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NASCAR Camping World Trucks Series
TRUCKS: Matt Crafton, SPEEDtv.com Diary
We’re heading to a track this weekend where I feel I have somewhat of a “home field advantage”...
Matt Crafton  | http://www.thorsport.com/  |  Posted November 12, 2009   Toledo, OH
Matt Crafton, Driver of the No. 88 Menards Chevrolet in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. (Photo: LAT)
Two to go and fortunately for me, we’re heading to a track this weekend where I feel I have somewhat of a “home field advantage,” so to speak.

I’m a California native but spent quite a bit of time racing at Phoenix International Raceway before I moved over to the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. Auto Club Speedway would be closer to my hometown but I’d never raced on or even been to the Fontana track until my first Truck Series race there.

Phoenix is one of my favorite tracks and I always look forward to this weekend. My first experience at Phoenix was in 1997 and I competed there in the NASCAR Featherlite Southwest Tour Series until 2000, the year I won the series championship.

It has also bitten me more times than I care to remember. I sat on the pole in the Southwest car a few times there and was leading three separate races before my car broke in all three. Needless to say, that didn’t go over well with me so I went out and built my own car. I even took my car to Phoenix in 2006 and won the Copper World Classic for the Southwest Tour portion of the event.

So, I’m pretty comfortable getting around Phoenix and the No. 88 Menards Chevrolet should have a good shot at winning this weekend. If not, all of us at ThorSport Racing are going to be very disappointed. We struggled uncharacteristically for us last year at Phoenix but we don’t anticipate those problems again this time. After all, I’ve competed at the one-mile venue so many times that I know it like the back of my hand, and I think our team has worked out those kinks.

Phoenix reminds me a bit of Gateway International Raceway in St. Louis because both tracks have such opposite ends or corners. Gateway’s turns one and two are really tight with more banking in turns three and four that provide a really wide, flat and sweeping corner. The turns one and two corner at Phoenix aren’t nearly as sharp but are banked and it’s a bit sharper in three and four.

Due to these characteristics, we can’t expect to be perfect at both ends of the track and if you try that, you’re wasting your time. But we will try to get as close to perfection as possible and if we’re lucky, maybe that will land us right in Victory Lane.
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Matt Crafton

ThorSport Racing

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