Crafton wins his second |
Matt Crafton
made history Friday night at Homestead-Miami Speedway, as the defending NASCAR
Camping World Truck Series champion became in the first back-to-back champion
in the history of the series.
Crafton is the 13th
different driver to win the Truck Series title and the fourth to win multiple crowns.
Although the idea of Crafton becoming the first back-to-back series champion
since the NASCAR Truck Series inception in 1995 has been circulating for
several weeks throughout the NCWTS garages, Crafton said he had banished the
thought from his mind.
“It’s
definitely an awesome feeling to say you’re back-to-back champion,” Crafton
said. “I definitely didn’t want to talk about it at all the last few weeks.
Without a doubt I wanted to go out there and do my job and try to win more
races and lead more laps and that’s what we did.”
Crafton’s
ninth-place finish secured the top spot over Brad Keselowski Racing driver Ryan
Blaney by a 21-point margin. The 2014 season marked Crafton’s 15th in
the truck Series, and he leads the series in consecutive starts with 337.
Wallace win his fourth |
Kyle Busch
Motorsports took home the NCWTS Owner’s Championship; the team’s second-consecutive
and third all-time owner title. KBM is now the second team in NCWTS history to
win back-to-back championships. Their third title leaves them tied with Hendrick
Motorsports and Kevin Harvick Inc. for the most all-time championships.
While Crafton claimed
the Truck Series championship, Darrell Wallace Jr. won the 19th
Annual Ford EcoBoost 200, his fifth victory in 44 NCWTS races. Four of those
victories came this season.
“I can’t thank
my guys enough for continuing to come up each and every race and never give up
and have that desire to win,” Wallace said. “I told them before the race even
started, we want it more than anybody else. We don’t have a shot at the title,
but we want this race more than anybody else. Let’s show that. And I had to
work for it there. I had to battle off Kyle (Larson) and Kyle (Busch), so a lot
of things knocked off tonight in the mile-and-a-half win. We beat the boss
finally.”
The win was
bittersweet for Wallace, whose No. 54 ToyotaCare team learned earlier that
morning that the
“Eddie, our
engineer, lost his mother earlier,” said Wallace. “I wanted to put her name,
Alejandra, on the top of our door, and she was our guardian angel, so that’s
what got us to Victory Lane.”
Will Darrell Wallace have a full time ride next year in Trucks or Nationwide? Is it likely that he'll run full time for JGR in Nationwide? Shame if doesn't have a full time ride. Fun to watch him race.
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