Photo Credit: Noel Lanier/OnPitRoad.com
For the first time in his career, Matt Crafton won back-to-back NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race after his win at Dover last week and Charlotte today. It was the 13th win of Crafton’s career.
NCWTS qualifying was rained out yesterday, so the field was set by Thursday’s lone practice speeds, putting William Byron on pole with Spencer Gallagher starting second.
Byron led until the first caution of the day came out for a crashing Andy Seuss. The two-time NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour champion would finish last in his series debut.
The drivers all came to pit road, but a poor pit stop by Byron’s crew relegated him further done the order. Rookie Rico Abreu led on the restart after taking two tires, but he was quickly passed by last year’s Sprint Cup champion Kyle Busch to take the lead. Despite getting the lead on the restart, Busch was unhappy with how his Truck handled for most of the race, allowing Brad Keselowski Racing driver Daniel Hemric to take the lead. Hemric led for 15 laps before Busch retook the lead. Busch would hold the lead until the caution clock’s 20-minute limit hit zero, putting out the yellow flag.
When the caution came out, all the trucks hit pit road, and a pair of Kyle Busch Motorsports trucks were plagued with pit road penalties. Leader Kyle Busch was hit with uncontrolled tire penalty, while his driver Christopher Bell had to serve a penalty for a crew member go over the pit wall too soon.
Timothy Peters led the field to the green on the restart with Matt Crafton in check. Peters held the lead for 11 laps until Crafton made his way around the No. 17 Toyota for the lead. Once Crafton got the lead, he checked out to a seven second lead over the rest of the field.
When the race reached 20 laps to go, the caution clock was turned off, which turned out to be a surprise for crew chiefs and drivers. Most teams were forced to make green-flag pit stops, while some decided to gamble and stay out, hoping they’d have enough fuel to make it to the end.
Matt Crafton pitted from the lead with 13 to go, surrendering the lead to Daniel Suarez. Suarez backed off, and tried to save fuel, but eventually ran out of fuel needing to make a pit stop. He did so, but was too fast entering pit road, forcing him to serve a drive-through penalty. Suarez would finish 23rd.
Johnny Sauter took the lead when Suarez pitted, but didn’t have a big enough gap on Crafton to hold the lead, and the Truck Series veteran went on to win for the second week in a row.
Kyle Busch would finish second with Johnny Sauter, Tyler Reddick and Matt Tifft rounding out the top-five. Sauter, Reddick and Tifft all saved enough fuel to finish the race without pitting again.
Spencer Gallagher, Timothy Peters, Christopher Bell, Daniel Hemric and polesitter William Byron rounded out the top-10. Like Sauter, Reddick and Tifft, Gallagher saved enough fuel to finish sixth without making a pit stop.
Crafton’s win all but locks him into the eight-driver Chase for September, and he’ll also enter the next race of the season at Texas Motor Speedway in two weeks as the points leader.
