CONCORD, N.C. — Matt Crafton had the winning number in Friday night’s NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series North Carolina Education Lottery 200 at Lowe’s Motor Speedway.
An unlikely turn of events and a chaotic final 30 laps put Crafton’s No. 88 Menards/McGuire-Nicholas Chevrolet in position to hold off a hard-charging Chad McCumbee in a green-white-checkered finish to score the victory, his first in 178 starts in the series.
“Perseverance pays off and we never gave up and we’ve got a really good crew,” Crafton said. “We’ve got great owners, Duke and Rhonda Thorson, and everyone did awesome. Crew chief (Bud Haefele) was awesome and everyone was behind me and I believed in them, and that’s what it’s all about in this deal. Just never give up and put yourself in the right position each and every week and you’re gonna get a win.
“I’ve won in a lot of series, everything I’ve ever raced in. It’s been a black cloud following me for a long time,” Crafton said of getting his first win in the truck series. “Finally the black cloud has moved along and maybe we can get a few more this year.”
Like so many times this season, Kyle Busch appeared unbeatable in Billy Ballew Motorsports’ No. 51 Miccosukee Resorts/NOS Energy Drink Toyota, leading all but 14 of the first 100 laps. But the race’s complexion changed when the leaders pitted during a lap-100 caution flag.
After restarting fifth, Busch tried to make his way around Ron Hornaday, Jr. and back to the front. But as the two raced side by side, Hornaday’s No. 33 Camping World Chevrolet got loose and made contact with Busch, sending both trucks spinning in turn four and collecting Jack Sprague, Colin Braun and Scott Speed in the process. Busch pitted with heavy right-side damage, but battled back to finish eighth.
Erik Darnell paced the field for the next 23 laps with Johnny Benson hot on his bumper. But when Darnell spun the tires on his No. 99 Northern Tool + Equipment Ford on a lap-127 restart, Benson made his move — and was black flagged for jumping the restart. That handed the lead to Crafton with nine laps to go.
Crafton, who had made his way into the top 10 after starting 18th, battled Todd Bodine before a collision between Bodine and Hornaday with five laps to go took Bodine out of contention and set up a green-white-checkered finish with McCumbee second.
From there, Crafton had only to hold his line to make it to victory lane.
“I always remember that a guy was telling me, Dan Press, was telling me to flip the mirror up when you are leading the race at the end of the race and look out the front of the windshield,” Crafton said. “He said as soon as you start looking backwards that you are already halfway beat, so I never looked back and looked out that front windshield and drove my tail off. And I knew I wasn’t going to lift, I can promise you that. That green-white-checkered, when (the race) went green (the pedal) never came off the floor and going into two it was going to be checkers or wreckers and we finally got it.”
McCumbee held on for second, his career-best finish and his fourth top-10 finish of the season. Brendan Gaughan, Darnell and Rick Crawford completed the top five.
Hornaday, who finished 23rd, holds a five-point lead over Crawford in the standings.