SPARTA, Ky. — An eight-place finish by Matt Crafton and 15th by Cody Coughlin salvaged what almost turned into a rotten night for ThorSport Racing after three-quarters of their stable, including Crafton, were involved in a multi-truck wreck early in the second stage of the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Buckle Up In Your Truck 225 at Kentucky Speedway.
Entering Turn 3 on the lap 42 restart, first stage winner Ben Rhodes was running below the No. 45 of TJ Bell when he got loose and spun out. He did roughly a 135° spin before hitting Bell with his left-rear corner, sending him up the track and into the path of Crafton, who made slight contact with the wall.
After Rhodes made contact with Bell, his truck did another half spin before pounding the wall right-rear first. Teammate Grant Enfinger, who made the choice to go high to avoid the spinning Rhodes when he was still on the bottom, slammed into his rear-end.
“I was underneath the 4 (Christopher Bell) trying to make a move. Then I saw him start to come down on me so I started backing out, and as we were going down to the groove we just all ran out of room,” Rhodes said. “I was trying to give everybody as much room as I could. Just unfortunate. I know all the restarts everybody was going as hard as they can. They were four-wide in front of me, so I was trying to do what I could with what I had. Just unfortunate we couldn’t come out a little bit better for our Safelite team. We had a lot of people here tonight to watch the race. Sorry I let them down. Just a big mistake on my part. Miscalculated it, and just need to re-evaluate our situation this year and try to get us in the playoffs.”
Crafton leaves Kentucky fourth in points, 89 back of Johnny Sauter, with Rhodes and Enfinger tailing him in fifth and sixth. Coughlin leaves 13th in points.
