Matt Crafton returned to Charlotte Motor Speedway, the site of his first NASCAR Camping World Truck Series victory in 2008, and scored a convincing win in the North Carolina Education Lottery 200, which was completed on Saturday afternoon due to rain showers on Friday.
Crafton, who corralled his second straight Truck Series win in the process, led a race-high 47 of 134 laps and spoiled Kyle Busch's bid for a seventh North Carolina Education Lottery 200 trophy by beating Busch to the finish line by 5.748 seconds. Johnny Sauter finished third, Tyler Reddick was fourth and rookie Matt Tifft rounded out the top five in the second of three races scheduled for Saturday, with the NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race - the biggest all-star event in sports - on tap under the lights at The Greatest Place To See The Race.
QUOTES:
North Carolina Education Lottery 200 Winner - Matt Crafton (No. 88 Damp Rid/Menards Toyota): "This thing was unbelievable from when they dropped the green. We just made air pressure adjustments - at least that's what I was told. From the first lap I knew that we had something that would contend for the win. After we ran a few laps, the truck just got better. I got a little animated earlier because some of the other trucks would just run us down to the white line on the backstretch. I know what would cure that but I really don't want to do that on a mile-and-a-half race track. I really wanted to get another win because I think we will have more than seven or eight trucks get a win this year to get into the Chase."
North Carolina Education Lottery 200 Runner-Up - Kyle Busch (No. 18 SiriusXM Toyota): "Our truck was good early on. The first half of the race we were pretty good. Second half of the race something happened. We got back in traffic after that bad pit stop where we got the penalty. Something broke, so it was just super tight. It was on the splitter."
North Carolina Education Lottery 200 Rookie of the Race - Matt Tifft (No. 11 Toyota, fifth): "It was a little bit of an up-and-down day. We struggled a little bit the first part of the race. We were just too tight. I was kind of caught in traffic there. We were in a position to come in and top off on fuel and we were able to play a little bit of strategy. We have had really fast trucks, so it's really cool to get our first top-five finish in the Truck Series."
TICKETS:
Great seats are still available for events throughout the 10 Days of NASCAR Thunder. To purchase tickets, camping and race-day upgrades, call the speedway ticket office at 1-800-455-FANS (3267) or shop online at www.charlottemotorspeedway.com.
KEEP TRACK:
Connect with Charlotte Motor Speedway by following on Twitter and Instagram or become a Facebook fan. Keep up with all the latest news and information with the Charlotte Motor Speedway mobile app.
