TOYOTA NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (NCWTS)
Matt Crafton — Notes & Quotes
Charlotte Motor Speedway – May 15, 2014
MATT CRAFTON, No. 88 Menards Toyota Tundra, ThorSport Racing
Do you look forward to racing at Charlotte?
“I look forward to it — I always look forward to coming to Charlotte. It’s the site of my first win and it’s really cool because the majority of the teams are based out of the Charlotte area and our team is based out of Sandusky (Ohio) and everybody has their pride of coming to Charlotte to try to win in their own backyard and be able to come here and try to steal the pride from those guys is very cool. We did it a few years back.”
What made you work with Austin Dillon on the final restart at Kansas?
“I knew that he (Austin Dillon) was starting on the outside and I was fourth at that time and I think Kyle (Busch) was on the front row on the inside. I know you don’t want to help another manufacturer, but I knew Kyle was going to be the truck to beat so I knew if I could get him out and we could clear him and I could clear Kyle then we might be able to beat him. I got him to clear him and it took me a few laps to get by him, but my balance definitely wasn’t what Kyle’s was. His truck was pretty amazing.”
How hard is it to earn a back-to-back championship in the NCWTS?
“The competition in the Truck Series — it’s very, very tough. You’ve got a lot of trucks that go out there and can run good each and every week. It’s tough — very, very tough. You see Kyle (Busch) does come in here and he’s one of the Cup drivers that comes here and runs really good, but you see quite a few of these Cup guys that came in here and just don’t dominate it like they do on the Nationwide Series. What I like about the Truck stuff is you don’t have all the Cup affiliated teams to go out there and race against so it’s more driver against driver and more equal equipment.”
How beneficial was the Charlotte test for your team?
“The biggest thing when we tested here and in general with the 2014 Tundra and all the manufacturers is that it’s brand new for everybody so we had no idea when we tested here — I hope it rains like hell the rest of the day to be totally honest because we tested here two weeks ago and we feel like we have a pretty good balance on it. There are a few of these teams that have pretty fast trucks that didn’t come to the test so I hope it rains the rest of the day.”
What has Jeb Burton brought as a teammate at ThorSport Racing?
“Nothing — just kidding. He’s a good little driver and the biggest thing is just all three of us working together — Jeb (Burton), Johnny (Sauter) and I and being able to bounce stuff off each other. I know the trucks went to Kansas and rolled off the trailer very, very similar setup-wise and we could bounce stuff off each other. I know the 88 and the 13 were really, really close setup-wise and the 98 went a little different, but the 98 got fast there about halfway through practice and they came and talked to us and everybody got on the same page. Just having everybody work together is very good.”
Do you expect a similar race at Charlotte to what we saw in Kansas?
“The biggest reason why you saw so many wrecks last week is the track had all the grip in the world and the tire was really hard and you’re relying 100 percent on aero — aero that’s holding you down and when you do get in traffic they shut off. I think you see quite a few of these drivers that haven’t been in that situation like that at Kansas and that was one thing I really focused on doing was getting in like an eight-truck pack and I did it last week at Kansas to see how hard they were going to be to drive. I started at the back of the pack and worked my way through it and saw that. I kept looking in my mirror and saw people making the mistakes and I’m sure there are going to be a lot of them and there are going to be a lot of them that are a lot smarter tomorrow night as well racing side-by-side. This place — the tire is a lot grippier and the track is starting to wear out so you’re going to be able to run side-by-side a lot better tomorrow night.”
