CONCORD, N.C. -- It took Matt Crafton 178 starts to snare his first Craftsman Truck Series victory. It took about 35-crash filled laps at Lowe's Motor Speedway to set the unlikely win in motion.
Crafton took advantage of the mistakes and ill behavior of others to drive his Menard's Chevrolet Silverado to victory in the North Carolina Education Lottery 200. Crafton's victory was his first in 177 NCTS starts, the longest stretch any driver has gone before winning his first race in the series.
Crafton held off Chad McCumbee in a green-white-checkered finish to score his historic win in a wild night of racing.
"Finally, we can shut them up," Crafton said. "Now they can say, 'When's the next one coming?
With the win Crafton moved up from seventh to fourth in the points race.
1. Ron Hornaday 874 Leader
2, Rick Crawford 865 -5
3. Todd Bodine 836 -38
4. Matt Crafton 829 -45
5. Dennis Setzer 817 -57
A fierce battle for second ended with Germain Racing's Todd Bodine third in the point standings, spinning points leader Ron Hornaday just past the start-finish line at the entrance to Turn 1. An angry Hornaday limped home 23rd and took umbrage with Bodine, who finished 12th after being penalized for rough driving.
"He just flat tried to kill me," Hornaday said. "You don't spin somebody out on the straightaway. Life is too short to have an #### like that."
Bodine said he didn't mean to cause Hornaday to wreck.
"I was just trying to help him," Bodine said. "And now I look like a goat."
McCumbee was followed by Brendan Gaughan who finished third.
Erik Darnell was leading late in the race but spun his tires in the night's second-to-last restart, recovering to finish fourth. Rick Crawford finished fifth. Hornaday leads the series points race, by five over Crawford.
Dennis Setzer finished seventh and slipped to fifth in the points behind Crafton.
CitiFinancial announced it will be the primary sponsor on a variety of Roush Fenway Racing entries in all 35 Nationwide Series events in 2008. Citi will become a major associate sponsor on all Roush Fenway Racing teams, including the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series entries of Greg Biffle, Carl Edwards, Matt Kenseth, Jamie McMurray, and David Ragan. In the Nationwide Series, Biffle, Kenseth, McMurray, Erik Darnell, Colin Braun and Carl Edwards will split seat time in the CitiFinancial Ford Fusion - which will rotate among the Roush Fenway #s 16, 17, and 60 Fords throughout the season.
"Day 1 AM Testing at Daytona: #99-Erik Darnell was the fastest in Day 1 AM Testing at Daytona Int'l Speedway with a speed of 177.420 followed by #6-Colin Braun, #09-Joey Clanton, #7-Andy Lally, #18-Stacy Compton."
18 Stacy Compton, hey hey, way to go. Nice run in Dennis Setzer's ride.
Or is it Setzer's ride? It begs the question. Does a number on a team truck driven by a teammate constitute the other driver's ride? I guess it might if indeed they were two distinct teams with two distinct crew chiefs. But I am not even sure if this is the case at BHR at this point in the year and this jucture in their merger with Arrington. I don't even know if they are operating out of Tennessee or Virginia at this point.
"Day 1 PM Testing at Daytona: #10-Brendan Gaughan was the fastest in Day 1 PM Testing at Daytona Int'l Speedway with a speed of 184.638 followed by #7-Andy Lally, #09-Joey Clanton, #11-David Starr, #30-Todd Bodine. The fastest Dodge [20th] #18-Stacy Compton. "
20th! 20th?
What the heck happened over lunch. How much did Stacy eat for Pete's sake. Did a cloud come over the track? Something changed. Did it snow?
"Day 2 AM Testing at Daytona: #99-Erik Darnell was the fastest in Day 2 AM Testing at Daytona In'tl Speedway with a speed of 178.547 followed by #29-Scott ####, #5-Mike Skinner, #9-Justin Marks, #4-Stacy Compton. "
O.K. Maybe Stacy just needed to rest. Back to fifth just like that.
My point? I guess it is this. While I enjoy looking at test speeds for a little info. They really don't mean that much necessarily. You don't know what the situation was.
Were they single truck runs? Were they drafting? Were they in qualifying trim? Were they in Racing Trim. Were they on new tires? Were they on old tires? Were they simulating a race run? Were they adjusting this? Were they tinkering with that?
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