Last night Matt Crafton after 176 starts and 8 years of frustration finally got a win in last night's Craftsman Truck Series race at Lowe's Motor Speedway holding of up and coming driver Chad McCumbee in overtime for the win. Crafton's win also broke a 10 year winless drought for the ThorSport racing team who last saw victory lane with Terry Cook behind the wheel at Flemington, NJ in 1998.
"It's awesome," said Crafton. "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."
The race ended up being a real wreck-em rodeo featuring 7 cautions for 33 laps. Kyle Busch dominated early but found himself in the wall with a crippled truck after Ron Hornaday's truck got loose on lap 105. Erik Darnell took over the lead and victory seemed to be in his hands until he spun his tires on a restart handing the lead to Johnny Benson. NASCAR offcials misjudged the restart and deemed that Johnny Benson had jumped the restart and blackflaged him. The battle for the lead was now between Hornaday, Crafton and Todd Bodine until Bodine punted Hornaday on the frontstretch on lap 131. The race then went into a green-white-checkred sitaution with Crafton holding off McCumbee for the win.
The Craftsman Truck Series heads off to Mansfield, Ohio for a race next Saturday.
Matt Crafton wins his first truck race in dramatic fashion (Truckseries.com)
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