Photo Credit: Ashley McCubbin
For the third straight race and 13th time this year in 15 races, Matt Crafton crossed the finish line with a top-10 finish as he finished second on Sunday at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park.
Crafton ran inside the top-10 throughout the day, putting himself in a position in the end for a good finish. He noted that if they would’ve got off the restart a little better, he could’ve had a victory in hand.
“It just would take our truck a lap or so to get going,” he noted. “I said the 4 (Erik Jones) and the 29 (Alex Tagliani) got away from me right there, but coming to the checkered it really starts coming to me and I felt like I could make a run at it then. I didn’t really want to see that last yellow, but I said it worked out and top-two finish – not too bad especially for where we were two years ago.”
In his first trip to Canadian Tire Motorsports Park two years ago, Crafton ran just outside of the top-10 most of the day, staying out of the chaos at the end to score a 10th place finish. It was a performance that he admits that he was “pretty embarrassed” about.
“I knew I wasn’t that bad on a road course and Junior (Joiner, crew chief) and these guys worked so hard and brought something back a lot better last year and, like I said, they worked on it again and made it that much better again this year,” he commented. “Hats off to those guys for bringing these awesome trucks and I’m the lucky guy that gets to drive them.”
The solid finish allowed him to continue closing the gap between himself and a third straight series championship, now sitting three points behind Erik Jones. Crafton isn’t letting himself get worried about, but rather says they’re “straight taking it one race at a time and see if we can lead some more laps, win some more races.”
“We’ve been very fast each and every week,” he added. “Junior (Joiner, crew chief) and these guys bring awesome trucks. I’m just the lucky guy that gets to drive them. To finish second here just knowing how bad we were two years ago and what wasn’t the best last year, so to have that momentum going into this last stretch that we’re going into is definitely huge for us.”
