Crafton holds off Coulter for truck win

Posted on April 20, 2013 by

Victory is third of Crafton’s career, comes on record day

KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Matt Crafton held off Joey Coulter in a thrilling 25-lap green-flag run to the finish to win Saturday’s SFP 250 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at Kansas Speedway.

The victory was Crafton’s first of the season and the third of his career. In beating Coulter to the finish line by .168 seconds, Crafton became the 13th different winner in 13 races at Kansas, breaking a tie for the series record with Homestead-Miami Speedway.

With a late pass, Ryan Blaney finished third, followed by Brendan Gaughan and series leader Johnny Sauter, Crafton’s ThorSport Racing teammate.

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Crafton’s crew made wholesale changes to his No. 88 Toyota before the races, and the adjustments paid off.

"This truck was junk (Friday in practice)," Crafton said. "They made so many changes on this thing and turned this thing around. We knew we had something to win with about halfway through this race."

With Coulter on his bumper for the duration, Crafton’s crew gave him some terse advice.

"They said, ‘Just put your head down and just flip your rearview mirror up and dig,’ " Crafton said. "That’s what we did."

Coulter fell back in traffic with about 10 laps left but rapidly closed back in on Crafton and challenged for the lead over the final five laps.

"When we went around a lapped car, I went in a little higher than Matt did behind that lapped car and just got a little bit tight and lost some ground," Coulter said. "I wasn’t too worried about it. I was kind of thinking it was going to work out a little bit better.

"These trucks punch such a big hole in the air that sometimes being a little farther back is a better place to be with a few laps to go. But it ended up being the same thing. I could get to him, but (I couldn’t get) that five feet that I needed to get next to him."

The race was red-flagged after Lap 120 after Todd Bodine took two brutal hits in the same wreck. Driving to the inside of Bodine, Brennan Newberry got loose and his No. 14 Chevrolet knocked Bodine into the outside wall. As Bodine’s Toyota slid down the track, impact from Bryan Silas‘ Ford destroyed the front clip of Bodine’s truck and launched it back into the outside wall.

Bodine escaped injury, but the wreck left just 18 trucks — half the field — rolling for a restart on Lap 126, after a stoppage of 12 minutes, 41 seconds.

In a race that set a Truck Series track record for lead changes (18) as well as caution laps (52 of 167), contact between teammates on Lap 34 deprived the race of one of its fastest trucks. Polesitter James Buescher‘s Chevrolet got loose during a restart and tapped the Chevy of his Turner Scott Motorsports teammate Miguel Paludo as the drivers battled for the lead.

Paludo crashed hard into the frontstretch wall and took his crippled truck to the garage.

"It’s OK — I know he didn’t mean to get into me," Paludo said after exiting his truck. "It’s unfortunate, because we were having a great run, and we really needed a good finish."

Shortly after the halfway point, another wreck took out another contender. After a restart on Lap 88, Kyle Busch got loose in traffic and chased his truck up the banking. Blaney passed Busch without incident, but the same wasn’t true of German Quiroga.

As Quiroga pulled to the inside of Busch’s Toyota, Quiroga lost control, and in trying to correct he spun Busch’s Tundra into the outside wall, ending the race for the No. 51 KBM team.

SFP 250 results

1. (6) Matt Crafton, Toyota, 167
2. (11) Joey Coulter, Toyota, 167
3. (19) Ryan Blaney #, Ford, 167
4. (8) Brendan Gaughan, Chevrolet, 167
5. (4) Johnny Sauter, Toyota, 167
6. (1) James Buescher, Chevrolet, 167
7. (15) Darrell Wallace Jr. #, Toyota, 167
8. (5) Ty Dillon, Chevrolet, 167
9. (13) Ron Hornaday Jr., Chevrolet, 167
10. (18) Timothy Peters, Toyota, 167
11. (12) German Quiroga #, Toyota, 167
12. (14) Dakoda Armstrong, Chevrolet, 167
13. (31) David Starr, Toyota, 166
14. (23) Tim George Jr., Ford, 166
15. (3) Jeb Burton #, Chevrolet, 166
16. (28) Clay Greenfield, RAM, 165
17. (33) Jennifer Jo Cobb, Chevrolet, 163
18. (27) Justin Jennings, Chevrolet, 161
19. (21) Bryan Silas, Ford, Accident, 120
20. (17) Brennan Newberry #, Chevrolet, Accident, 119
21. (10) Todd Bodine, Toyota, Accident, 119
22. (36) Spencer Gallagher, Chevrolet, Accident, 106
23. (30) Jeff Agnew, Chevrolet, Accident, 100
24. (16) Joey Logano(i), Ford, Engine, 99
25. (9) Max Gresham, Chevrolet, Accident, 99
26. (34) Norm Benning, Chevrolet, Engine, 99
27. (7) Kyle Busch(i), Toyota, Accident, 90
28. (25) Danny Efland(i), Chevrolet, Clutch, 77
29. (24) Ryan Sieg, Chevrolet, Engine, 59
30. (35) