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Matt Crafton does a burnout after winning the North Carolina Education Lottery 200 at Lowe's Motor Speedway. (Jason Smith/Getty Images Photo) » More Photos » More Photos
All it took for Matt Crafton to finally score his breakthrough first NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series victory was for some of his fellow truckers to live up to the series motto and not play nice together.
And that’s exactly what happened Friday night at Lowe’s Motor Speedway, as Crafton took advantage of the mistakes and ill behavior of others to drive his Menard’s Chevrolet Silverado to victory in the North Carolina Education Lottery 200 over Chad McCumbee and the Malcolmson Trucking Chevy.
Crafton’s victory was his first in 177 NCTS starts, the longest stretch any driver has gone before winning his first race in the series. In fact, the longest previous stretch was 111 races, set by Bryan Reffner in 2000. McCumbee’s finish was also a career-best, following a fifth-place run at Atlanta Motor Speedway earlier this season.
“It’s awesome,” said Crafton, 31, a native of Tulare, Calif. “Perseverance pays off and we never gave up. I’ve got a really good group of guys behind me and have great owners, Duke and Ronda Thorson. The crew chief is awesome and they all believe in me and I believe in them and that’s what it’s all about in this deal. Never give up and just put yourself in the right position each and every week and you’re going to get wins.”
Behind Crafton and McCumbee, Brendan Gaughan finished third in the International MAXXFORCE Diesel Ford F-150, followed by Erik Darnell’s Northern Tool & Equipment Ford and Rick Crawford’s Power Stroke Diesel by International Ford.
Pole-sitter and two-time 2008 NCTS winner Kyle Busch dominated the action in Billy Ballew’s Miccosukee Resorts Toyota Tundra in the first half of the race, leading three times for a total of 86 laps. At times, Busch had leads in excess of five seconds and clearly was in a class by himself.
As expected, the toughest competition for Busch came from series points leader and defending champion Ron Hornaday Jr., who had qualified second in the Camping World Chevy out of the Kevin Harvick stable.
But it was Hornaday who would prove Busch’s undoing. Busch surrendered the lead at the Lap 100 mark, when he pitted from the top spot and re-entered the race in fifth.
While attempting to get back to the front on Lap 105, Busch went around Hornaday on the high side going into Turn 3, which sucked the air off Hornaday’s Chevy, sending it around and into Busch’s truck.
While the No. 51 Toyota wasn’t heavily damaged, Busch’s mount was bent a little in the nose and he rejoined the race in 15th place, never again to contend for the win. Ultimately, he finished eighth, which was a lot better than it could have been under the circumstances. But when you’ve won NASCAR races in six consecutive weeks, as Busch had going into Lowe’s, it was cold comfort.
“I’ve learned in these things, that when you get to the outside of someone you tend to make them loose,” said Busch. “I tried giving him room by getting up the race track. I heard him gas up, and when he did, he drove up the race track a little bit and got right on my door. It took his air away and sucked him around. My truck, I guess, was glued to the race track way better than his, and I could hold it down on the bottom on the white line better.”
After that, it got messy. Darnell led from Lap 105-127 and appeared headed for a fairly easy victory. But on Lap 128, during a restart, Darnell bobbled badly, handing the lead to Crafton.
Hornaday, meanwhile, had recovered from his earlier spin and was again contending for the victory when Todd Bodine dumped him at the end of the frontstretch on Lap 131, which set up a green-white-checkered finish, with Crafton prevailing easily over the 138-lap race distance.
“I’ve won
NC EDUCATION LOTTERY 200 RESULTS
Tom Jensen is the Senior NASCAR Editor for SPEEDtv.com, the former Executive Editor of NASCAR Scene and a contributing Editor for TruckSeries.com. He is the author of “Cheating: The Bad Things Good NASCAR Nextel Cup Racers Do In Pursuit of SPEED,” and has appeared on numerous television and radio shows to discuss NASCAR racing. Jensen is the President of the National Motorsports Press Association. The Answer Man is back at SPEEDtv.com. Tom Jensen answers your questions during every race week and looks forward to hearing from you - please e-mail it to
SPEED will televise the NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race XXIV and the NASCAR Sprint Showdown live on May 17, as well as provide more than 90 hours of support programming prior to the event. Stay tuned to SPEEDtv.com for frequent updates on the history of the event and all the details about this year’s action.
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