For much of Friday's NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Power Stroke Diesel 200 at O'Reilly Raceway Park, Matt Crafton struggled to find his rhythm.  When it mattered most, however, Crafton found his groove as he raced to a 4th place finish and remained in the thick of championship contention.

Crafton qualified a respectable 11th for the race, but realized early in the short-track affair that his night would not be without considerable struggle.

"We were just horrible when we started the race," Crafton said.  "I said to our guys, 'I'm not trying to be a jerk, but this truck is awful'.  But we're all in this thing together, and we all decide what we think will work best and make decisions as a unit about our Menards Chevrolet Silverado.  We just kept making changes to the truck throughout the race, and we were fortunate to finish the way we did.  I give my guys so much credit for the work they did in the pits, because they just kept working their tails off for me.  I joked with them after the race that we'd better take that finish and get the heck out of town, because things could've been a lot worse tonight."

The avoidance of disappointing finishes has been an ever-present theme in Crafton's possible storybook season.  In most races thus far, his truck has been among the best on the track, and the results have reflected it. He has eight top-5 finishes, including four in a row. He hasn't finished out of the top-5 since Michigan in mid-June.  On the rare occasions when his truck hasn't been right, however, Crafton and crew have found a way to overcome.

"I always recall what Davey Allison told me one time, that he'd 'rather have been lucky than good', meaning that it takes those times when you might not be at your best but still are fortunate to avoid a bad night to keep momentum going, and that describes our race at ORP," said Crafton.  "We were terrible early, but we got some breaks and kept battling and making changes and found a way to come out of there with a pretty good finish."

Crafton and the No. 88 team will spend two days this week testing at Chicagoland Speedway, seeking ways to fine-tune the team's performances at intermediate-length tracks.  "We'll keep working on our program for 1.5 mi. tracks, looking for ways to qualify better and lead laps so that we can gain some of those important bonus points," Crafton said.

Crafton is back in race action on August 9th at Nashville.