Crafton Looks for second Dover Top-10
When Matt Crafton made his debut at Dover International Speedway in 2001, he took home a solid ninth-place lead lap finish. In the last three events Crafton has competed in at Dover, he has had no such luck. Two accidents and an engine failure have left Crafton on the sidelines well before the checkered flag and left him wondering what he has to do to get Lady luck to smile on him at the Monster Mile.
“I don’t know what it is about Dover,” Crafton said. “I love the track. It’s a lot of fun to drive and we always have really competitive trucks there. But it just seems no matter what we do something pops up out of no where and gets us.”
With Crafton and the ThorSport No. 88 Menards Chevrolet in the thick of the battle for the NASCAR Truck Series top-10, a good finish at Dover this time around is imperative.
“You always want to get the best finish you can every time out,” Crafton said. “If you can’t win, you want a top-5. If you can’t get a top-5, you want a top-10. If you have trouble, you want to get back out and finish as high as you possibly can. This team has worked hard to get us into the top-10 in points and we need to come out of Dover the best we can to stay there.
“It would be one thing if I looked back at the last three races there and it was something I’ve done to cause the accidents or the engine problem,” Crafton said. “I can’t control parts failure, and in both of the crashes there I was just as passenger. It’s been out of my hands.”
Crafton currently sits eighth in the NASCAR Truck Series point standings, 208 points behind leader Ted Musgrave and just 17 points behind Johnny Benson who sits seventh.
The MBNA Race Points 200 from Dover International Speedway is scheduled for 4:30 P.M. on Friday, with live coverage on both Speed Channel and select Motor Racing Network radio affiliates.
Hines Ready for Dover after Busy Open-Wheel Week in Indy
Hines Ready for Dover after Busy Open-Wheel Week in IndySandusky, Oh. – Tracy Hines is ready to return to the seat of the No. 13 ThorSport Racing/David Zoriki Motorsports Chevrolet after a busy week in and around Indianapolis saw him race four different types of cars in five days. Hines picked up a win in a 50-lap USAC Sprint Car race at Anderson, and locked three more top-10 finishes throughout the week leading up to the 89 th Indianapolis 500.
Hines finished ninth in the 100-lap USAC Midget Car feature at the Indianapolis Speedrome, accepted the challenge to go for a $50,000 bonus and finished fifth after starting last in the 100-mile USAC Silver Crown race at the Indiana State Fairgrounds, and then rounded out the week with a runner-up finish in a dirt sprint car at Eldora Speedway. The only race Hines did not complete in the top-10 was the 57 th Annual Little 500. Hines started 10 th and was running seventh when another car forced him into the wall and out of the event after just 100 laps.
“It was a good week,” Hines said. “We had a great car on Wednesday and passed a lot of guys up top which is really hard to do at Anderson. We came back and qualified 10 th for the Little 500, and we thought we’d have a much better car in the race than we for qualifying. We went and ran the Speedrome on Thursday, and that’s a real tough place. We came out of there with a ninth place, which isn’t great but at a tough little place like that we’ll take it.
“We took the challenge at the Fairgrounds for the $50,000 bonus,” said Hines, “which meant we had to go to the back and if we won, we got the bonus. We passed 28 cars and ended up fifth. We’re not running for points with that car so we went for it. Who knows what would have happened if we started up front, but it wasn’t too bad. We did get tangled up in traffic and bent the Jacob’s Ladder in the back, but I’m pretty happy with how it went.”
Hines’ efforts at the Little 500 were derailed by contact with another car, which sent his machine into the wall and out of the event early.
“The guy had been blocking me for a couple of laps,” Hines said. “It’s hard to stay patient at Anderson because a couple of laps behind a slow car can put you a lap down in a hurry. I went to the outside of the guy and he just put me in the wall. It was a pretty hard hit. Anderson is a quick little place. I hope that we can try for that one again, because the Hoffmans put together a really good car and I feel like we had a pretty good chance to win.”
Hines wrapped up the week at Eldora Speedway and drove the Hoffmans’ dirt sprinter to second on one of his favorite tracks.
“I love Eldora,” Hines said. “We always run well there and I really wanted to come out and do well after what happened on Saturday. We thought we had a car that could win, and we were close. As a racer, you’re not happy unless you win, so in that sense we’re disappointed we were so close, but on the other hand we’re happy that we were up front and had a chance.”
