Photo Credit: Ashley McCubbin
Matt Crafton looked to be in the perfect position to capture a victory at Kansas Speedway, running in the top-five all race and leading some laps. However, contact with Timothy Peters on the restart with 33 laps to go would shuffle Crafton outside of the top-five in the running order.
The two-time defending series champion was able to fight back, though, clawing his way back to a runner-up finish on Friday night.
“With the 17, we were just racing three-wide, and Timothy (Peters) got into my left rear,” he said. “I respect Timothy more than any other driver out here. It was a mistake; we all do it. This Menards Toyota Tundra was good, really good. I feel like we had the best truck. This was a brand new truck that we just built, and these guys worked really hard, and we had the truck to beat tonight, but that’s racing.”
Crafton felt if he could’ve got his truck out front in the clear air, he would’ve been headed to victory as he felt he had the truck to beat, given how he drove away from eventual race winner William Byron earlier in the race.
“The last restart was chaos, without a doubt,” he added. “You have to win these races, and you have to take the gloves off to do what you’ve got to do.”
