Matt Crafton
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| status | active | ||||||||
| NASCAR Xfinity Series Statistics | |||||||||
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| Best placement | 102nd - (2003) | ||||||||
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| NASCAR Camping World Truck Series statistics | |||||||||
| Best placement | 1. - (2013, 2014, 2019) | ||||||||
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| Data status: March 24, 2020 | |||||||||
Matthew Justin "Matt" Crafton (born June 11, 1976 in Tulare , California ) is an American racing driver who currently drives in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series . There he drives the Menards Chevrolet Silverado with starting number 88 from ThorSport Racing . In the 2009 season he finished second overall.
Career
Crafton started his career at the age of seven when he was given a go-kart . He won numerous regional and national titles before switching to midget cars , vehicles that resemble karts, at the age of 15 . He won 20 main races in Midgets. In 1996 he got into the Featherlite Southwest Series, in which he won the championship in 2000. In 1998 he gained national fame by participating in the Winter Heat Series, which was shown on the US television channel ESPN . He stood among others drivers like Greg Biffle , Kevin Harvick , Kurt Busch and Ron Hornaday Jr. to.
In 2000 Crafton made his debut in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series in the season finale, the Motorola 200 at California Speedway . He started in 17th place and finished in a very good ninth place. In the 2001 season he became the full-time driver for ThorSport Racing. He stayed there until the end of the 2003 season. He made it into the top 10 28 times, but not once in the top 5. The best results in races were sixth in 2001, seventh in 2002 and sixth again in 2003. The best place in the overall driver ranking, eleventh place in the 2003 season.
At the beginning of the 2004 season, Crafton signed a contract with Kevin Harvick Incorporated which gave him the opportunity to drive for Harvick for a full year. He finished in the top 5 for the first time in the Craftsman Truck Series, his best results being two third places in the O'Reilly 200 at Bristol Motor Speedway and in the Chevy Silverado 150 at Phoenix International Raceway . He was fifth overall. Nevertheless, he returned to ThorSport Racing, where he could no longer build on the successes he celebrated at Kevin Harvick Incorporated. In 2005 he secured his first pole position in the series at New Hampshire International Speedway , but retired and was only 35th in the race. He finished the season in ninth place overall. He also drove for ThorSport Racing in the 2006 season and made it into the top five four times. He only dropped out once in the entire season and ended up in 14th place overall. In the 2007 season Crafton made it into the top 5 only once, but had more bad luck, but it was enough to finish eighth overall. Along with Rick Crawford, he was one of only two drivers in the top 10 who could not achieve a victory.
Also in the 2008 season he started for ThorSport Racing. On May 16, 2008, he won his first race, the North Carolina Education Lottery 200 at Lowe's Motor Speedway . The following year was the best of his career in a total of 21 top 10 placements. Crafton took second place in the championship. His next win came in Iowa in 2011.
In 2013 Crafton achieved his greatest triumph by winning the title, although he could only win one race in the same season. He repeated this feat the following year (for the first time with several victories) and was the first driver ever in the third largest NASCAR series who had managed to defend his title.
In 2015 Crafton even won six races, more than in his first 14 NASCAR years combined, but missed defending his title and was only third overall.
In 2016 Crafton won two races and was runner-up behind Johnny Sauter .
In 2017 Matt Crafton won the Eldora Dirt Derby at Eldora Speedway. It was the first dirt race that he could win in the Nascar Camping World Truck Series.
In 2018, after ThorSport switched to Ford, Crafton remained without a win for the first time since 2012 and also missed the top 4 in the overall standings and came in sixth.
In 2019, Crafton managed to win the title for the third time, although he had not been able to win a race during the entire season, which turned out to be difficult, especially with the Chase for the Cup format, which has been active since 2016 . Nevertheless, he and his teammate Grant Enfinger, also without a win, were in the first two places of the championship at the beginning of the play-offs due to their consistency. Two races later, at the end of the Round of 8, Crafton was ahead of Enfinger and Sauter. In the next race none of the three crossed the finish line, and since Crafton was the best of all ThorSport riders before the race, Crafton was the only one of the three to make it into the Round of 6. After an eighth place Crafton was only 23rd in Martinsville, however, crossed the line in front of two other championship candidates, Austin Hill and Tyler Ankrum . After Crafton was sixth in the penultimate race, Hill 13th and Ankrum 26th, it was enough to get into the top 4 and fight for the title at the final in Homestead. There he had to admit defeat to Hill in the fight for victory, but came home before the other title candidates, Ross Chastain , Brett Moffitt and Stewart Friesen .
He was the second driver after Austin Dillon who had succeeded in becoming a champion in one of the three largest NASCAR series without a win. In addition, he drew what title in the Trucks Series is concerned, with Jack Sprague equal, putting it in second place behind Ron Hornaday .
Crafton competed in over 250 consecutive races in the Camping World Truck Series.
Private
Crafton is married and has one daughter.
Web links
- Official website of Matt Crafton
- Driver statistics on racing-reference.info
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Crafton, Matt |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Crafton, Matthew |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American NASCAR driver |
| DATE OF BIRTH | June 11, 1976 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Tulare , California |