Hines returns to the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series this Friday at Dover International Speedway. Hines looks forward to returning to the Monster Mile, even though the track jumped up and bit him early last season, resulting in a 21 st -place finish.
“They just started wrecking in front of me and someone bounced off the left side pretty hard, and we just had to ride around from there,” Hines said. “It’s a fast track, like some of the tracks we run in USAC. The guys have really worked hard to get our program turned around, and if we can stay out of other people’s trouble I think we can come out of there with a solid finish.”
Hines is currently 23 rd in NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series points, just 48 points behind 20 th -place Todd Kluever.
The MBNA Race Points 200 is scheduled for 4:30 P.M. on Friday, with live coverage on Speed Channel and Motor Racing Network radio.
Crafton Takes Second Top-10 of 2005 at Charlotte
Charlotte, N.C. – Matt Crafton drove the ThorSport Racing No. 88 Menards Chevrolet to a ninth-place finish in Friday’s 200-mile NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race in Charlotte, his second top-10 finish of the 2005 season. With his finish, Crafton picked up one position to move to eighth in the series championship point standings.
“I’m happy to bring this thing home in one piece,” Crafton said after the race. “There was a lot of stuff going on out there and a lot of guys that you don’t expect to get wrecked ended up in the garage with crashed trucks. It would have been easy to get caught up in one of those deals but we got lucky and avoided all the trouble.”
While Crafton was happy to avoid all of the carnage on a night that saw 10 caution flags, but he wasn’t totally satisfied with the ninth-place finish.
“I’m happy we got a top-10 and we had a steady night, but this truck was a little better than that,” Crafton said. “I thought we could have raced into the top-5, but the tires we had on during the last run just made the truck wicked loose. It started to come back to me a little towards the end. We had a late caution and we were lucky to pick up a couple of spots on the green-white-checkered.”
Crafton also led his first laps of the 2005 season when he and his team parlayed pit strategy into the lead in the middle stages of the race.
“It was nice to get up and lead some laps,” he said. “We used pit strategy to get there, but it’s not like we rolled over and let them by once we went green. They had to work for it to get past us. Coming out of here with the finish we had and the way we ran gives me a lot of confidence for the rest of our intermediate program. There’s a lot of races on this type of track, and we should be a contender for all of them.”
The NASCAR Truck Series takes the weekend off before returning to action on June 3 at Dover International Speedway.
Late Race Scuffle Leaves Hines 18th in Charlotte; Busy Open Wheel Memorial Day Weekend Up Next
Charlotte, N.C. – Tracy Hines looked to secure a solid top-15 finish in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race in Charlotte, N.C., but a late race scuffle with another competitor pushed the right front valence in and left the No. 13 ThorSport Racing/David Zoriki Motorsports Chevrolet with an 18 th -place finish on Friday night. Hines maintained the 23 rd position in the NCTS championship point standings going into the next series event in Dover on June 3.
“We weren’t great tonight, but we weren’t terrible either,” Hines said. “We had a good run going and it looked like we were going to finish somewhere in the top-15 or so. But on one of those last restarts, I got up on the outside of another truck and rather than let me by cleanly he just flat turned dead right going down the straightaway. It flattened the right side and took all the downforce off the nose. From there on out all I could do was hold on.”
Hines leaves Charlotte with one of his busiest weeks of the season ahead. He is the only driver that will attempt to race four different types of racecars on four different tracks in five different races over the course of the Memorial Day weekend that traditionally sees an entire week of open wheel competition in and around Indianapolis in conjunction with the Indy 500. If he is able to complete all five races, he will have run 780 laps in competition on tracks ranging from a flat paved fifth-mile to a one-mile dirt oval.
On tap on Wednesday May 25 is a 50-lap USAC Sprint Car feature at the high-banked quarter-mile Anderson Speedway in Anderson, Ind., with qualifying for the Little 500 sprint car race and a 100-lapper in a USAC Midget next at the fifth-mile Indianapolis Speedrome on Thursday May 26. Friday is additional qualifying for the Little 500, if needed, and a 100-mile USAC Silver Crown Series race at the Indiana State Fairgrounds. Sarturday is the 57 th Annual Little 500, which is 500 laps with 33 cars starting in eleven rows of three, just like the Indianapolis 500, and the weekend wraps up with a 30-lap clash on the dirt highbanks of Eldora Speedway in the sprint car.
