretch and I’m like, ‘We’re 20 laps into this race.’ At some point you have to just man up and say that you’re going to get passed right now and just go on and maybe race back. At the same time, that’s what ticks me off so bad about it whenever they turn left and drive you down to the white line. I don’t know what’s going to fix the problem, I know what would fix the problem, but I don’t really want to do it at a mile-and-a-half race track.”
Do you feel comfortable that you will be locked in this year’s Chase?
“Yeah, I would definitely say that I feel comfortable there. I didn’t completely feel 100 percent comfortable when we only had the one because I truly believe there can be nine or 10 different winners in the Camping World Truck Series. The depth of the competition is unreal right now. It’s very, very good and there’s a lot of young talent and a lot of really good trucks. It should be interesting the next few races.”
KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 SiriusXM Toyota Tundra, Kyle Busch Motorsports
Finishing Position: 2nd
What happened to the truck in traffic?
“I don’t know, something happened when we got back in traffic and I got super, super tight like it was laying on the splitter or something. I don’t know if something came out of place on the frontend or what. Just proud of the effort – this is a fourth team deal and it’s not an A-plus deal. We have some work to do on this one to get it a lot better for where we need to be. Thanks to SiriusXM Satellite Radio and Toyota and all the guys at KBM (Kyle Busch Motorsports) that built this thing. It’s one of our newer pieces. It was okay, but once I think we had a part failure it wasn’t very good at all so we have to go back and do our homework.”
MATT TIFFT, No. 11 NASCAR Heat Evolution Toyota Tundra, Red Horse Racing
Finishing Position: 5th
How was your Tundra today?
“We really struggled all day. We have a little bit of damage on the first lap, but we were just way too tight all day. When you have those situations and you’re in the back like that, you have to play the strategy piece. Scott Zipadelli (crew chief) did an awesome job with that, obviously bringing home my first top-five in the Truck Series. We weren’t going to come down and I said, screw it, let’s come down and let’s get some fuel. It really worked to our favor there and sometimes when you’re in the back like that you have choices you can make. Really cool having NASCAR Heat Evolution on the truck, it’s awesome what they’re doing for the sport with video games. Red Horse Racing has worked hard this whole year and the funny thing is that we’ve had really, really fast trucks and we didn’t get the finishes we wanted. Today may be the opposite, but we’ll take top-fives as they come.”
TIMOTHY PETERS, No. 17 Red Horse Racing Toyota Tundra, Red Horse Racing
Finishing Position: 7th
CHRISTOPHER BELL, No. 4 Toyota Tundra, Kyle Busch Motorsports
Finishing Position: 8th
WILLIAM BYRON, No. 9 Liberty University Toyota Tundra, Kyle Busch Motorsports
Finishing Position: 10th
How was the race today?
“We started first and we were able to get a pretty good lead there early in the race. We just had a couple strategy things work out the way they did and restarts weren’t my strong suit, starting on the bottom. I’m just going to have to look back at those and see what I can do when I’m starting fifth or so like that. The track was really slick, which made it fun and fun to pass – you were able to move around, but at the same time it was harder to pass because you were sliding around so much. Now we’ll move on to Texas.”
CAMERON HAYLEY, No. 13 Cabinets by Hayley Toyota Tundra, ThorSport Racing
Finishing Position: 15th
BEN RHODES, No. 41 USA Cars Toyota Tundra, ThorSport Racing
Finishing Position: 17th
RICO ABREU, No. 98 Safelite Auto Glass/Curb Records Toyota Tundra, ThorSport Racing
Finishing Position: 20th
What happened on the final green flag pit stop?
“I felt like I really let my guys down on that last green flag stop. I was so focused on not sliding my tires with 25 (laps) to go and then stopped too late in our box and my nose was out. We’ll just move on to Texas.”
AUSTIN SELF, No. 22 AM Technical Solutions Toyota Tundra
Finishing Position: 21st
RYAN TRUEX, No. 81 Seawatch Toyota Tundra, Hattori Racing Enterprises
Finishing Position: 22nd
DANIEL SUAREZ, No. 51 ARRIS Toyota Tundra, Kyle Busch Motorsports
Finishing Position: 23rd
How was the truck in today’s race?
“We maybe didn’t have the same power as the other guys, but we had good enough balance to try to move forward with the good, balanced truck that we had. That’s exactly what we were doing. We made it to second place in a truck with less power and a strong balance in the truck and we felt like we needed to gamble. We ran a little short – well, four laps isn’t a little, but it’s what we are here for. We’re here to win races and to try to go for it. That’s what my crew chief wanted to do. I’m proud of it, I’m not disappointed. We just have to keep working. We have the speed and we have the combo to try to make it happen, we just have to keep digging.”
