Matt Crafton seeks his first win at ORP in Friday's AAA Insurance 200 presented by JD Byrider.
Crafton has been in the thick of victory-contention multiple times at the track, including a 4th place finish last season. In 8 career starts at ORP, Crafton has collected 6 top-10 finishes. He has finished in the top-5 twice.
"I love racing at ORP," he said. "There's a lot of history here, and we've been coming here a long time. ORP has always been a special track to ThorSport Racing, and we've run pretty well here for the most part. We'd love to bring home a win on Friday."
Crafton enters the race on the strength of a 3rd place finish at Kentucky last week, his 5th top-5 finish of the season. Crafton dodged a number of proverbial bullets in the race, from being forced to yield the top spot with the field apparently frozen during a caution to numerous adjustments on his No. 88 Menards Chevy, which left him on the outside looking in for much of the race.
"We battled all night, never quite had the truck where we wanted it, but Bud (crew chief Haefele) and the guys kept working their tails off for me," said Crafton. "There were some things that happened out there that left us scratching our heads a bit, but that's the way it goes sometimes. You just accept it and move on. I'm proud of the way we kept fighting, and we minimized the damage on what could've been a bad night. We're looking forward to short-track racing and everything that comes with it at ORP."
Crafton is in 2nd place in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series standings as the series enters a 'short-track stretch'. Three of the next five NCWTS races, including ORP, will be short-track battles.
"There's just something special about the short-tracks," Crafton said. "You grow up racing on these types of tracks, and it's a feeling that stays with you. You have to be aggressive, but you can't get impatient, and it's a fine line. Getting impatient will get you into trouble quickly at ORP. The driver is a bigger part of the equation in short-track racing. ORP means old-school beatin' and bangin', and you can't get away from it. Your truck has to turn well thru the center here, so you can drive strong off the corner. You hope to stay out of someone else's mess, and to keep the fenders on the truck, and to put yourself in position for a shot to win."