“It’s a busy week but it’s also one of the most fun I’m going to have all year long,” Hines said. “I’m a racecar driver, and this week I have the chance to drive a car just about all week long. Anderson is a tough little racetrack under normal conditions, and I can’t imagine what it will be like to have 33 cars out there.
The biggest challenge throughout the week will be fighting the clock, Hines said.
“Thankfully all of these tracks are relatively close together,” Hines said. “We’ll be at Anderson until 10 o’clock or so on Wednesday and then right back at it at 9 the next morning to qualify for the Little 500. We have until 3:30 in the afternoon to get qualified, and the driver’s meeting at the Speedrome is at 3:30 as well. We go to the Fairgrounds on Friday to run the Silver Crown car, and that event has been known to go on pretty deep into the night so that could be a long day as well.”
“Saturday should be fairly easy,” Hines said with a laugh. “All we have to do it run 500 laps in the sprint car on a tough quarter mile bullring racetrack. It’s a night race so maybe they’ll let me sleep in a little. And as soon as it’s over, we load up and head to Eldora with the dirt sprint car on Sunday.”
It will be Hines’ firs attempt at the Little 500, a race that has caught his eye in the past but he was never able to compete in.
“We’ve been chasing the USAC Midget points for the past several years, and they always run at IRP (Indianapolis Raceway Park) for the “Night Before the 500”, which meant I was always there. Well, we’re not running for points this year with the Midget, and the Hoffmans (Hines’ sprint car owners) have really wanted to come run the Little 500. The time was right to come do it. They’ve worked really hard on the car and have been out practicing changing tires and refueling. It’s going to be a lot of fun.”
Hines returns to action in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series on June 3 at Dover International Speedway.
May 15, 2005
Lug Nut Problems Derail Crafton Ride to the Front in Mansfield
Mansfield, Oh. – Matt Crafton moved the No. 88 Menards Chevrolet into the top-10 and was patiently biding his time in Sunday’s UAW/GM Ohio 250, waiting for the last 75 laps to make his charge towards the front. However, loose lugnuts on the team’s first scheduled pit stop of the day left Crafton a lap down and forced him to fight for the free pass rather than to patiently work his way to the front.
“We had three lug nuts come loose on the left front on the first stop and we ended up missing the go sign at the end of pit road by a half a second,” Crafton said. “From there on out, it was all we could do to get ourselves in position to get the free pass if the caution came out. Every time we got to that position, the leader would catch someone and get him a lap down in front of us right before the caution came out. We finally got it back, but by then it was too late to make up any of the ground we lost.”
While Crafton fought back to the top-20, it wasn’t his last bout with Lady Luck on the afternoon. On lap 225, Crafton cut a right front tire and nearly smacked the turn one wall.
“I got it slowed down and if I did get the wall it was light enough that I didn’t feel it,” Crafton said. “It’s just one of those days. We had a great truck and we knew we had as good a chance as anyone here to win this race. But we just didn’t have things fall our way. We’ll put this one in the rear-view mirror and head to Charlotte. We have an even better truck to take there, so they better watch out.”
Crafton and the No. 88 Menards Chevrolet return to action this Friday in Charlotte. Speed Channel will have live coverage starting at 8:30 P.M. Eastern, as will select affiliates of MRN Radio.
Unavoidable Incidents Spoil Strong Run for Hines at Mansfield
Mansfield, OH – With a strong test at Mansfield Motorsports Speedway the week before and a top-10 starting position for the UAW/GM Ohio 250, Tracy Hines looked like a strong contender for the win in the sixth NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race of 2005. But just 19 laps into the 250-lap race, Hines’ entire day was thrown into jeopardy after a lapped truck made contact down the backstretch doing damage to the right side of No. 13 ThorSport Racing/David Zoriki Motosports Chevrolet.
The team called him to pit road when the caution flew 20 laps later, hoping to make their one and only stop of the day early to gain track position when the other drivers were forced to come to the pit for tires and fuel later in the race. The strategy worked well, as Hines climbed to fifth by lap 100 and was the highest placed driver to have made his stop.
But a series of three unavoidable incidents, in which Hines played no role in starting, resulted in significant damage to the truck and eventually sent Hines behind the wall just a handful of laps short of the finish.
“The first one I drove down into one in a pack of trucks and they all just started spinning,” Hines said. “I have no idea how we got through that one because the smoke cleared and the 02 was right in front of me. It knocked in the right front, but the tires were still up and we didn’t have any sheet metal rubbing so we stayed out. The second one it looked like the 65 got loose coming off of four and the field stacked up. Everyone just hit the brakes and stopped in front of me. The one that knocked us out was with just a couple of laps to go. The 18 spun out and I went low and he slid down the track right in front of us.”
