CRAFTON DRIVES AWAY TO WIN IN HOMESTEAD FINALE
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For the first time since the end of the 2012 Camping World Truck Series, Matt Crafton isn't leaving Homestead-Miami Speedway celebrating a championship. Instead he's celebrating his career high sixth win on the season and his first ever at the South Florida 1.5 mile track.
Crafton started from the pole and led 99 of the race's 134 laps. While he knew the championship slipped out of reach, the two time champion wanted to finish what one could argue his most successful season in the series.
"Tonight's win was awesome," Crafton said. "The last two years we haven't been able to race here, and to be able to take the gloves off and don't worry about a championship and just go out and win, and that's all we had to do was worry about winning, and I said nothing else was going to make us happy. So that's what we did tonight."
Crafton knows he had a remarkable season despite not bringing home the ultimate prize.
"We had a phenomenal season," Crafton explained. "Six wins and 700 -- I think they said 780 laps we led. That's a pretty good season. We just had one column that was bad for us: DNFs. I made mistakes and everybody made mistakes.
"But I promise you one thing, it's going to make us stronger for 2016."
For the second straight week rookie phenom John Hunter Nemechek grabbed a runner up finish. The finish for Nemechek, who won earlier this season at Chicagoland, is his 10th top 10 finish of the season.
Tyler Reddick finished in third place; his second top 10 finish in two races at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Reddick finished the 2015 campaign with a runner up finish in the points standings.
"Going into this year, our standards were set very high," Reddick said. "We wanted to win the championship. And obviously a lot of people -- I feel like a lot of people didn't think we were capable of that. We didn't end up being capable of it. As you see, we were runner-up. We were always very strong throughout the season. We were always right there. Unfortunately we were just a little too short there coming into Homestead to really mix it up in the last race. The 4 (Erik Jones) had quite a comfortable points gap."
Reddick admits he's disappointed in the season's finish but knows the future is bright for both he and his team at Brad Keselowski Racing.
"That was a shame, I had a couple bad races on my part that definitely took us out of the points lead and dropped us back there towards the end," Reddick explained. "Just learning and understanding what's worth the risk and what's your reward. We picked up on a few things. We definitely got more consistent toward the end of the season. Not always were we the fastest, but we'd always run clean races and be there at the end to have a shot at winning the races.
"Unfortunately that only happened for us twice this year, but I feel like if we play our cards right and do things right like we did this year that we'll have shots like that again in the future."
Rookie Ben Kennedy came home in fourth place with Timothy Peters grabbing the fifth place finish.
Erik Jones piloted his No. 4 Toyota to a sixth place finish which clinched the series championship for the 19 year old Michigan native. The championship is the fourth for Kyle Busch Motorsports but the team's first driver's championship.
Johnny Sauter grabbed a seventh place finish in his last race as a member of ThorSport Racing.
Daniel Hemric finished eigth with Cameron Hayley and John Wes Townley rounding out the top ten finishers.
Daniel Suarez led 10 laps and was leading when he appeared to make contact with the lapped car of Ray Black, Jr. The contact sent Suarez spinning, an incident which Suarez could not recover from; Suarez would finish in 30th place.
NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Race Number 23
Unofficial Race Results for the 20Th Annual Ford Ecoboost 200 - Friday, November 20, 2015
Homestead-Miami Speedway - Homestead, FL - 1.5 Mile Paved
Total Race Length - 134 Laps - 201 Miles - Purse: $686,721
