Matt Crafton in the No. 88 Menards/Peak Silverado at the Quaker Steak & Lube 200 at Lowe's Motor Speedway. (VPS Motorimages Photo)

Matt Crafton raced to a 7th place finish in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Quaker Steak & Lube 200 at Lowe's Motor Speedway on Friday, his 4th top-10 finish this season and fifth consecutive at Lowe's.

Crafton started the race in 16th position, but wasted little time moving the No. 88 Menards/Peak Silverado toward the front. He threaded his way thru traffic to climb inside the top-10, where he spent a good portion of the evening. He appeared headed for a top-5 finish until a tussle on a late-race restart.

"On the last restart, I had a good run on Mark (Martin), but he blocked me on the bottom," Crafton said. "Both of us had to roll out of the gas a little bit so we didn't wreck, and it cost me a couple of spots. If we'd have been racing for the win, it would've been a different story, but it wasn't worth wrecking for a couple of spots. We're a little disappointed, because we definitely felt we had a top-5 truck, but that's the way this sport is. Sometimes, you have an awesome truck and maybe don't have a strong finish to show for it, and other times you're fortunate to finish well when you don't have your best truck. All in all, we'll take another top-10 finish and run with it."

Crafton climbed to sixth place in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series standings as he heads 'home' for Saturday's Ohio 250 at Mansfield Motorsports Park. The track is located an hour from Sandusky, home of ThorSport Racing.

"Mansfield is real special to me, and to our entire organization," said Crafton, who owns a pair of top-10 finishes in three career starts at the half-mile oval. "It's ThorSport Racing's home track, and it's always an exciting week for us. I lived up there for a few years, so it's a second home for me. All of our guys have lots of friends and family in the area. The whole buildup around the Mansfield race is just outstanding. It's a first-class production. Ohio race fans are as passionate and knowledgeable as you'll find anywhere. They treat us like rock stars up there."

Despite the hoopla surrounding Crafton and company at Mansfield (including a rare national television audience on Fox) he says some things remain constant. "We wanna go there and put on a fine show for our families and friends, and it's awesome that the race is on national television, because we all know how good the racing is in this series," Crafton said. "It's tremendous exposure for us. But at the same time, once the race starts, you still have to be smart. It's important to save your equipment on these short-tracks, so you can be there at the end with a chance to win. You've got to put your nose in the right place at the right time. Hopefully, we'll do that and have a chance to get to Victory Lane at our home track on Saturday. That would be really special for all of us at ThorSport."