Crafton Surprises With Eldora Truck Score
ROSSBURG, Ohio — Matt Crafton ended a 27-race winless streak in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series — and of all places — it was on the dirt at Eldora Speedway during Wednesday night’s crash-plagued fifth running of the Eldora Dirt Derby.
Crafton, who won first stage of the 150-lap event, fell back during the middle stages of the race, but came on strong down the stretch becoming the fifth different winner in as many editions of NASCAR’s only dirt-track touring race.
The two-time series champion blasted around polesitter Stewart Friesen, who won the second stage, with 16 laps remaining and sailed away over the final 15 tours of Tony Stewart’s half-mile oval to claim his 14th career Truck Series triumph.
“It’s my first dirt win. It was a lot of fun,” said Crafton. “In the second run we stunk, but we over-tightened and we went back and loosened it up and put it the way it was for the first run and were a lot better at the end. I knew we were going to have to run the top and I said we’d tear the side of it off if we had to.”
Crafton has been doing some dirt modified racing during his off weekends, and he said the experience helped him at Eldora, “It helped a lot to learn what the track was doing and how it was going to react.”
Crafton became the seventh different winner this season aboard the ThorSport Toyota.
Friesen, who led 93 laps on the night, finished a career-best second, with Chase Briscoe, Grant Enfinger and John Hunter Nemechek rounding out the top five.
Friesen, a frequent winner in DIRTcar modified competition, was disappointed with finishing second.
“We had a good long-run truck, but those guys burning it in third gear snookered us there on the restart,” Friesen said. “We didn’t come here to run second…Nothing to hang our heads about, but we still lost.”
Christopher Bell was the favorite of many to win the race, but spun on his own during the first segment and was impacted by the truck driven by Kaz Grala.
Despite severe damage to his Toyota, Bell raced back to the lead and was second when he had a right-front tire go flat with 25 laps remaining.
He continued to fight and finished ninth.
“I ruined it for my guys,” Bell said of his early-race spin. “They gave me a great Tundra, but I made a mistake early on that cost us. My guys worked really hard to get us going again and it seemed like the truck had good speed, but the flat tire at the end wrote us off.”
Reigning World 100 winner Bobby Pierce battled an ill-handling truck throughout the race and finished sixth.
Matt Crafton (88) and Stewart Friesen at Eldora Speedway. (Chris Seelman photo)
NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, Eldora Speedway, Rossburg, Ohio, July 19, 2017
Qualifying: 1. Stewart Friesen, Larsen 52, 20.000; 2. Chase Briscoe, Keselowski 29, 20.138; 3. Kaz Grala, GMS 33, 20.179; 4. Christopher Bell, 20.216, Busch 4; 5. Noah Gragson, Busch 18, 20.240; 6. Justin Shipley, Wallace 80, 20.354; 7. Matt Crafton, ThorSport 88, 20.373; 8. Ryan Truex, Hattori 16, 20.412; 9. Caleb Holman, Henderson 75, 20.417; 10. Rico Abreu, ThorSport 89, 20.422; 11. John Hunter Nemechek, Nemechek 8, 20.424; 12. Ben Rhodes, ThorSport 27, 20.454; 13. Harrison Burton, Busch 51, 20.464; 14. Johnny Sauter, GMS 21, 20.473; 15. Chris Windom, Mittler 36, 20.476; 16. Jeffrey Abbey, Niece 45, 20.518; 17. Austin Cindric, Keselowski 19, 20.545; 18. Justin Haley, GMS 24, 20.567; 19. Sheldon Creed, Young 20, 20.595; 20. Ty Dillon, MDM 99, 20.635; 21. Bobby Pierce, Mittler 63, 20.692; 22. Max Johnston, Young 02, 20.786; 23. Ray Ciccarelli, Cobb 10, 20.979; 24. Ken Schrader, Bolen 66, 21.005; 25. Brandon Hightower, Lowe 1, 21.039; 26. Grant Enfinger, ThorSport 98, 21.109; 27. Wendell Chavous, Robinson 49, 21.264; 28. J.J. Yeley, Copp 83, 21.301; 29. Korbin Forrister, Cobb 0, 21.371; 30. Mike Harmon, Beaver 50, 21.574; 31. Norm Benning, Benning 6, 22.069; 32. Cody Coughlin, ThorSport 13, 22.131; 33. Tommy Regan, Benning 57, 24.096; 34. J.R. Heffner, Lamb 44, no time.
First Heat (10 laps): Friesen, Nemechek, Enfinger, Abbey, Shipley, Pierce, Benning.
Second Heat (10 laps): Crafton, Rhodes, Briscoe, Cindric, Johnston, Coughlin, Chavous.
Third Heat (10 laps): Grala, Truex, Haley, Yeley, Burton, Ciccarelli, Regan.
Fourth Heat (10 laps): Bell, Holman, Sauter, Creed, Schrader, Forrister.
Fifth Heat (10 laps): Dillon, Gragson, Abreu, Windom, Hightower, Harmon.
Last Chance Race (15 laps): Pierce, Coughlin, Chavous, Forrister, Benning, Harmon, Ciccarelli, Regan.
Feature (150 laps): Crafton, Friesen, Briscoe, Enfinger, Nemechek, Pierce, Gragson, Haley, Bell, Cindric, Coughlin, Dillon, Benning, Abbey, Burton, Chavous, Schrader, Harmon, Windom, Truex, Yeley, Ciccarelli, Sauter, Hightower, Shipley, Abreu, Creed, Forrister, Johnston, Rhodes, Grala, Holman.
Source :speedsport.com
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