CRAFTON LEADS TOYOTA AT ST. LOUIS
Crafton, Rhodes and Friesen start Playoff push with top-five finishes
ST. LOUIS (August 20, 2021) – Matt Crafton (second), Ben Rhodes (third), Stewart Friesen (fourth) and Johnny Sauter (fifth) led Toyota with top-five finishes in the Toyota 200 at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway on Friday evening.
Toyota Racing Post-Race Recap
NASCAR Camping World Truck Series
World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway
Race 16 of 23 – 160 Laps, 200 Miles
TOYOTA FINISHING POSITIONS
1st, Sheldon Creed*
2nd, MATT CRAFTON
3rd, BEN RHODES
4th, STEWART FRIESEN
5th, JOHNNY SAUTER
20th, DEREK KRAUS
21st, ARMANI WILLIAMS
22nd, JOHN HUNTER NEMECHEK
23rd, AUSTIN HILL
26th, DEREK GRIFFITH
27th, CHRIS HACKER
28th, CHANDLER SMITH
31st, CHRISTIAN ECKES
33rd, TY MAJESKI
36th, DANNY BOHN
*non-Toyota driver
TOYOTA QUOTES
MATT CRAFTON, No. 88 Ideal Door/Menards Toyota Tundra, ThorSport Racing
Finishing Position: 2nd
Wasn’t the win you wanted, but it was still a good finish. How was your race?
“Yeah, it was a great points night, all-in-all. They knew we were here. We drove from 10th to get to second. We just needed a little bit more to catch the 2 (Sheldon Creed). The 2 was really, really good, but can’t thank these guys for working as hard as they did lately. They’ve been working their butts off. We went through and threw all the notebooks away from ’20, ’19, ’18. We went back to the old school stuff. I guess it still works here.”
BEN RHODES, No. 99 Bombardier Toyota Toyota Tundra, ThorSport Racing
Finishing Position: 3rd
Solid top-five finish. How was your finish?
“We have a few issues going on with our truck in the front end, but we know what we were fighting. We will go back home and make it better, but overall, I’m happy with my Bombardier Tundra. It was fast from the get-go. They made good improvements on it, so that I could hang with them at the end of the race. I have to say Matt Crafton was driving me hard. That was the hardest I’ve driven in a while. I had my tongue hanging out for like the last 100 laps.”
STEWART FRIESEN, No. 52 Halmar International Toyota Tundra, Halmar Friesen Racing
Finishing Position: 4th
Are you happy with this finish overall?
“Yeah, absolutely. Good start for us in the Playoffs. I knew we would be good but I just got a little tight there in the last run. We got up there quick in the first stage and then kind of just leveled out in third or fourth. I wish I would have gotten a better restart at the start of that last stage. I’m proud of my guys. Thanks to everyone at Halmar, Chris Larsen. Great owner and great friend. Proud of everything we’ve done here over the last two years, and we are going to keep it rolling and try to get a win here.”
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