Matt Crafton
2008

03/30

Crafton Nabs Career-Best 2nd place Finish at Martinsville

Matt Crafton eluded the fender-banging, finger-pointing madness of Martinsville Speedway en route to a career-best 2nd place finish in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Kroger 250 on Saturday.

Crafton avoided a multi-truck wreck on turn four of the last lap to secure his second straight top-5 finish and park the No. 88 Menards Chevrolet Silverado in the thick of championship contention.

“We just had a great truck all day, and I’m thankful to Bud (crew chief Haefele) and the guys for their effort,” Crafton said of the No. 88 crew. “It was a typical, crazy Martinsville race, and the green-white-checkered finish was the icing on the cake. Guys were running into each other, and patience was at a premium. We knew we had a top-3 truck when we unloaded, and we learned a few things from testing here earlier this month that made us better. The weather change from Friday to Saturday caught us off guard and we didn’t qualify well (Crafton started 24th), but we were good when it counted. We pitted three times, and were able to work our way back up front each time, which is difficult to do here with the one-groove racing. That’s a testament to how good our truck was.”

Crafton surged to 6th place in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series standings. Despite the career-best finish, he remains focused on the big picture.

“I’m proud of what we accomplished here, and it’s great for our guys, but our mission is to be there at the end of the season with a shot to win the championship,” said Crafton. “We know we have to be strong each time out, because the competition in this series is so tough. (Owners) Duke and Rhonda Thorson have given us everything we need to compete for a championship, and we feel like we can be as good as anybody. This team won’t be satisfied with anything but top-5 finishes and competing for wins. We have momentum heading to Kansas, and I expect us to be strong there.”

The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series O’Reilly Auto Parts 250 is April 26th at Kansas Speedway.

03/25

Crafton Ready for Short-Track Madness of Martinsville

Matt Crafton relishes a return to the roots of racing in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Kroger 250 at Martinsville Speedway on Saturday, as the driver of the No. 88 Menards Silverado looks to build on a season-best 4th place finish at Atlanta.

“Martinsville is a symbol of the old days of racing, a reminder of the Saturday night, short-track races many of us have been thru,” Crafton said. “The track has been around for sixty years, and there’s just so much history here.”

Despite his fondness for the echoes of Martinsville, however, Crafton is plenty familiar with the brutish toll exacted by the half-mile menace.

“This track is extremely hard on equipment,” he said. “It’s not about aero or horsepower here, it’s about handling and track position. And you have to take care of your brakes. Track position is critical, because there’s just no room to pass anybody. If you aren’t careful, you can get shuffled to the back of the pack pretty quickly, and it’s awful hard to work your way back up front. The difference from the fastest truck to the slowest may be a couple tenths of a second, so there’s no margin for error. The race can be won or lost by the smallest difference.”

In 12 career NCTS starts at Martinsville, Crafton has 4 top-10 finishes, including a 3rd place finish in ’06. “Getting to the checkered flag here is tough, because the competition is so fierce,” Crafton said. “With all of the beating and banging going on, it’s easy to get impatient, and you can get caught up in someone else’s mess real easy. If you’re not patient, you can cost yourself a nice finish. We just need to stay patient and try to stay out of trouble, so we can be there at the end.”

03/06

Crafton Looks for Return to Top-10 at Atlanta

Matt Crafton enters Friday night’s NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series American Commercial Lines 200 at Atlanta Motor Speedway seeking a return to the familiar surroundings of the top-10.

Crafton, who owns 76 career NCTS top-10 finishes, looks for his first strong finish of the season at a track where history bodes well for him. In 7 previous visits to AMS, he has finished in the top-10 four times, including a 3rd place finish in last season’s spring race.

“I love Atlanta,” Crafton said. “The track is really fast and you can hold it wide-open, and you can run pretty much anywhere on the track, from the white line to the fence. If you catch someone, you can get around them, and not have to follow them and wait until they make a mistake to get around them.”

