Crafton opens NCWTS title defense with low-key Daytona
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (Feb. 21, 2014) — Matt Crafton opened the defense of his NASCAR Camping World Truck Series drivers’ championship with a low-key 13th-place run Friday night in his No. 88 Fisher Nuts / Menards Toyota Tundra in the NextEra Energy Resources 250 at Daytona International Speedway.
Crafton started the weekend strong as he spent time atop the time sheets during the event’s three practice sessions and ended up in the top five in all of them.
When the Truck Series’ inaugural elimination-style group qualifying session was rained out earlier Friday, Crafton earned the fourth starting position based on his practice speeds.
However, that was the best his familiar bright yellow Tundra would show all night — though he did get back to fifth with just 10 laps to go during a wild, 11-lap run to the finish after the fourth and final caution period in the 100-lap race.
“I hesitated as those other guys made a move and I thought I should’ve stayed outside, but I never thought the 17 (Timothy Peters) would make the run that he did,” Crafton said on pit road after the race. “So that was 100 percent my fault. I guess I should have tried to jump up in front of him and see what I could do.
“But like I said, I take that one on the chin because I should’ve known enough to jump up and try it, but it was a shame, because I just didn’t do it.”
Much as the 2013 opener had been, Friday night’s race turned into a struggle to maintain track position and, unlike a year ago when ThorSport teammate Todd Bodine hooked-up with Crafton in the last run and pushed him to ninth in a tandem draft, this time around that wasn’t allowed.
And Bodine, at any rate, was a member of the FOX Sports 1 TV crew downstairs in the “Hollywood Hotel.” Crafton certainly could’ve used some tandem help when he fell back as far as 32nd with 40 laps to go.
“It was a real adjustment because you could bump, but you couldn’t lock (bumpers) and push at all,”: Crafton said of NASCAR’s latest mandate banning tandem drafting in which one truck locks its bumper to a partner and literally pushes the second truck around the racetrack at a much higher speed than either vehicle could attain on its own. “It is what it is and you definitely didn’t want to hit your team truck too hard and wreck him, so you were limited in what you could do.”
All bets seemed off when the fourth and final restart flag waved on the 90th lap.
“No, no, no,” Crafton said when asked if he ever thought there wouldn’t be a caution in the race’s final laps, where plenty of paint was traded as about 15-20 trucks raced side-by-side for the last 11 laps. “There was no way — never in my wildest dreams — did I think we’d pull that off (laughing).
“I thought there would be a yellow, for sure and once we got the white (flag) I figured we were gonna finish the race upside-down and on fire. But I never thought we’d get to the finish line, the way everyone was beating and banging and just sliding all over the place.”
Because several of the drivers that finished in front of Crafton, including race winner Kyle Busch and fourth place Ryan Truex aren’t registered to earn Truck Series points, Crafton will go to Martinsville (Va.) Speedway in five weeks 10th in the championship, 12 points behind race runner-up Peters and 10 behind teammate Johnny Sauter, the defending race winner who finished third.
A year ago at Martinsville. Crafton finished runner-up to Sauter, which gave ThorSport its third one-two finish in its 18-year history, all of them by Sauter and Crafton and all of them in identical order.
“All-in-all this wasn’t a bad way to start the season,” Crafton said. “To be sitting here on pit road with three (ThorSport) Tundras sitting in one piece gives us a starting point and we’ve definitely got some good racetracks coming up.”
ABOUT MENARDS:
With 287 stores in 14 Midwestern states, Menards has the tools, materials and supplies for all your home improvement needs whether just needing a light bulb or can of paint to building a deck or new home. Menards is known throughout the home improvement industry as the low price leader; it’s no wonder their famous slogan – “SAVE BIG MONEY” – is so widely known and easy to remember. Menards does things right – the company’s strength and success can be seen in the well-stocked and maintained stores, the lowest prices in town and the way guests are always treated like family in a hometown hardware store atmosphere.
ABOUT FISHER® NUTS:
Fisher® Nuts is a brand owned by John B. Sanfilippo & Son, Inc. (NASDAQ: JBSS), a company founded in 1922 that’s a leading processor, marketer and distributor of baking nuts, snack nuts and nut-based products that are sold in multiple distribution channels. Its products can be found under the Fisher®, Orchard Valley Harvest™ and Sunshine Country® brand names and a variety of private labels.
ABOUT THORSPORT RACING:
ThorSport Racing, based in a state-of-the-art 100,000-square-foot facility in Sandusky, Ohio, is the longest-tenured NASCAR Camping World Truck Series team. ThorSport, which has run in the Truck Series since 1996, in 2014 will run the No. 88 Menards Toyota Tundra driven by 2013 drivers’ champion Matt Crafton, the No. 98 Nextant Aerospace/Smokey Mountain Herbal Snuff/Carolina Nut Co./Curb Records Toyota Tundra driven by Johnny Sauter and the No. 13 VAMP/VaporBrands International, Inc. Toyota Tundra driven by Jeb Burton in the Truck Series and the No. 13 Smokey Mountain Herbal Snuff Toyota Camry driven by Burton in the ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards.
