- Matt Crafton drove his Tundra to victory lane in Friday night’s NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (NCWTS) race at Texas Motor Speedway.
- This is the 14th NCWTS victory for Toyota at Texas and extends the streak for most wins by Toyota drivers at any NASCAR track. Tundra drivers now have 133 wins since 2004.
- Crafton led the most laps — 77 laps (of 167) to win his third race of the 2015 season (also won Atlanta and Kansas).
- Toyota driver Daniel Suarez finished runner-up for the second consecutive week.
- Tundra drivers Johnny Sauter (fourth), Cameron Hayley (seventh), Justin Boston (eighth) and Ben Kennedy (10th) also finished in the top-10 at the 1.5-mile race track.
- Erik Jones (15th) started from the pole position and led 68 laps.
- Crafton leads the unofficial NCWTS standings over second-place Tyler Reddick by 25 points. Tundra drivers Jones (third), Sauter (fourth), Hayley (sixth), Timothy Peters (ninth) and Boston (10th) are also in the top-10 in the point standings after seven of the 23 events in 2015.
MATT CRAFTON, No. 88 Ideal Door/Menards Toyota Tundra, ThorSport Racing
Finishing Position: 1st
How were you able to hang on for the victory at Texas?
“Those restarts were hairy. Spun the tires so bad on the restart before that. I have to thank Johnny Sauter, my teammate, he gave me a good push on the second to last restart and we finally got a pretty good restart on that last one. Man, it’s like you’re running side-by-side-by-side, but these guys never game up working on this Menards Toyota Tundra and it’s all about these guys building me good trucks.”
Are you pleased to earn your third victory of the season?
“We’re happy for sure – we’re definitely not satisfied. We’ll be satisfied when we get to Homestead and we see where we are there. I can’t thank these guys enough. This Menards Toyota Tundra was very, very good. We were a little off and that second to last run we got really loose for whatever reason and Junior (crew chief) made a couple adjustments on that pit stop and tuned it right up for me again.”
DANIEL SUAREZ, No. 51 ARRIS Toyota Tundra, Kyle Busch Motorsports
Finishing Position: 2nd
Could you have done anything different on the restart?
“I don’t know. I need to talk with Kyle (Busch, owner) to get some advice to race hard. I felt like we had a really fast Toyota Tundra ARRIS truck. I felt we were a little loose on the bottom. It was fine to race side-by-side for a few laps with new tires but with old tires it was either to wreck or to try it and I was close a couple times and I didn’t want to wreck and throw away a good second-place. I’m happy, but I feel like we’re getting closer and closer – we’ll get one soon.”
JOHNNY SAUTER, No. 98 Nextant/Curb Records Toyota Tundra, ThorSport Racing
Finishing Position: 4th
CAMERON HAYLEY, No. 13 Cabinets by Hayley Toyota Tundra, ThorSport Racing
Finishing Position: 7th
JUSTIN BOSTON, No. 54 ROKMobile.com Toyota Tundra, Kyle Busch Motorsports
Finishing Position: 8th
How was your race?
“I’m happy we finished in the top-10 – good rebound from last week and the wreck at Dover. It feels good to be in the top-10 but I feel like we still have work to do. We want to go and contend. We had speed, we just didn’t have the speed to get up there and contend with those guys once we were in the pack. We were kind of marred back there all race. We just have to do a better job qualifying and starting up front because that’s really key. Once you get up there it’s a totally different ball game. Our ROK Mobile Tundra was good, but we need to be better – we’re not happy with eighth.”
BEN KENNEDY, No. 11 Local Motors Toyota Tundra, Red Horse Racing
Finishing Position: 10th
ERIK JONES, No. 4 Special Olympics World Games Toyota Tundra, Kyle Busch Motorsports
Finishing Position: 15th
TIMOTHY PETERS, No. 17 Red Horse Racing Toyota Tundra, Red Horse Racing
Finishing Position: 21st
