Crafton contending for title heading to Memphis race

Matt Crafton has enjoyed a breakout season in the Craftsman Truck Series, establishing himself as a bona-fide contender for the championship going into Saturday's O'Reilly 200 at Memphis Motorsports Park.

Crafton, 32, won his first race last month at Lowe's Motor Speedway and has two second-place finishes, including last week at Milwaukee. Crafton's best finish in seven previous Truck seasons had been third, which he did five times. And that's not all: He has five top-fives through 11 races in 2008. In his previous 172 races, dating back to his debut in 2000, he had 13. He had one last year.

Fast Facts

What	O'Reilly 200
When	9 p.m. ET Saturday
TV	SPEED, 8:30 p.m. ET
Radio	MRN (Sirius Ch. 28), 9 ET

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• By the Numbers: Memphis

"We are definitely a top-five team, top-three team," said Crafton, who is third in the standings, 67 behind leader Johnny Benson. "We just keep doing what we are doing all year. This is what you have to do to win races and win championships, put yourself in position each and every week. I feel like we are doing that right now. Just don't make mistakes, don't beat yourself. You have to be there at the end."

Crafton's best year in the series was 2004, when he was fifth in the points and had six top-fives in his only season with Kevin Harvick Inc. Crafton has spent the rest of his CTS career with ThorSport; his eighth-place finish last season is his best with the team.

"This team is awesome," Crafton said. "It is all about these guys. ... I can't thank them enough for putting me in this position week in and week out. We keep doing this all year, come Homestead [the season finale] maybe we will have a shot."

Crafton has been solid on all types of tracks. Memphis fits the short-track category, a tight .75-mile layout with 11-degree banking in the turns. Crafton was second at half-mile Martinsville this season and was third at Memphis in 2006.

"I love racing at Memphis," Crafton said. "It's probably one of my top-three favorite tracks. The short-track feel, the outcome is more in the driver's hands than some other tracks. The track really wears tires out; you can really fall off from the beginning of a run to the end. So you have to be very disciplined with the throttle, have to take care of your equipment early in the run."

Notes: Willie Allen, last season's Craftsman rookie of the year, will make his first start of 2008. He becomes the sixth driver in 2008 of the No. 46 for David Dollar. ... Sprint Cup points leader Kyle Busch isn't entered. He will miss his second consecutive Truck race, and Shane Sieg will drive the No. 51 for Billy Ballew Motorsports. ... Two-time winner and defending champion Travis Kvapil also is not entered. Rookie Colin Braun will drive the No. 6 for Roush Fenway Racing.