Crafton Rolls an 11 in Vegas
Las Vegas, Nev. - Matt Crafton drove the ThorSport Racing No. 88 Menards/SealBest Chevrolet to an 11th-place finish in the Las Vegas 350 NASCAR Truck Series race Saturday night at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Crafton started 18th, and quickly bolted to his trademark outside groove and picked up several spots on the start. A fast truck and consistent pit stops gave Crafton a chance to pick up another top-10 finish, but a late race caution and a shuffle in the pack on the restart left Crafton with no where to go and left him just short of his 9th top-10 finish of the season.
"We had a fast truck, but we were pretty tight," Crafton said. "There were some times out there I thought we were going to need to use the landing strip at the (Nellis) Air Force Base to get this thing turned off turn two. When you have a guy like Todd (Bodine, race winner) out there running as well as he was, even being just a tick off like we were is a bad thing. But there were a lot of guys in the same boat as us. We had a good enough truck to run in the top-10, but it was a mess on that last restart and we just missed it."
Crafton had another big problem on the night. On the long green flag run early in the race, Crafton's in-truck radio malfunctioned, leaving him with nothing but static in his ears. Through a stroke of luck, he turned the radio on just in time to hear his team calling him to the pits for a routine green flag stop. Shortly after, the caution came out and he was able to come back to the pits to have the radio swapped out.
"It's never a lot of fun to be out there knowing you don't have any communication with your team," he said. "All I could hear was static, so I turned the radio off. I saw some trucks peeling off to the pits, so I turned it back on and heard the guys calling me into the pits. I guess they had been in contact with NASCAR and they were going to black flag me if I didn't come to the pits the next time around. Luckily we had that caution flag right afterward and got the radio changed."
Next up for Crafton and the ThorSport Racing No. 88 Menards/SealBest Chevrolet is the Kroger 200 at Martinsville Speedway. Speed Channel will have the race live on Saturday October 22 at 1 P.M. Eastern, with Motor Racing Network carrying the race live on selected affiliates nationwide. TruckSeries.com will have complete event coverage, including practice, qualifying, and race updates at www.truckseries.com .
Hines Snakebit in Vegas
Las Vegas, Nev. - Tracy Hines started the ThorSport Racing No. 13 David Zoriki Inc. Chevrolet 21st in the Las Vegas 350 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race on Saturday night, and with a couple of quick passes for position looked to have a truck that could race into the top-10 for the second time in three races. However, Hines was snakebit by Lady Luck once again when the left rear tire delaminated, sending the carcass of the tire flying across the track and sending Hines sliding out of control at the start-finish line and slamming hard into the frontstretch wall.
"This one is more disappointing than any other race we've had this season," a frustrated Hines said. "It's one thing when it's something you as a team do that puts you out early. We've done some things this year that all new teams do that didn't work and it cost us, but that is all part of learning together as a team. It's a part of the process. But these guys built me an awesome truck, and they should be proud of that. I was able to make a couple of passes right off the bat and even stuck it three wide one time. It is a real shame we got taken out as a result of something totally out of our control."
Hines was seen and released from the infield care center after the hard hit, which left the ThorSport Racing No. 13 David Zoriki Inc. Chevrolet with heavy right front damage.
"There was absolutely no warning when it went," Hines said. "When it jumped sideways on me, it was a total surprise. I thought I was going to be able to keep it off the wall, but I was more a passenger than anything. It was a pretty hard hit. I told the guys if they can get that thing fixed to get it ready for the last few races of the season, because it was the best driving truck I've ever had in my career. It's just a real shame to see it end up that way."
Next on the schedule for Hines and the ThorSport Racing No. 13 David Zoriki Inc. Chevrolet is the Kroger 200 at Martinsville Speedway. Speed Channel will have the race live on Saturday October 22 at 1 P.M. Eastern. Motor Racing Network will have the live radio broadcast on selected affiliates nationwide, while TruckSeries.com will have complete event coverage, including practice, qualifying, and race updates at www.truckseries.com .