Scott Dixon looks for second straight championship this coming season
When it came to IndyCar Media Day earlier this month, the question that Scott Dixon got asked was a simple – could he win his fourth IndyCar title this season? His answer was simple – “Beat everybody else.”
Last year, Dixon had a great season as he had four wins and six podium finishes on the way to winning the championship. To date in his career spanning 11 years, Dixon has 32 wins and 74 podiums to go with the three championships.
“I love my job. I love racing. I think that’s what matters to me. If you can build on those, that’s fantastic,” Dixon said of his career statistics to date. “I’m not a huge sort of stats guy. I think it’s something you can reflect on when you do leave the sport.
“It’s important to me. It’s important to win. It’s important to win championships and Indy 500s, fly the flag obviously for the team. But it’s not something that I wake up thinking about.”
Dixon didn’t start off the season strong last year, only scoring one podium in the first 10 races. However, when it came to the second half of the season, that’s when business picked up.
“I think the comeback for us as a team was huge,” he commented. “The three in a row with Pocono and Toronto was the start of the swing. The strength that the team had throughout the remainder of the season, with the exception of some of the big ovals where we didn’t have the speed. All the road and street courses, we were qualifying in the top three or four every race. For me, I think that was one of the biggest achievements was to keep strong.”
Dixon will be looking for the same success and is returning with the same group of people on his team in hopes to do that.
“Personally and for the team, the thing on the 9 car side we need to do a little bit better is start the season off a little bit stronger. Looking for strong results straightaway in St. Pete,” Dixon commented. “Long Beach has been definitely not a great track for results for us in recent history.
“I think if we can start strong and carry the momentum through from last year, that will be goal number one.”
However, beyond Dixon’s team, a lot of things are new at Chip Ganassi Racing this year with Kanaan in the No. 10 car and Ryan Briscoe in the No. 8. CGR also made the change from Honda to Chevrolet, too. Dixon said that he had a comfortable relationship with Dario Franchitti, who previously drove the No. 10 Target car, as they both approached the weekend the same way. As far as moving forward in working with Kanaan, Dixon isn’t too sure how the communication will be due to not working together a lot, yet.
“Obviously he’s a big personality. Fun to have him at the team. Just to see how we work on car setups is yet to be determined,” Dixon commented. “But he’s been quick at the first few tests. It’s nice to have a different driver to look at different areas where he may be quick and areas that the team and myself and the other drivers can definitely work on.”
Dixon feels that Kanaan will be strong this year based on the career numbers; Kanaan won a championship in 2004 and has won 15 races, including last year’s Indianapolis 500.
“He may be stronger in other areas and maybe a little weaker in others,” Dixon commented in comparing Kanaan to Franchitti. “I think with the team combination, drivers and engineering, we can try to bring that back together and make it a strong 1-2 punch.”
There is a constant for Dixon heading into the season as Charlie Kimball will once again be with the team.
“He’s done a great job in the last year. Even the tests we’ve had in the pre-season so far, he’s definitely upping his game,” Dixon commented. “When he first started, some people might have written him off. But he’s a smart guy. If he can’t do it, he’ll look and try to achieve it. For him to get a win at a tough road course like Mid-Ohio was huge for him and the team. He’s getting stronger and stronger each year.”
Despite the changes, Ganassi has opted to not test as much as other teams in order to save the dates for later in the year.
“It’s easy to get down the road in conditions that can be 40 degrees cooler than when you actually race,” he explained. “We’ve just canceled the Barber test we had set for the 4th of March. We want to make sure we keep developing in the areas we need to from the off-season, then work on the car for setups during the hotter months.”
Dixon will kick off his championship campaign next month at St. Petersburg, which is a track that he hasn’t had much success at, only scoring three podium finishes in nine starts. Dixon says the key to doing better this year will be qualifying better.
“The last couple years we’ve struggled out of pre-season development, kind of gone down the long road,” Dixon added. “Last year was a big showing of that, obviously. I think we qualified 20th or something. To come back with a fifth place was definitely a big race for us.
But I think qualifying, I think it goes back to the pre-season testing. We have to be careful of what roads we go down and what works at a Sebring when it’s 40 degrees cooler to what it is when you actually get to the first race.
For me it’s preparing a little bit better, maybe not veering off as much as we did last year, try to have a clean race. In the early years we definitely had a few podiums. We’ve had speed there in the past and I’ve made my own mistakes, even leading the race.”
As the defending champion, Dixon has the option to run the No. 1 for the upcoming season, however says that he will probably stick to his normal No. 9.
“I think for us it’s more the icon of the No. 9 and being a Target car, much similar to how the people recognize the cars in NASCAR. That’s becoming more apparent in IndyCar, as well,” he commented. “The 9 has been good. It’s a team number. If they picked the 1, I wouldn’t have a problem with it.”
