Matt Crafton Tag

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service BRISTOL, Tenn. – Overcoming a mistake in communication, Ben Rhodes charged to the front in the closing laps of Saturday’s Pinty’s Truck Race on Dirt snatched the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series victory from runner-up Carson Hocevar. One circuit after the final restart on Lap 146 of 150, Rhodes, the defending series champion, buried his No. 99 ThorSport Racing Toyota into Turn 1, slid to the outside of third-place finisher John Hunter Nemechek and dived to the inside of Hocevar to take the lead.Read More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service William Byron proved emphatically Thursday night that he hadn’t forgotten how to drive a truck. Making only his second start in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series since 2016—after a blown engine knocked him out of last year’s Nashville race—Byron parlayed perfect pit strategy into a decisive victory in the Blue-Emu Maximum Pain Relief 200 at Martinsville Speedway. In his last full season in the series in 2016, Byron won seven races before moving on to the Xfinity Series and finally to the CupRead More

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service LAS VEGAS – Nineteen year-old Chandler Smith took the lead with two laps remaining and held off 2021 championship contender Zane Smith and the winningest driver in NASCAR national-series history, his team owner Kyle Busch, to win the Victoria’s Voice 200 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. It was a deservedly dramatic ending for a hugely competitive race at the 1.5-mile Las Vegas track – marking the ninth consecutive truck series race won by a driver 23 years ofRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor AVONDALE, Ariz. – As the laps were winding down in Friday night’s Lucas Oil 150 at Phoenix Raceway, Ben Rhodes could see the championship slipping away and he wasn’t going to settle for second place. Setting his sights on championship rival Zane Smith, Rhodes was a man on a mission, chewing up the ground between himself and Smith to catch up to the rear bumper of Smith’s No. 21 Chevrolet. After a bump in Turn 3 with nine laps to go, Rhodes sent Smith up theRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor AVONDALE, Ariz. – The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series will be the first title fight of the weekend to be settled, as the four remaining drivers in the Playoffs will duke it out Friday night at Phoenix Raceway for the right to hoist the championship trophy when the checkered flag falls. Eight drivers started the Playoffs with a berth in the championship race in mind, but half of them fell by the wayside, leaving Matt Crafton, John Hunter Nemechek, Ben Rhodes, and Zane Smith as theRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service MARTINSVILLE, Va. – On a track strewn with spinning trucks and broken hearts, Zane Smith catapulted into the Championship 4 with a thrilling overtime victory in Saturday’s United Rentals 200 at Martinsville Speedway. In a no-holds-barred race that featured 14 cautions for 89 laps, Smith won under yellow after he, Stewart Friesen and Todd Gilliland raced three-wide—yes, three-wide at Martinsville—off Turn 4 on the first lap of overtime. Contact from Friesen’s Toyota sent Gilliland’s Ford spinning across the start/finish line to start the finalRead More

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service For the second consecutive week the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series crowned a first-time winner. Christian Eckes, a 20-year old New York native, took the lead on a final restart with four laps remaining to claim his first trophy and lead a historic 1-2-3-4 finish for the ThorSport Racing team. Eckes teammate Ben Rhodes finished .272-seconds back, followed by Playoff driver Matt Crafton and veteran Johnny Sauter who completed the ThorSport four-of-a-kind at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Todd Gilliland finished fifth after leading aRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service In a stunning upset on Thursday night at Bristol Motor Speedway, rookie Chandler Smith stole a victory from reigning NASCAR Camping World Truck Series champion Sheldon Creed, clinched a spot in the Round of 8 of the Playoffs and eliminated Todd Gilliland from the postseason. The entire tenor of the UNOH 200 presented by Ohio Logistics changed in the final five laps. On a restart on Lap 196 of 200, Smith powered his No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota to the inside of Creed’sRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service DARLINGTON, S.C. – Sheldon Creed completed the Darlington double on Sunday, extending his monopoly on the Round of 10 in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Playoffs. Creed’s victory in the In It to Win It 200 at Darlington Raceway was his second straight in the series and his second straight at the 1.366-mile egg-shaped track, giving him a season sweep at the Lady in Black. It was the third straight win in a Playoff race for the reigning series champion, who secured hisRead More

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service Sheldon Creed dominated the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Playoff opener, the Toyota 200 presented by CK Power at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway, sweeping both stages and leading 142 of 163 laps to take the victory Friday night in overtime. And while the evening went relatively straight-forward for the defending series champion Creed in his winning-performance, the race was full of storylines elsewhere from a nearly one-hour red flag delay when the track lost power to a multi-truck accident shortly after thatRead More