Crafton's Day End Early after Trouble Finds Him in New Hampshire
Matt Crafton drove the ThorSport Racing No. 88 Menards Chevrolet to the pole position for the start of the Sylvania 200 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at New Hampshire International Speedway, and was strong through the early stages of the race before trouble found him and put him behind the wall early. Crafton slowed to avoid a spinning Jimmy Spencer in turn two and was hit in the tail by Mike Skinner who couldn't get slowed in time, sending the polesitter hard into the turn two wall. The accident left Crafton saddled with a 35th place finish, his worst result of the season.
Crafton jumped out into the lead at the drop of the green flag and led the first 19 laps of the 200 lap race. Skinner was able to move around to take the lead, but Crafton was able to hang within the top-5 until the first round of pitstops. After coming to pit road for service, Crafton's truck became loose on him and he dropped to the back of the top-10, but more adjustments by the ThorSport crew gave him a chance to race back near the top-5.
Crafton was lurking just outside the top-5 when Spencer's truck broke loose directly in front of him. Crafton was able to slow down and pick a lane to miss Spencer, but Skinner couldn't avoid and made hard contact with the tail of Crafton's machine. It send him sliding up the track and hard into the outside wall, doing severe damage to the rear of the No. 88 Menard Chevy.
"It's a shame we have to end our day this way," Crafton said. "The ThorSport guys gave me an awesome truck today and we were on our way to a great finish before that happened. We kind of surprised ourselves with the pole here, but that's how strong this team is. We got to get out front and led some laps and we stayed up in the top five until we pitted. The truck got pretty loose on us after that stop, and it was all we could do to hang on to the top-10 after that. They tightened me up for the run to the finish, and it looked like we were going to be able to race back up and make a run at another top-5 finish. I thought we had that mess missed down there but we got hit from behind. It couldn't have come at a worse time. The points are so close and this just kills us."
Crafton remains ninth in NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series point standings, just 13 points behind eighth-place David Reutimann, and 50 points behind seventh-place Todd Bodine.
Crafton returns to action on September 24 in the Las Vegas 350 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The race is scheduled for a 9 P.M. Eastern start and will be shown live on Speed Channel. Motor Racing Network will have the live radio call on selected radio affiliates nationwide, while TruckSeries.com will have complete event coverage, including real-time practice,qualifying, and race coverage at www.truckseries.com.
Hines Finishes 19th at New Hampshire
Tracy Hines finished 19th in the Sylvania 200 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at New Hampshire International Speedway. Hines, in the No. 13 ThorSport Racing/David Zoriki Inc. Chevrolet, picks up another top-20 finish in his quest to move into the top-25 in NCTS owner points.
After many of the leaders came to pit road early in the race, Hines decided to stay on the track to pick up track position. He moved as high as second at one point and spent much of the next segment of the race running among the top-10, including several laps when he raced side-by-side with teammate Matt Crafton.
"We stayed out early to get track position and get off sequence like we did last week at Richmond," Hines said. "We were able to stick with those guys for a while, but we needed tires. The race didn't play out like it did last week so we didn't get to work our way back to the front like we did then. We had a good truck, and a decent finish. We would have liked to have a top-10 run here, but as competitive as it is we'll take a top-20 and keep our momentum rolling."
Hines acknowledges he and his ThorSport Racing teammate are clawing themselves out of a hole the found themselves in earlier in the season, but with the momentum of recent weeks, he believes they can crack the top-25 in series owner standings.
"We'd like to get back into the top-25 in owner standings before the end of the year, and I think we can do it," Hines said. "We've had a lot of decent runs and picked up some good top-20 finishes. We'd like to get some more top-10s before the end of the year and try to build some momentum for next year."
Hines will return to action on Saturday September 24 in the Las Vegas 350 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Speed Channel will have the live television broadcast starting at 9 P.M. Eastern, while Motor Racing Network will have the live radio call on selected affiliates nationwide. TruckSeries.com will have complete event coverage, including practice, qualifying, and race updates at www.truckseries.com.
Crafton Steady as Granite in NH, But Looks for Better Result with Points on the Line
Sandusky , Oh. – Matt Crafton has been steady as a rock in the Granite State in the past, with two 10 th -place finishes and two 13 th -place finishes in four career starts at the New Hampshire International Speedway. With a chance to move as high as sixth place in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series point standings, Crafton looks to keep that impressive consistency in tact, but he also looks to find a way to sneak the No. 88 Menards/SealFast Chevrolet higher up into the top-10 in order to make some headway in the championship standings.