“It’s a tough little racetrack,” Hines said. “There was a lot of stuff going on today, and we were just in the wrong place at the wrong time for most of it. Had we not gotten tangled up in the first one, we probably wouldn’t have been caught up in the rest of them. It’s just the way it goes sometimes. We’re all disappointed with the finish, but I’m proud of the way this team performed here this weekend. The truck was strong all weekend long. I think we’ve got everything we need in place. The only part of the puzzle that’s missing is a little luck.”
Hines returns to action in the No. 13 ThorSport Racing/David Zoriki Motorsports Chevrolet this Friday night in Charlotte. Speed Channel will have live coverage following qualifying for the NASCAR Nextel Cup All-Star race.
May 10,2005
Crafton Wants to Back Up Solid Start to 2005 with a Win in Mansfield
Sandusky, Oh. – When the white flag flew in the season-opening NASCAR Truck Series race at Daytona, Matt Crafton had the ThorSport Racing No. 88 among the top-5. “The Big One” ended his hopes that night, but a solid run the next week saw Crafton again in the top-5 late in the race in California. A sixth-place finish at California left Crafton sixth in the series standings with 23 races yet to run.
Crafton and his teammates had top-10 caliber trucks in the next three series races, however mechanical gremlins and plain bad racing luck have kept the bright yellow No. 88 Menards Chevrolet out of the top-10 at the finish. Even still, Crafton has maintained tenth in the series standings entering the sixth race of the season at Mansfield Motorsports Speedway.
“Everyone saw Bobby Hamilton come from 36 th to the top-10 in Atlanta in five or six laps,” Crafton said. “What no one saw is that we were right behind him the whole time. We had a strong truck in Atlanta but had a carburetor problem slow us down. We had track position for a good finish at Martinsville, but had to make an unscheduled stop and ended up in the middle of the pack. We thought we were going to crack back into the top-10 at Gateway, but we got pinned a lap down when a caution came out right after we made our green flag stop.
“We can’t control some of those things,” he continued. “What we can control is building the best, fastest trucks we can. Dennis (Connor), Bud (Haefele) and the guys have worked so hard to give me trucks I can take to the front. We need a little luck to go our way, and I can’t think of a better place to have that happen than Mansfield.”
Mansfield Motorsports Speedway is the ThorSport team’s home track, located just 40 miles south of its Sandusky home base.
“We want to prove to all the doubters out there that we are for real,” Crafton said. “The team has made some big strides since I left in 2003. There are people there that have a lot of experience and a lot of wins under their belts. Duke and Rhonda Thorson have made a huge commitment to this team, and there’s nothing more I’d like to do than give them a win at their home race.”
The UAW/GM Ohio 250 is scheduled to start shortly after 2 P.M. Eastern on Sunday May 15. The race will be broadcast live on Speed Channel and select radio affiliates of the Motor Racing Network.
Hines Ready for Mansfield Return; Looks to Better Last Season’s Fifth-Place Finish
Sandusky, OH – Tracy Hines finished fifth in the 2004 UAW/GM Ohio 250 at Mansfield Motorsports Speedway. After getting caught up in a tangle early in the race, Hines kept his nose out of everyone else’s trouble, played pit strategy perfectly, and drove to his first career NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series top-5 finish. While Hines and his No. 13 ThorSport Racing/David Zoriki Motorsports Chevrolet team have run strong to this point in 2005, none of them are satisfied with their results and look to change that in Mansfield.
“I’m not one to talk about how confident I am going in to a race weekend, but I really think we are going to have a solid weekend in Mansfield,” said Hines, winner of the 2003 USAC National Midget Car Series feature at the 0.44-mile oval. “Last year we had so many obstacles to overcome. We barely made the field after qualifying was rained out. We got crashed and had to fix some damage to the left front. And we had to race some of the hardest racers in the series to make it back to the top-5. But the ThorSport team has a lot of notes on this track and we never gave up. Last season’s run here really has me feeling good about coming back this year.”
Located just 40 miles north of the track, the ThorSport Racing team used Mansfield Motorsports Speedway is their short track test facility for several seasons before the track joined the series in 2004, something Hines credits for his truck’s performance last season.