The driver of the No. 88 Menards Silverado will pilot the truck he drove at California, where he finished 15th. “We’re racing the same truck, but the guys brought it back to the shop after California and cut it up and made a bunch of changes,” said Crafton. “We fought balance issues with it at California, but the guys worked like heck to make changes and we think the truck is a lot better. I’m looking forward to seeing how we run with it at Atlanta.’

AMS is a high-banked, high-speed monster, but Crafton knows horsepower alone isn’t enough. “Tires are a big key here,” he said. “At the beginning of a run, you have lots of grip, but by the time we’re about ten laps in, they’re wearing out, so there’s a lot of slipping and sliding. At that point, we’re all kind of on an even playing field, and that’s where handling comes into play.”

Crafton is in 17th place in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series standings, albeit after a pair of races. He is confident that Atlanta will provide a necessary jumpstart for the No. 88 team. “We know it’s important to come out of Atlanta with at least a top-10 finish, possibly a top-5, and that would provide a nice spark for us,” Crafton said. “We’ve run well here in the past, and we know what it takes to be there at the end with a shot to win. Atlanta is a great place for us to get things turned around.”

02/21

Crafton Looks to Rebound in California Homecoming

Matt Crafton looks to rebound from last week’s disappointing finish at Daytona in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series San Bernardino County 200 at California Speedway on Saturday.

Crafton was the victim of a multi-truck wreck early in last week’s race, and finished 24th. The Tulare, California native knows, however, that there’s no place like home to get the No. 88 Menards Silverado back on track.

“We just got caught up in the typical craziness that happens at Daytona, and there’s nothing we could do about it,” Crafton said. “You can’t dwell on it. You have to focus on the next race, and we’re excited about being back in California. I grew up out here, and it’s always special to come back and race in front of family and friends. Their support over the years has been tremendous, and I’m thankful for it.”

Crafton has 3 top-10 finishes in 8 career NCTS starts at California. He finished 11th in last season’s race.
“I love this racetrack, because there’s lots of room to race,” said Crafton. “You can run three-and-four wide out here. It’ll be interesting to see how the trucks react this time around, since the race is in the afternoon instead of at night.”
The race was moved to Saturday afternoon from a Friday night slot in years past to accommodate a national-television audience on FOX .

“The fans are always great at California, and it’s always exciting to race out here,” said Crafton. “But being on network television really adds to the atmosphere. This series is so competitive every week, so to have the added exposure is just a great thing for all of us. I expect us to be strong this week, and hopefully we can come out of here with a top-5 finish and start to build some momentum.”

02/11

Crafton Ready To Roll At Daytona

Daytona International Speedway is revered for the known…legendary drivers. Massive crowds. Frenzied side-by-side racing. But it is the unknown that perhaps quickens heartbeats of drivers and fans the most here…the inevitable make-or-break wildness of a race’s final laps.

Matt Crafton expects Friday’s season-opening NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Chevy Silverado 250 to be plenty unpredictable, and the driver of the No. 88 Menards Silverado wouldn’t have it any other way.

“The only thing you know for sure at Daytona is that you don’t know what’s gonna happen,” Crafton said. “Last year was a perfect example for us. We were third or fourth when we took the white flag, and we thought we were in pretty good shape. Then a couple of trucks jumped out to the top, and some others followed, and we got stuck toward the bottom and that was it.”

Crafton finished 8th in last season’s race, his first top-10 finish at the high-banked behemoth in seven career starts. “You never know what’s gonna happen here, especially during the last ten laps of the race,” Crafton said. “It’s so intense, and one driver mistake can tear up everybody else’s equipment. I’ve been caught up in it plenty down here. But you have to be smart, be patient. The key is to have a good truck, and put yourself in position to be there at the end.

Crafton looks to build on his 8th place finish in the NCTS standings (his third finish in the top-10 in the last four seasons) in 2007.

“We have the same truck here that we had last year, with some updates,” said Crafton. “The guys worked really hard on it, made it better. It would be a huge momentum-builder for us to come out of Daytona with a top-5 or top-10 finish and start the season strong. Daytona has been referred to as the Super Bowl of NASCAR, and I think that’s true for all of us. It’s the biggest crowd of the season, right out of the gate, and we’re racing under the lights, which always adds electricity. I can’t wait for Friday night.”