Crafton takes the win and the points lead at Texas

Camping World Truck Series defending champion, Matt Crafton, dominated the WinStar Casino and Resort 400 at Texas Motor Speedway on Friday night.

Crafton conserved fuel in the closing laps in his Slim Jim/Menards Toyota to score his second win of the season, and fifth win of his career. The defending champ also led a race high 118 laps en route to victory.

When asked about having to conserve fuel to make it to the end, Crafton replied, “They said it was going to be close. It’s hard to save when you have such a fast truck.”

Justin Lofton turned in an impressive run driving the No. 24 NTS Motorsports Chevrolet. Lofton started on the pole and finished second. Friday’s race was Lofton’s second start of the season and his second top-10 finish. Lofton was also relegated to saving fuel in search of the checkered flag. “The last ten laps I was running about 50% throttle”, Lofton commented after the race.

Timothy Peters, who was the points leader coming into Friday’s race, had more than his share of trouble. Peters cut a tire early in the event, and followed that up with a crash on lap 45 when his Red Horse Racing Toyota hit oil on the track dropped by his teammate German Quiroga.

Peters would finish 24^th and drop four spots to fifth in the season standings.

Joe Nemecheck, Ryan Blaney, and John Wes Townley rounded out the top-5. Blaney led 45 laps during the middle portion of the race in his Cooper Standard Performance Products Ford and looked strong, but was not a threat to Crafton as the race moved into its final stages.

Crafton now leads the points standings followed by Johnny Sauter, Ron Hornady Jr, Blaney and Peters.

The series now heads to Gateway Motorsports Park on June 14 for the Drivin’ for Lineman 200.