“Most teams came here last year with one day’s worth of notes,” he said. “They had an optional test on Friday, and that was it. Practice was rained out, so no one had a lot of laps. Except us and (Matt) Crafton. Our notebook was really thick compared to everyone else. We can’t sit there and be happy with that though. We came out last week and spent one of our testing vouchers. We are putting a lot of effort into this race. The test went really well, which just adds to the entire team’s attitude going in.”
The second annual UAW/GM Ohio 250 is scheduled to start shortly after 2 P.M. Eastern on Sunday May 15. The race is schedule for live broadcast on Speed Channel and select radio affiliates of the Motor Racing Network.
Ill-Timed Caution Results in 17 th -Place Finish at Gateway for Crafton
Madison, Ill. – Matt Crafton quickly raced his way into the top-10 and was poised to fight for his first top-5 of the 2005 NASCAR Truck Series season, but an ill-timed caution flag trapped the No. 88 Menards Chevrolet a lap down and resulted in a 17 th -place finish. With the race’s longest stretch of green flag racing leading up to a round of green flag stops, Crafton made his way to the pits just moments before a crash in turn two brought out a caution.
“I am extremely discouraged with our finish tonight,” Crafton said. “Not because of the way our truck was running or anything the ThorSport guys did here this weekend. They worked hard, the truck was great and we could have finished in the top-5. I am upset that we had all of that going for us and we get trapped in the pits by a caution flag. It’s no one’s fault. It’s just racing and that happens to everyone at one time or another. But you hate to have that happen and waste such a good run.”
After falling off the lead lap, Crafton raced hard to get in position to receive the “free pass” NASCAR issues to the highest scored non-lead lap truck should the caution flag come out. Finally, with just a dozen laps remaining, the caution did come out when Crafton was in position, and he was allowed to take position at the tail end of the lead lap. Over the final handful of laps, Crafton picked up six positions, gaining 18 points which kept him among the series top-10.
“We had some good luck at the end,” Crafton said. “If that caution didn’t come out when it did, we would have been inside the last ten laps and we wouldn’t have gotten our lap back. The best we could have done is about 23rd. As it was we were able to get back on the lead lap and gain some spots. We stayed up in the top-10 and that is important. We don’t want to just stay there, we want to start moving back up. We have a couple of really good tracks for us coming up and I think we’re going be awfully competitive the next two races. Mansfield is a place we have a ton of laps and more experience than anyone in the series, and we had a super test at Charlotte last week. As good as we are at Mansfield, I am looking forward to Charlotte even more.”
Crafton and the No. 88 Menards Chevrolet return to action next in the UAW/GM Ohio 250 at Mansfield Motorsports Speedway. The race will be shown live on Speed Channel and broadcast on select affiliates of the Motor Racing Network on May 15 at 2 P.M. Eastern.
Tough Luck Leaves Hines 25 th at Gateway
Madison, Ill. – Tracy Hines came to Gateway International Raceway brimming with optimism, but several bouts with Lady Luck left the driver of the No. 13 ThorSport Racing/David Zoriki Motorsports Chevrolet with a disappointing 25 th -place finish in round five of the 2005 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series season.
Hines’ first battle with bad racing luck came on his first lap of the second practice session. A small puncture in the right front tire going into turn one on his first hot lap sent the team’s primary truck into the turn two wall. With critical suspension parts bent and no time left to make repairs, the team unloaded the backup truck. The team spent the remainder of the session installing the primary engine, with Hines himself lending a hand to the effort.
“I went down into turn one and it just didn’t turn,” Hines said. “If I hit some fluid, the back end would have jumped out too. It just plowed right into the wall. I was able to get it slowed down as much as I could, but we still made some contact. It bent a lot of the suspension parts so we had to go to a backup. It’s one of those things that’s totally out of our hands.”
Once the race started, Hines and the team faced an uphill climb. A spin in turn three and four after contact with another truck continued Hines’ rough evening.
“We got turned sideways and I was hoping for a yellow and it never came,” Hines said. “Just a bad night for the ThorSport team. None of it was anything we did or anything we could control. We have Mansfield coming up next, and we had a really good run there last year. It’s not even that we need good luck to have a good run there, I’d just like to go and not have any bad luck.”
The UAW/GM Ohio 250 from Mansfield Motorsports Speedway is scheduled for live telecast on Speed Channel and broadcast on selected radio affiliates of the Motor Racing Network.
