Crafton, Sauter, ThorSport Early Contenders For 2011 Championship
 This could be the year Matt Crafton and owner Duke Thorson finally get their due.

 

Crafton, who will make his 250th consecutive NASCAR Camping World Truck Series start in the Too Tough To Tame 200 at Darlington Raceway on March 12, holds the No. 1 spot in series points standings for the first time since June 2009.
The Tulare, Calif. veteran, who competed in his first series race at Auto Club Speedway on Oct. 28, 2000, holds the slimmest of leads – a single point – over post-Daytona leader Clay Rogers. ThorSport teammate Johnny Sauter holds down the fourth position giving ThorSport a pair of contenders – and rivals - for the 2011 championship.
• Crafton finished seventh in last week’s Lucas Oil 150 in Phoenix to rank among the top 10 in points for the 74th consecutive race – a streak that stands fourth in series history. He can match 2004 champion Bobby Hamilton’s 75-race mark at Darlington.
• Crafton has the second most starts by an active driver who hasn’t won a title. His best points finish, second, came in 2009.
• The 34-year-old driver has one victory, at Charlotte Motor Speedway in 2008, and looks to break a 71-race winless streak at Darlington.
• Thorson, meanwhile, is the series’ longest tenured active owner. ThorSport’s first of 342 races entered came at the Milwaukee Mile on July 6, 1996. The Sandusky, Ohio-based team, which has run full season schedules annually beginning in 1998, is on track to break Roush Fenway Racing’s record of 353 later in 2011.
• ThorSport also has won with Terry Cook and twice with Sauter, finishing among the top 10 in points seven times including with both trucks in 2009-10.
“It’s great to be first in driver points but we’re on race two of 25,” said Crafton, who recorded his 18th consecutive top-10 finish. “We’re looking to keep that consistency over the season.”
 

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 Kyle Busch Dominates Truck Race At Phoenix 


(February 25, 2010)

AVONDALE, Ariz. — Win the race off pit road. Win the race.

After taking the lead under caution on Lap 44 of Friday night’s Lucas Oil 150 at Phoenix International Raceway, Kyle Busch led the final 107 to post his second win at the 1-mile track and his 25th in the Camping World Truck Series.

Busch beat polesitter Clint Bowyer to the checkered flag by .291 seconds, as Bowyer tightened the margin on the final lap.

Ron Hornaday Jr. was third, followed by Johnny Sauter and Austin Dillon.

As full-time Sprint Cup drivers, Busch and Bowyer aren’t collecting points in the truck series. Consequently, seventh-place finisher Matt Crafton left Phoenix with a one-point lead over Clay Rogers (16th Friday) in the series standings.

“We had a really good truck, but I was scared there at the beginning,” said Busch, who ran second to a dominant Bowyer at Phoenix in November. “I was like, ‘Man, it’s going to come down like last fall — Clint’s going to walk the dog on this one.’

“But (crew chief) Eric (Phillips) made some changes to this thing that really brought it to life.”

Bowyer faulted himself for not being able to overtake Busch on six restarts in the final 50 laps of the race.

“Whichever one of us had clean air, we were about a 10th (of a second) to a 10th and a half better,” Bowyer said. “For me — and I’m not making any excuses; I was screwing up big-time on the restarts — I’m just not used to a) not having any power and b) I was hitting the rev what sounded like about 5,000 less rpm than it should have been.

“I was just messing up. It’s the difference between a Corvette and an Impala—maybe a Volt. … That’s that electric car.”

Bowyer dominated the opening green-flag run, leading the first 41 laps before Chase Mattioli blew his right front tire and scattered debris in Turn 3. After pit stops, Busch was first off pit road and held the top spot through four more cautions, the last of which (and fifth of the race) was caused by a wreck off Turn 4 involving defending series champion Todd Bodine, David Starr and Dusty Davis.

Busch led the field to a restart on Lap 120, having held the point for 76 consecutive laps. Timothy Peters’ spin in Turn 2 on Lap 123 slowed the race for the sixth time.

In the late going, the trucks had difficulty running more than three laps without a caution. Brendan Gaughan spun and backed into the wall in Turn 2 on Lap 128 to bring out the seventh yellow flag.

Reid Spencer - NASCAR

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  Waltrip slingshots past Sadler for Daytona Truck Win

 

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla.

Ten years to the day from his first victory in the Daytona 500, Michael Waltrip made a slingshot pass of Elliott Sadler at the end of a green-white-checkered-flag finish Friday night to win the NextEra Energy Resources 250 Camping World Truck Series race at Daytona International Speedway.

The victory in the season opener, which went three laps past its scheduled distance of 100 laps, was Waltrip’s first in the truck series.

It also was the 10th anniversary of the death of Dale Earnhardt Sr., who owned the car Waltrip drove to his 2001 Daytona 500 victory. Waltrip is racing in all three of NASCAR’s top three touring series this weekend, and he decaled his truck and cars to honor Earnhardt.

“I came here to celebrate his life with my black truck and my No. 15 car,” an emotional Waltrip said after the race. “I didn’t come here to celebrate a win.”

Sadler crossed the line in second place, followed by Clay Rogers, Miguel Paludo and Kyle Busch.

“I went to victory lane to congratulate him,” Sadler said, “and I said to Michael, ‘If anyone deserves to win a race today, you do.’ ”

Jennifer Jo Cobb finished sixth, the highest finish in the truck series for a woman. Cobb, 37, also became the first woman to finish in the top 10 in any of the top three divisions at Daytona.

Sadler held the lead for a restart on Lap 89 and surged ahead with help from Waltrip. Busch made his move in the closing laps, pushing Chris Fontaine toward the front. But contact between Brad Sweet and Parker Kligerman on Lap 96 started a chaotic wreck that took out most of the cars that were still running, after a 14-car pileup on Lap 75 trimmed the field.

James Buescher led the first 55 laps, which included a cycle of green-flag pit stops, before the bed cover of No. 07 Chevrolet of Donnie Neuenberger’s truck flew off in Turn 4 to cause the second caution of the race.

Timothy Peters, the winner of last year’s season opener at Daytona, took the lead after a fuel-only pit stop under caution on Lap 56. Ricky Carmichael was second off pit road, with Buescher third for a restart on Lap 58.

Those three drivers remained 1-2-3 until the hood of Justin Marks’ Chevy came loose on Lap 66, flew up and covered the windshield. Unable to see the track ahead of him, Marks slammed into the Turn 1 wall to bring out caution No. 3.

Carmichael won the race off pit road after fuel stops on Lap 67, as the trucks reached a pit window that would allow them to complete the race without another stop. Rogers, who remained on the track during the caution, led the field to the green flag on Lap 70, but Sadler quickly surged into the lead from the outside line, bringing Buescher with him.

Sadler stayed on point until a wild 14-truck wreck on Lap 75, ignited when Travis Kvapil blew a tire, collected a number of trucks that figure to be championship contenders this season, including those of defending champ Todd Bodine, Ron Hornaday Jr. and Matt Crafton.
 

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