Photo Credit: Rainier Ehrhardt/Getty Images for Texas Motor Speedway
On Friday night at Texas Motor Speedway, Matt Crafton would dominate, leading 77 laps en route to scoring the victory in the WinStar World Casino & Resort 400(k).
For the points leader, it marks his eighth career victory and third of the season thus far. It also allows him to extend his points lead to 25 points over Tyler Reddick.
Starting in the second spot, Crafton swapped the lead back and forth with Erik Jones at the beginning of the event, before shifting to domination mode through the middle. He looked to be off to an easy victory, over eight seconds ahead of second, when the caution flew with 20 laps to go for Timothy Peters blowing up.
The No. 88 Menards ThorSport Racing pit crew got Crafton off of pit road first. He then battled with Daniel Suarez on the restart for four laps, before clearing him, once again looking to set sail. However, it wouldn’t be over there with another caution flying with seven to go for a flat tire for Daniel Hemric.
Crafton would get a good restart, taking the advantage off of turn four heading to the white flag to lead the rest of the way for the win.
Suarez would hold off the field in a big battle for second for his sixth top-10 finish of 2015, and his second straight runner-up finish as he continues to improve with each start.
John Wes Townley, who raced up front throughout the night, would finish third for his best career finish. Johnny Sauter and Austin Theriault rounded out the top-five with Theriault being the highest rookie on the night.
Joe Nemechek finished sixth, followed by Cameron Hayley, Justin Boston, Hemric and Ben Kennedy.
Championship contenders Reddick and Erik Jones struggled throughout the night, finishing 11th and 15th respectively. Reddick had a pair of pit road penalties that set him back in the running order, while Jones’ had to change the battery on three different occasions as a result of alternator issues.
The Camping World Truck Series is back in action on Saturday, June 13 at Gateway Motorsports Park.
