Current Camping World Truck Series points leader, Matt Crafton, will make his Nationwide Series debut Friday at Kentucky Motor Speedway in the Feed The Children 300. He will be driving the No. 33 Menards Chevy for Richard Childress Racing. These are familiar colors for Crafton, as he drives a Menards sponsored Chevy for ThorSport racing in the truck series. Crafton has been affiliated with Menards since 2002.
Crafton is a series veteran with 302 career starts, fifteen of those coming at Kentucky. He has three wins, 61 top-5’s, and 164 top 10’s, including a tenth place finish in Thursday night’s UNOH 225 at the speedway. He currently has a 22 points lead in the standings over series rookie, Jeb Burton. He has, however, never started a race in the NASCAR Nationwide Series or Sprint Cup Series.
His debut race is off to an impressive start pacing first practice with a fast lap of 172.750 mph and a time of 31.259 secs. His lap was almost a full mph over second fastest, series regular, Sam Hornish, who had a lap of 171.854 mph.
Rounding out the top five in first practice were, Cole Whitt, Brad Keselowski, and points leader Regan Smith. Crafton’s RCR teammates, Austin Dillon and Brian Scott were ninth and tenth respectively.
Success continued for Crafton on Friday morning in “happy hour” practice, ending the session in second place with a lap of 175.867 mph. The lap was just shy of Travis Pastrana, who was fastest with a lap of 175.970 mph. Rookie Alex Bowman, Austin Dillon, and Brad Keselowski completed the top five.
Crafton’s long term sponsor Menards was instrumental in putting the deal together. When asked about the opportunity to drive for RCR, Crafton said, “I have been looking forward to the opportunity to drive in the series with great equipment for a long time.” He also pointed out that he will be back in the car at the second Kentucky race and at Chicago.
The Feed The Children 300 will take the green Friday night at 7:30pm local time.
