Matt Crafton makes his first start at Iowa Speedway in the Lucas Oil 200 on Saturday. While the 7/8 mi. track would appear to be a throwback to the short-track racing Crafton enjoys most, he says it likely will instead yield intermediate track-style performance.
"From what I've heard, it sounds like Iowa races more like some of the mile-and-a-half tracks than anything else," Crafton said. "It should lend itself to some great side-by-side racing. The fast line should be on the bottom, but if someone is running strong up top, you run the risk of being pinned down there. It'll be interesting to see how it plays out."
Crafton says back-to-back visits to new venues on the NCWTS circuit are a breath of fresh air.
"It's great for the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series to be making our first start at Iowa, after our first visit to Chicagoland last week," he said. "It's cool to see new tracks on our schedule, just adds to the great racing in this series. I'm excited about racing at Iowa. We're looking forward to it, and I think the fans are in for a great show. Our goal each week is to win, of course, but it would be special to take our Menards Silverado to Victory Lane in the first Truck Series race at Iowa. We're bringing a new truck this week, and I'm confident it will be a good night for us."
Crafton remains in 2nd place in the NCWTS standings, and within striking-distance of his first championship.
"There's a lot of racing left, and anybody who knows how this deal works knows things can change in a hurry," said Crafton. "Our guys have always been good at focusing on the task at hand, and not looking ahead or behind, and we'll keep doing that. We'll focus on controlling the things we can, and take it from there."
