Wallace Claims Truck Battle, Crafton Wins The War

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 15^th 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 19^th 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.”