“I always like coming to the flat tracks,” Crafton said. “I like all kinds of racetracks, but it goes back to when I was running the (Southwest) Tour cars out west. I always looked forward to going to Phoenix , because it was the biggest and fastest track we ran on. It’s carried on from there. Every time we go to places like Milwaukee and New Hampshire , I look forward to it. The driver has more input on a flat track than on some of the high speed banked tracks, so it’s definitely a type of racing where I want to run up front and contend to win.”
Crafton’s seventh-place finish at Richmond gave ThorSport Racing two trucks among the top-10 at the finish for the first time in the team’s history.
“That’s huge for us,” Crafton said. “We’re kind of out of the spotlight up in Ohio , so no one really gets to see how committed everyone really is. It’s why I didn’t hesitate to come back this season, because I’ve seen what is place and I know what the future holds. It’s not easy to get a top-10 finish with one truck as competitive as this series is this season, and to come out of Richmond with two top-10s, with all of those Cup guys in the field, is awesome.”
With the points as close as they are from fifth to tenth, Crafton knows he needs to knock down a solid finish to make up some ground from his ninth position in the standings.
“We need a top-5 to make sure we don’t lose any ground,” Crafton said. “These guys we’re racing are right there with us every week. We finished seventh last race and lost a spot in the points, that’s how tight it is. We need to get it back here this week. I think we can do it. It’s a long race, pit stops are going to be really important, and track position will be huge. We’ve got to get up front, and then do what ever it takes to stay there.”
The Sylvania 200 is scheduled for a 3 P.M. Eastern start on Saturday September 17 th . Speed Channel will have the live telecast, while Motor Racing Network will have the live radio call on selected affiliates nationwide. TruckSeries.com will have continuous real-time practice, qualifying, and race updates at www.truckseries.com .
Fresh Top-5 at Richmond, Hines Ready to Bring Momentum to New Hampshire
Sandusky , Oh. – Tracy Hines enters this weekend’s Sylvania 200 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race coming off a fifth-place finish in the last series race in Richmond ,Va. Coming off the team’s first top-5 finish of the season, and his first top-5 finish since a fifth-place run at Mansfield , Oh. in 2004, Hines has reason to believe the No. 13 ThorSport Racing/David Zoriki Inc. Chevrolet will be a factor again at the New Hampshire International Speedway.
“That was just what we needed to hit the stretch run with a little positive momentum,” Hines said. “We’ve been running competitively once we get things figured out, but this team has started basically from ground zero this year. We’ve learned a lot, and it’s starting to show. Shane (Tesch, crew chief) has a lot of wins in the ASA, is getting used to working on trucks rather than the late models he was used to. All of the crew guys are really getting along well and working together as a team. We made some gutsy calls at Richmond , and they paid off.”
Hines returns for his second career start at NHIS, a track that did not show him much favor last year.
“Last year we just had rotten luck at Loudon,” Hines said. “We got punted when someone made an overaggressive three-wide move going into turn one on a restart and it bent up the truck. After that we dropped a valve in the engine and had to call it a day. We are looking forward to getting back and getting 200 laps under our belt, and if we can do that we think we’ll be somewhere near the top-10.”
Hines has plenty of flat mile-track experience, but much of that comes in open wheel cars on dirt. Hines recently picked up the win in the “Ted Horn 100” in the USAC Silver Crown Series on the DuQuoin ( Ill. ) mile dirt.
“We’ve raced a lot on the miles, but most of it has been on dirt,” Hines said. “I always like the big flat miles in the open wheel cars, but this is so different with the Trucks. Not a lot transfers from one to the other. Sometimes the dirt gets as hard as pavement does, but even still, it’s such a different type of racing and the cars and trucks are so different there isn’t anything to take back and forth. But all of it is a lot of fun, that’s what you take from one to the other. I hope we can take the momentum we’ve had with the open wheel wins and the good run we had in Richmond and come out of New Hampshire with another good finish. It would be cool to give ThorSport back to back races with both myself and Matt (Crafton, teammate) in the top-10.”
