Photo Credit: Jerry Markland/Getty Images for NASCAR
As the top three drivers started running out of fuel, Matt Crafton was able to keep enough fuel in his No. 88 Menards Toyota and outlast the field to score the victory in the Toyota Tundra 250 at Kansas Speedway on Friday night. It allows Crafton to stretch out his points lead to 17 points over Tyler Reddick.
“He told me we couldn’t make it,” Crafton said. “Then I saw the 4 (Erik Jones) run out of gas – and I thought ‘oh no’. We had great horsepower in this truck. It was not a race winning truck – we were definitely a second place truck. We got stuck in traffic but we were able to get back up there and have a good run.”
Erik Jones looked to have the win in the bag, having stretched out to a three second lead. However, as the laps neared the end, he would run out of fuel, handing the lead to Daniel Suarez. Both Suarez and Tyler Reddick then ran out of fuel in the next series of laps, handing the lead to Crafton.
Ryan Newman ran inside the top-five throughout the night to finish second in his first start since last year at Eldora Speedway.
“It was pretty good,” he commented. “We were pretty loose that last run and were able to tighten it a little in the end. I have to thank the Nemechek family for the opportunity. It was a lot of fun.”
Johnny Sauter finished third, followed by Timothy Peters and Cameron Hayley as ThorSport Racing placed all three of their trucks in the top-five.
Daniel Suarez coasted to a sixth place finish, followed by Justin Boston, Scott Lagasse Jr., Mason Mingus and Daniel Hemric.
After leading the majority of the laps throughout the night and having a 10-second lead at one point, Erik Jones ran out of fuel while leading with four laps to go. As a result, he would finish the race in the 11th spot.
“It just sucks,” Jones commented. “We had the best truck. We were up to an 11 second lead at one point. It’s just terrible to have that fast of a truck and not win the race. I tried to save as much fuel as I can at the end. I don’t know how Matt saved that much fuel with the amount of laps that we were short. It sucks, but we’ll bring another truck to Charlotte and try and get the win.”
