Crafton's fifth-place finish in the blistering Mid-South heat was his fourth in the top-5 thru eleven races this season. He has nine top-10 finishes. The finish was his third in the top-5 in his last four races at Memphis. On-track temperatures at race-time soared well into the triple-digits.
"We're racing for wins each week, so it's a little bit disappointing to come up short in that regard," Crafton said. "We expect to win races and finish in the top-5 every week. For the most part, we've put ourselves in position to have a shot to win, and it all starts with that. We just need to close the deal, and we will. At the same time, we have great trucks, and we keep trying to stay consistent and find ways to get better. That's what you have to do. We'll take it, and we'll be ready at Kentucky in a couple of weeks."
Crafton is 2nd in the NCWTS standings. Though he lost ground on the top spot, he managed to put some additional point space between him and a pack of fellow competitors.
"It sounds so cliché, but anything can happen out here week-to-week, so you just really have to take each race as it comes," he said. "If you start looking around, instead of keeping your head down and staying focused, you'll find yourself in trouble. We have a lot of work to do to get to where we want to be, and everybody's on the same page with our expectations. But we know we have all the pieces we need, and we'll just keep working to put them in place."
