NCWTS: Matt Crafton becomes first ever back-to-back Truck Series Champion

For the first time in NASCAR Camping World Truck Series history, there is a back-to-back champion. Matt Crafton would score a solid ninth place finish on Friday night at Homestead-Miami Speedway to win his second straight series championship.

“It’s definitely an awesome feeling to say you’re back-to-back champion,” Crafton expressed post-race. “I definitely didn’t want to talk about it at all the last few weeks.  Without a doubt I wanted to go out there and do my job and try to win more races and lead more laps and that’s what we did.  I’m not going to lie, tonight’s race for me was not much fun having to sit there and ride around because I know the truck was a lot better, but I couldn’t put myself in any bad position.  I just have to wait for everything to file out and just sit there and ride because I couldn’t take any chances of getting tore up.

” know that there was a lot of good side-by-side racing by everybody else, and it was tough not to get right in the middle of it.  Last year we lost the owner’s title because I was trying to drive from the back to the front after a bad pit stop and got wrecked, so I learned something last year.  Use your head a little bit more sometimes. It’s an awesome feeling to say you’re a two-time champion, especially back-to-back.”

While taking a conservative approach throughout the night, he ran just inside of the top-10. However, if he was more aggressive, Crafton feels that he could’ve been a top-three truck tonight.

“It was definitely a tough night and I didn’t like to do it the way we did and wanted to race a lot harder,” he admitted. “I said we were, but at the same time, I sat there and thought about it a lot today.  I was like, if I can keep the 29 close to me and the 51, at the end of the day, we were looking to see if we could beat him for an owner’s title, and if he had problems, then we were going to try to race for the win at that point and take all the gloves off.”

Next year, Crafton will return to the Truck Series with ThorSport Racing once again, look to continue building on the history.

“I feel very good about going into 2015 and maybe making it three in a row,” he commented. “That would be — there’s no doubt that we can.  I’ve said it’s all about these guys that build these trucks up in Sandusky, Ohio, and having the owners that give us all the tools, Duke and Rhonda Thorson.”

Though sitting with two championships, it brought forth a time of reflection to when he first met Duke Thorson in 2000.

“He told me we’re going to run this like a business, and we’re going to make it better and better each year, but I’m not going to outspend myself and I’m not going to go away in two or three years.  I’m going to be one of these owners that’s going to be around for the long haul, and if you want to stick it out with me, we’ll win races, we’ll win championships, and that’s what makes it so much sweeter to be where we are today,” Crafton said. “Because, like I said, we didn’t have all the resources, we didn’t have all the tools that we have today, and he’s been a man of his word, and Rhonda, as well, giving us everything throughout the years to become a two-time champion.  It’s an awesome feeling.”