If you look at Matt Crafton’s season so far, you could say that he has had a great season to date. After all, he has finished in the top 10 each week with a win at Kansas and currently leads the points, 39 points ahead of second.
“Our season has been really good so far,” the driver of the No. 88 Menards Toyota Tundra said. “Can’t ask for a whole lot more except for a few more wins.”
One of the things that has benefited Crafton this year is his experience with this being his 14th year in the truck series, but also the fact that he’s avoided finding himself in the middle of feuds with other drivers. Except for a small argument with Joey Coulter in the late laps of the UNOH 200 at Bristol Motor Speedway, Crafton has avoided trouble and been solid.
With experience comes learning to be “respectful” while racing hard and rubbing fenders at the same time.
“There’s a difference between going up there and wrecking somebody – that’s disrespectful racing,” Crafton said. “There’s going to times when you have to lean on someone – they say rubbing is racing, that’s what they call it – but at the same time, you just have to be a little respectful and not run through somebody to get the position.”
This weekend, though, offers a different challenge as not only will Crafton be turning left, but he will be turning right as the Camping World Truck Series tackles Canadian Tire Motorsports Park (CTMP) this weekend. Crafton says the key to the weekend – survival.
“That’s all its about,” he said. “Definitely you want to be fast, but at the same time, you want to keep all four tires on the black stuff. If you stay on the road and you’re there at the end, you’ll contend for the win or a top five without a doubt.”
Crafton is one of a few drivers that has some laps already around CTMP as he had the opportunity to run some laps behind the wheel of a NASCAR Canadian Tire Series car.
“It was a lot help,” Crafton said. “I’m glad that I had the opportunity to do that. it was really big. I think that’s going to help me get up to speed without a doubt. We have a lot of practice, but at the same time, you never know if they’ll be any rain or any weather. At the same time, to have the help that I got in doing that, that was a big deal.”
In the laps that he got to run, Crafton says the turn two and four will probably be the most challenging because they’re both “blind drop off” corners.
The road course race this weekend at CTMP is just one of the challenges that the truck drivers have had to face in the diversity of their schedule that has included intermediate tracks, restrictor plate tracks, short tracks and even dirt racing at Eldora.
“It’s awesome,” Crafton said. “I wish we would’ve been road racing a long time ago. It’s just disappointing that they took it off the schedule and it took so long to get it back on. I’m definitely glad the road course racing is back.
“The dirt race – I wasn’t so sure about, but that was a great, great racing. I had a lot of fun in that race.
“I think it’s very cool schedule we have this year.”
If Crafton can survive this weekend and the rest of the season, he could be well on the way to his first Camping World Truck Series Championship, one that a lot of people are saying will mean a lot simply due to the challenges the drivers are facing this year.
