American Racing News Vol 1, Issue 2 Issue 3 | Page 7

Crafton Goes Back to Back
CONCORD, NC -- Matt Crafton had a
lot to overcome on Saturday -- a 17thplace starting position and a difficult
pit stall that cost him dearly in the
early stages of Saturday's North Carolina Education Lottery 200 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
But after 134 laps, Crafton was 5.748
seconds ahead of second-place Kyle
Busch, winning the race and extending his series lead to 12 points over
seventh-place finisher Timothy Peters. In fact, the two-time champion
won consecutive races for the first
time in his NASCAR Camping World
Truck Series career, going back-to
back at Dover and Charlotte.

first time until Lap 80, when Crafton
tracked down Peters and passed him
for the top spot.
After starting mid-pack, Crafton
worked his way forward during the
first run but had major issues on pit
road, first sliding through his pit box
and later getting blocked in his stall.
The miscues forced Crafton to pass a
gaggle of cars, but by Lap 78 he was
fourth for a restart after Christopher
Bell's spin off Turn 4, and two laps

later, Crafton had the lead.
Johnny Sauter did an extraordinary job
of saving fuel and rolled home third
behind Crafton and Busch. Tyler Reddick and Matt Tifft, the latter recently
named to the 2016-17 NASCAR Next
class, were fourth and fifth, respectively. Spencer Gallagher, Peters, Bell,
Daniel Hemric and pole sitter William
Byron completed the top 10.

The victory was the 13th of Crafton's
career, but despite the wide margin of
victory, his No. 88 ThorSport Racing
Toyota didn't take the lead for the

NASCAR | American Racing News | 7