The Sylvania 200 is scheduled for a 3 P.M. Eastern start on Saturday September 17 th . Speed Channel will have the live telecast, while Motor Racing Network will have the live radio call on selected affiliates nationwide. TruckSeries.com will have continuous real-time practice, qualifying, and race updates at www.truckseries.com .
Crafton Leaves Richmond with First Top-10
Richmond ,Va. – Matt Crafton drove the ThorSport Racing No. 88 Menards Chevrolet to his first career top-10 NASCAR Truck Series finish at Richmond International Raceway with a sevent-place finish in Thursday night’s Cheerios Betty Crocker 200. Crafton ran up front in the early stages, but dropped back into the pack after a problem on his first pit stop, but was able to play pit strategy and track position into a top-10 position late in the evening.
“It’s nice to come out of here in one piece for once,” Crafton said. “We usually leave here in a basket or in the meat wagon so it’s a nice change for sure. We had a problem on when we had to change the left side tires. The jack was not getting under the truck so they had to take time to lift the truck up on all three stops.”
Crafton raced from the back and was in position to pick up a top-10 late in the going, but had a run-in with another competitor within the final laps.
“I have a ton of respect for David Starr, and I wouldn’t ever do anything to take him out of a race, especially that late in the race when he had a good finish going,” Crafton said. “It was short track racing. I thought I had enough on him going into turn one, and he thought he had the room and we got together. I hate it for his guys, but we were fortunate enough not to get tangled up any worse than we did and keep it going straight.”
With the points battle as close as it is, Crafton gained points on some of the drivers in front of him but fell back a spot in the points to ninth.
“It was a good points night,” Crafton said. “We lost a spot, but we gained points on some of the guys in front of us. It’s so tight in the group we are in. We need more runs like we had here tonight and we’ll start making up some ground on those guys in front of us.”
Crafton will return to action next Saturday at New Hampshire International Raceway. The 200-lap, 200-mile race is scheduled to start at 3 P.M. Eastern on Saturday September 17, and will be shown live on Speed Channel. Motor Racing Network will have the live radio call on selected affiliates nationwide, while TruckSeries.com will have continuous real-time practice, qualifying, and race updates at www.truckseries.com .
Hines Races to First Top-5 of 2005 in Richmond
Richmond ,Va. – Tracy Hines drove the No. 13 Red Cross/1-800-HELP NOW Chevrolet to a fifth-place finish in the Cheerios Betty Crocker 200 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at Richmond International Raceway on Thursday. Hines pitted prior to the green flag and took the initial green flag from the 36 th position, and used pit strategy to gain track position midway through the event that he was able to hold to the checkered.
“This is a long time coming,” Hines said. “Our teammate Matt Crafton tested here a couple of weeks ago and was good in the test and really good here in today in practice, so we wanted to try to make our truck as close to his as we could. We got it close, but there was one thing that we were different on. We tried it out in practice and it didn’t work, so we made some changes for qualifying. That wasn’t the way to go either, so we made some pretty big changes once we rolled off and had to start from the back.”
Once under green, Hines and the ThorSport crew noticed they were turning times competitive with many of the leaders. Crew chief Shane Tesch called Hines to the pits around the midway point for four fresh tires and the team made the call to run to the end and let the chips fall where they would.
“We got our tires around lap 100 and we were ready to go to the end,” Hines said. “We had track position and we were quick enough that we could run with those guys. There was some action up in front of us and we were able to miss it. I was hoping we could have run to the finish without those cautions, but even with the yellows we were able to hold those guys off. After the week we had, it’s awesome to come out of here with a top five finish. Every week should be like this one.”
Hines also picked up a couple of open wheel wins last weekend. He won a Midget race at Macon ,Ill. , on Saturday and followed it up with a dominant win in the Ted Horn 100 USAC Silver Crown race at DuQuoin ,Ill. , on Sunday.
Hines was also happy to have a good run with the American Red Cross logo on the truck.
“It’s been a rough week for a lot of people, and I hope our run here tonight got some attention for the Red Cross and gave some people a reason to call and make a donation,” he said.
For more information on how you can assist the area stricken by Hurricane Katrina, please contact the Red Cross at 1 (800) HELP-NOW or log on to www.redcross.org .
