Matt Crafton making Nationwide Series debut at Kentucky
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.
Ty Dillon passes Kyle Busch late to win UNOH 225 at Kentucky Speedway
“This could be the start of something good…” Ty Dillon said on the radio as he crossed the finish line.
With 26 laps to go, Ty Dillon would pass Kyle Busch to take the lead and never looked back, taking the victory in the UNOH 225 at Kentucky Speedway.
“First things first, I got to thank the Lord,” the driver of the No. 3 Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet said in victory lane. “I was praying on the last restart. Got to thank him first. This couldn’t be a better day. So proud of Marcus Richmond and all of these guys.”
It marks second victory of Dillon’s NASCAR Camping World Truck Series career, the first of this season.
“We got a strong team,” the 21-year-old added. “We won’t give up. We’re going to put our superman cape from here on out.”
After battling hard with a really loose truck mid-race, Brad Keselowski would come back to finish second.
Busch would finish third after struggling with a loose truck late in the race.
“I was loose before the stop,” he commented. “We tried to tighten it up but it was loose. It seemed like clock work in the test – 9 o’ clock comes and it gets loose. Can’t believe we messed it up that bad.”
James Buescher would finish fourth while Ryan Blaney had to settle for fifth.
With 32 laps to go, Blaney was side-by-side with Busch for the lead, though would make contact with the outside wall.
“I was really excited about the run we were having – everybody did a good job at getting this truck better as the race went on,” he said. “I was running the bottom really good and I knew it was only a matter of time before I caught Busch. I went to the outside, he got loose, got up into me and put me in the wall. It just damaged the outside of the truck too much.”
“I got out of the throttle, turned it all the way to the left, but it kept taking the air off my spoiler and sliding up,” Busch commented on the contact.
Timothy Peters would finish sixth, followed by Miguel Paludo, German Quiroga, Jeb Burton and Matt Crafton. Crafton leads the points, still, 22 points ahead of Burton.
Joey Coulter was battling for eighth on the last lap when his truck got loose, causing him to make contact with the outside wall. As a result, Coulter finished 16th.
Darrell Wallace Jr. dominated the first half of the race, though would get loose on lap 86 while underneath Blaney and spin around, making contact with the outside wall.
“Just came around,” he said. “Just barely had room there. I mean, I’m not pissed off of Ryan. We’re good friends. Just frustrated. Haven’t been able to figure out these trucks yet. It seems everytime I get behind someone, I get really loose.”
Lap by Lap: UNOH 225 won by Ty Dillon
Ty Dillon would pass Kyle Busch late in the race to pick up his first victory of the season at Kentucky Speedway.
Lap 1 Blaney and Wallace are side-by-side in turns one and two, Blaney takes the lead into turn three
Lap 3 Blaney leads Wallace Townley KyBusch Gaughan Crafton Coulter Peters Quiroga Paludo…..Townley passes Wallace off of turn four
Lap 4 Busch passes Wallace for third off of turn two
Lap 6 Peters by Coulter for seventh
Lap 16 Blaney leads Townley Busch Wallace Peters Gaughan Crafton Keselowski Quiroga Coulter
Lap 25 Busch passes Townley for second
Caution lap 26 Brendan Gaughan with smoke pouring out the back. Leaders head down pit road for tires and fuel. Wallace leads Keselowski Crafton Blaney Busch off pit road
Restart lap 31 three-wide between Wallace, Keselowski and Crafton for the lead. Crafton takes the lead off of turn two. Brennan Newberry has a breakage on the restart to bring the caution back out.
Restart lap 36 Wallace grabs the lead as Blaney uses a three-wide move to move up to second
Lap 39 Wallace leads Blaney Busch Keselowski Dillon Crafton Buescher Peters Townley Paludo…..Dllion passes Keselowski for fourth
Lap 40 Crafton and Buescher pass Keselowski…….Peters and Townley also pass Keselowski
Caution lap 41 Max Gresham goes around and hits the outside turn two wall.
Restart lap 46 Wallace grabs the lead as Blaney gets sideways, drops back some spots but saves it
Lap 55 Wallace leads Busch Dillon Buescher Crafton Blaney Peters Townley Burton Coulter
Lap 67 Wallace leads Busch Dillon Buescher Crafton Blaney Peters Townley Burton Coulter
Lap 69 Keselowski passes Coulter for 10th
Lap 70 Wallace and Busch battle side-by-side through lap traffic
Lap 71 Keselowski passes Burton for ninth
Caution Lap 80 Townley gets sideways, makes a great save – but still there was a caution. Leaders head down pit road. Busch leads Keselowski
Restart lap 85 as Busch grabs the lead
Caution lap 86 Darrell Wallace Jr. gets loose well underneath Blaney and goes around and backs into the wall
Restart lap 90 Busch pulls ahead of the field once again
43 to go Busch leads Blaney Peters Buescher Dillon Crafton Paludo Buton Gale Townley……caution as Bryan Silas spins. Busch leads the race off of pit road.
Restart 38 to go Busch and Blaney side-by-side into turn one. Busch grabs the lead off of turn four
37 to go Busch leads Blaney Dillon Keselowski…….Keselowski slid up as Dillon tried to take a little extra room
35 to go Busch leads Blaney Dillon Keselowski Buescher Peters Paludo Quiroga Burton Coulter
32 to go Blaney gets into the outside wall as Busch slides up, defending the lead. Dillon moves into second behind Busch
29 to go Busch leads Dillon Keselowski Buescher Blaney Peters Paludo Quiroga Burton Coulter
26 to go Dillon passes Busch for the lead off of turn four
18 to go Dillon leads Busch Keselowski Buescher Blaney
17 to go Keselowski drives in the corner hard, gets loose, saves it and keeps it out of the wall. Dillon leads Busch and Keselowski
13 to go Keselowski passes Busch for second
12 to go Dillon leads Keselowski Busch Buescher Blaney Peters Paludo Quiroga Coulter Burton
Final lap. Joey Coulter spins and hits the outside turn four wall, no caution. Coulter was inside of Quiroga, got loose and up into the wall. Dillon wins ahead of Keselowski, Ky Busch, Buescher, Blaney, Peters, Paludo, Quiroga
