Matt Crafton worked out the "new truck bugs" with a solid 10th-place finish in Friday's NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race. Crafton was driving a new chassis that had never seen track time, and learning the nuances of a new truck and what it takes to make it go fast led to an up and down night for the driver of the No. 88 Menards/Ideal Door Chevrolet.
Crafton started 10th but rocketed toward the front during the first 21-lap green flag run, moving to third while running laps up to three-tenths of a second faster than the next fastest truck on the track.
As the race wore on Crafton reported to crew chief Bud Haefele that the truck was loose through the corners, almost to the point where Crafton couldn't turn into the corners without spinning out. A caution flag at lap 78 allowed Haefele and crew to make an adjustment to tighten the truck up, and Crafton responded by racing from 10th to fourth with 20 laps to go.
Crafton was forced to pit for fuel dropping him back to 12th with 10 laps to go. He was able to make up a couple of positions to cross the line 10th, his ninth consecutive top-10 finish dating back to Iowa Speedway in July. Crafton's top-10 streak is now the longest of the season by any driver in the NCWTS.
"It was another good day for the Menards Chevy," Crafton said. "We didn't think there was any we'd run the last 50 laps without a yellow but we did. We were hoping to get another caution and fill up the fuel cell under caution but we didn't get it. If we had a caution I thought we had a truck that could finish in the top three tonight."
Crafton was happy with the new chassis's performance in its debut.
"That's a good piece," Crafton said. "Any time you have a new truck there is a learning curve. We learned a ton about this truck tonight. The good news is it's really fast. We learned on how to adjust on this truck so when we go to places like Vegas or Homestead with it later in the year we'll know exactly what it needs."
Crafton dropped one spot in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series to seventh, just three points behind sixth-place Austin Dillon and just 75 points out of the top five.
Next up for Crafton and the No. 88 Menards/Sealbest Chevrolet is the RaceDayRaffleSeries.com 175 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on Saturday Sept. 18. The race will be televised live on SPEED starting at 2:30 p.m. ET.
