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NASCAR Camping World Trucks Series
TRUCKS: Crafton Still Thinks He Has A Shot
Matt Crafton is 202 points behind Ron Hornaday but still has a mathematical shot at reeling him in...
Jared Turner  | http://www.scenedaily.com  |  Posted November 05, 2009   Charlotte, NC
Matt Crafton is 202 points behind Ron Hornaday heading into Friday nights NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at Texas. (Photo: LAT Photographic)

While Ron Hornaday continues to show no signs of a letting up with three races left in the 2009 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series season, his closest championship challenger isn’t conceding defeat.

Matt Crafton may be a distant 202 points behind Hornaday heading into Friday night’s race at Texas Motor Speedway, but the ThorSport Racing driver still has a mathematical shot at reeling in Hornaday.

And that’s enough for Crafton to still harbor title aspirations.

“As we’ve said, our focus each week has to be on the things we can control, and after that, let the chips fall where they may,” he says. “Do we still believe we have a chance to win this thing? Absolutely. There’s no reason to think otherwise, because we’ve seen that anything can happen in this series.

“No matter what, like always, you just have to keep shooting for wins each time out, race as hard and smart as possible each lap. We’ll pull out all the stops, and we’ll see what happens.”

Hornaday comes to Texas looking to atone for a disappointing finish to a promising run at the 1.5-mile track in June. The three-time series champion led a race-high 55 laps in the event before losing an oil-pump belt with eight laps to go and finishing 19th.

Hornaday is the defending race winner of this weekend’s WinStar World Casino 350k, however, and is gunning for a series-high seventh triumph of 2009 despite being shut out of victory lane over the last eight races.

“Texas has become a really good place for us over the last few years,” says the Kevin Harvick Inc. driver whose two Texas wins have come in his last three starts at the track. “I used to really struggle at Texas, but [crew chief] Rick Ren and the No. 33 guys have really gotten a good set up for the track. I’m excited to go back and try to get the finish we left there in the spring.”

While Hornaday, Crafton and third-place Mike Skinner hold a healthy advantage over everyone else in the standings, there’s plenty still to be decided from fourth on back.

Just 191 points separate fourth-place Todd Bodine from 10th-place Rick Crawford. Only 102 points separate Bodine from eighth-place Johnny Sauter.

Bodine won at Texas in the spring and has piled up an impressive five victories in 10 starts at the high-speed facility. Though it is too late for Bodine to rally into championship contention, the Germain Racing driver will be the man to beat at Texas if history means anything this weekend.

“We’ve got confidence going to Texas Motor Speedway because we’ve had success there, but it doesn’t guarantee success for this week or this race,” he says. “We still have to give it that 110 percent effort like we do every week. If we don’t, we’re going to end up finishing eighth instead of seeing the [truck] in victory lane.”

Crafton finished second to Bodine at Texas earlier this year and is still searching for his first win of 2009. Even if he can’t run down Hornaday over the season’s final three weeks, Crafton is still hungry for a win.

And Texas might be just the place for him to get it.

“We’ve had some really strong runs there over the years and maybe don’t have all the results to show for it, but it’s a place where we always feel like we can win,” he says. “It’s a place where you have to have the whole package. It’s always an exciting race for the fans, and usually a great time of year there, weather-wise.

“We expect our No. 88 Menards Chevy to be really good again on Friday, and, hopefully, that will translate to a trip to victory lane for us this time.”




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Jared Turner

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