Leader
Fin Str Trk Driver Team Laps Pts Bns Driver Rating Winnings Status Tms Laps
1 1 88 Matt Crafton Ideal Door/Menards Toyota 134 48 5 146.7 $53,598 Running 6 93
2 2 8 John H. Nemechek # Chevrolet 134 43 1 126.6 $32,308 Running 5 24
3 4 19 Tyler Reddick Broken Bow Music Group Ford 134 42 1 114.6 $30,084 Running 1 1
4 3 11 Ben Kennedy Florida Lottery Toyota 134 40 106.0 $25,597 Running
5 12 17 Timothy Peters Red Horse Racing Toyota 134 39 94.8 $22,449 Running
6 5 4 Erik Jones # Toyota Toyota 134 38 97.2 $20,382 Running
7 10 98 Johnny Sauter Nextant/Curb Records Toyota 134 37 99.9 $20,164 Running
8 7 14 Daniel Hemric # California Clean Power Chevrolet 134 36 89.8 $19,945 Running
9 11 13 Cameron Hayley # Mattei/Carolina Nut Toyota 134 35 79.3 $19,727 Running
10 13 05 John Wes Townley Zaxby's Chevrolet 134 35 1 84.4 $20,458 Running 1 1
11 8 23 Spencer Gallagher # Allegiant Chevrolet 134 33 82.8 $19,399 Running
12 18 29 Austin Theriault # Cooper Standard Ford 134 32 74.6 $19,206 Running
13 14 31 Rico Abreu GunBroker.com Chevrolet 134 31 69.8 $19,070 Running
14 19 97 Jesse Little Protect The Harvest Toyota 134 30 70.8 $16,710 Running
15 16 0 Scott Lagasse Jr.(i) Florida DOT/Boy Scouts of America Chevrolet 134 0 62.5 $17,201 Running
16 15 92 David Gilliland(i) Blacks Tire & Wheel Distributors Ford 133 0 63.2 $16,464 Running
17 22 59 David Levine Furman University/MOMO Ford 133 27 55.2 $16,355 Running
18 27 07 Ray Black Jr. # ScubaLife.com Chevrolet 133 26 55.5 $18,496 Running
19 23 02 Tyler Young AKL Insurance Group/Young's Chevrolet 133 25 50.7 $18,386 Running
20 20 15 Mason Mingus 811 Call Before You Dig Chevrolet 132 24 59.8 $18,755 Running
21 25 94 Timmy Hill Testoril/ChampionMachinery.com Chevrolet 132 23 46.5 $18,032 Running
22 28 50 Travis Kvapil CorvetteParts.net Chevrolet 132 22 43.8 $17,758 Running
23 21 58 Kyle Weatherman LifeXist/Massage LUXE Ford 131 21 47.0 $15,372 Running
24 32 1 Dexter Stacey Maddie's Place Chevrolet 131 20 40.3 $16,044 Running
25 9 54 Christopher Bell JBL Toyota 130 20 1 68.5 $15,976 Out Of Fuel 1 5
26 24 10 Jennifer Jo Cobb UTA.org Chevrolet 128 18 34.3 $14,607 Running
27 31 08 Korbin Forrister # Tilted Kilt Chevrolet 127 17 31.3 $14,389 Running
28 29 63 Garrett Smithley NIMITZ/Adama Chevrolet 126 16 33.5 $12,799 Running
29 30 74 Jordan Anderson Simmons & White/Columbia SC Chevrolet 115 15 30.8 $12,553 Running
30 6 51 Daniel Suarez(i) ARRIS Toyota 84 0 98.0 $11,553 Accident 1 10
31 17 33 Brandon Jones # Lucas Oil Chevrolet 67 13 27.0 $11,053 Accident
32 26 86 Brandon Brown Coastal Carolina University Chevrolet 2 12 23.2 $9,553 Transmission
Race Comments: Matt Crafton won the Ford EcoBoost 200, his 11th career NASCAR Camping World Truck Series victory. Prior to the start of the race, no trucks dropped to the rear of the field.
Failed to Qualify: (4) 18 Ross Kenseth(i), 36 Bobby Pierce, 45 Todd Peck, 6 Norm Benning.
Time of Race: 01 Hrs, 35 Mins, 10 Secs. Average Speed: 126.725 MPH Margin of Victory: 2.942 Seconds
Caution Flags: 4 for 18 laps: Laps: 5-8 (#86 Stalled On Track [50]); 62-66 (#51 Spin Turn 4 [31]); 75-78 (#33 Spin Turn 2 [92]); 84-88 (Debris Turn 2 [02]).
Lead Changes: 14 among 6 drivers: M. Crafton 1-30; J. Nemechek # 31-48; T. Reddick 49; J. Townley 50; D. Suarez(i) 51-60; J. Nemechek # 61-62; M. Crafton 63; J. Nemechek # 64-65; M. Crafton 66-67; J. Nemechek # 68; M. Crafton 69-78; J. Nemechek # 79; M. Crafton 80-83; C. Bell 84-88; M. Crafton 89-134.
Top 10 Driver Points: (1) E. Jones # 899;(2) T. Reddick 884;(3) M. Crafton 877;(4) J. Sauter 809;(5) T. Peters 804;(6) C. Hayley # 766;(7) D. Hemric # 733;(8) J. Townley 730;(9) B. Kennedy 690;(10) S. Gallagher # 677.
Keystone Light Pole Award : Matt Crafton, #88 167.551 mph Mahle Clevite Engine Builder of the Race : Triad Racing Technologies (TRT), #88
Mobil 1 Driver of the Race : Matt Crafton, #88 Sunoco Rookie of the Race : John Hunter Nemechek, #8
(i) Ineligible for driver points in this series
Next Race: Feb. 19, 2016 - Daytona International Speedway
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