Matt Crafton at the John Deere 200 at Atlanta. (Ronda Greer Photo)

The evening air was chilly, but it didn't take Matt Crafton long to heat up as he charged to a 9th place finish in the John Deere 200 at Atlanta Motor Speedway on Friday.

Crafton, who secured his first top-ten finish of the season, qualified 27th and wasted little time driving the No. 88 Menards Chevrolet into contention. He moved to twelfth place during the first 30 laps of the race, and surged to sixth by the halfway mark. Crafton overran his pit box on a late-race stop and fell to 15th, but quickly weaved his way thru traffic and motored back inside the top-ten. He avoided a multi-car wreck on the last lap of the race en route to his third top-ten finish in five career NASCAR Camping World Truck Series starts at Atlanta.

"All things considered, I'm real happy with our finish," Crafton said. "We were great on long runs, struggled on the short ones, and I messed up by overrunning the pit box, but we finished strong. We'll keep improving and working hard and we'll get to where we want to be."

Earnhardt's Hopes Dashed Early in Atlanta

Kerry Earnhardt qualified 13th for the John Deere 200 at Atlanta Motor Speedway on Friday, and appeared on the verge of charging back into contention in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series standings. Earnhardt's No. 13 ThorSport Racing Silverado was third fastest among Chevrolets in qualifying, and successful air pressure and shock package adjustments seemed to signal a strong race performance was in order.

Unfortunately for Earnhardt, he'll never know. In a Craftsman Truck Series case of 'what-might-have-been', Earnhardt's Chevy was squeezed against the wall within the first twenty laps, causing damage to the right front fender and a loss of downforce and effectively ending his evening.

Earnhardt was able to continue the race, but spent considerable time in the pit area, fell several laps down and finished in 34th place.

"It was one of those deals that we had no control over," Earnhardt said. "That's the unfortunate thing about it. We qualified strong, and felt like we had a fast truck. We never got the chance to show it. It's frustrating, but it's part of racing. We'll move on and get ready for Martinsville."