Crafton Heads to Richmond Hunting for First Top-10
Sandusky , Oh. – Matt Crafton heads to Richmond International Raceway hunting for his first ever top-10 finish at the three-quarter mile D-shaped oval. Richmond is one of only three tracks on the NASCAR Truck Series schedule where Crafton has more than one start and has not finished among the top-10 at least once (others include Daytona and Michigan). While Crafton has never finished well at Richmond , it is a track at which he has always run well but has seen bad luck take away a good finish time after time.
“Richmond has always been a fun place to go and race, but I am telling you, it wears me out because we run so well time after time and have a good finish taken away from us right at the end,” Crafton said. “Last year we had a top-10 for sure and we were knocking on the door for a top-5 and we got nailed late in the race and got spun out coming to the checkered flag. We’re in a hot race in the points right now, and we need to come out of Richmond with a good finish. A top-10 here would go a very long way right now.”
With every point critical at this stage in the season, Crafton and the ThorSport Racing team brought down the No. 88 Menards Chevrolet for a test at Richmond International Raceway last week.
“It’s always a good thing to get as many laps as you can around any racetrack,” Crafton said. “We need all the information we can get, and that test definitely gave us some more info. When we come back, we hope we get a day with the same conditions. That’s the one thing about testing, you can learn all you need to know to make your truck fast when it’s sunny and 85 degrees out, but then you come to race and it’s cloudy and 65 degrees.”
The Cheerios Betty Crocker 200 is scheduled for Thursday evening at 8 P.M. Eastern. Speed Channel will have the live television broadcast, while Motor Racing Network will have the live radio call on selected affiliates nationwide. TruckSeries.com will have continuous real-time practice, qualifying, and race updates at www.truckseries.com .
Hines Coming off USAC Win in DuQuoin; Carrying Red Cross on Truck in Richmond
Sandusky , Oh. – Tracy Hines comes to Richmond International Raceway fresh off a dominant win in the Ted Horn 100 USAC Silver Crown Series race at DuQuion ,Ill. , and looks to carry on that momentum with him as he takes the reins of the No. 13 ThorSport Racing/David Zoriki Inc. Chevrolet in the Betty Crocker 200 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race on Thursday evening. Hines will also have the distinctive Red Cross logos and identification on his truck in hopes of generating needed exposure and raising funds for Hurricane Katrina survivors in the southeast.
“We had a great car at DuQuoin,” Hines said. “That doesn’t happen to racecar drivers that often, and we were able to take advantage of it and pick up a big win. We brought a tire from last year that had about 20 laps on it and it worked for us. It had the stagger we needed to make the car handle the way we needed it to. Hopefully we’ll carry that momentum over to Richmond and have a good run in the truck.”
Hines finished on the lead lap in 19 th -place in last season’s NCTS race at Richmond , and he is hoping for a better result in 2005.
“We got spun out coming off turn two last year and we did a little damage to the left front of the truck,” Hines said. “This is a short track, but the speeds are high enough that aerodynamics do play a role. You need to keep the fenders on it. If you don’t, it’s going to probably ruin your day. It’s hard to go short track racing and do all of the beating and banging that we do in the Truck Series and not take a fender off. The guys that can get out front and run by themselves early on will definitely have an advantage of the guys that need to race their way through the field.”
Hines is also happy to be carrying the Red Cross on the No. 13 truck for the Richmond race.
“It’s a terrible thing that has happened in New Orleans and the rest of the southeast,” Hines said. “We’re are all very lucky to get to have a job like this in the racing industry. It’s hard not to feel a little guilty that we get to go out and race and have a good time doing it while there are people struggling for their lives. It’s our job to go and race, but we’ll do what we can do to draw attention to what’s going on down there, and hopefully some of our great fans will see what we’re doing and make a call to the Red Cross and help some people. I am glad we are able to do it, and I hope we give them a good ride at Richmond .”
The Cheerios Betty Crocker 200 is scheduled for Thursday evening at 8 P.M. Eastern. Speed Channel will have the live television broadcast, while Motor Racing Network will have the live radio call on selected affiliates nationwide. TruckSeries.com will have continuous real-time practice, qualifying, and race updates at www.truckseries.com .
For more information on how you can assist people in the area stricken by Hurricane Katrina, please contact the Red Cross at 1 (800) HELP-NOW or log on to www.redcross.org .
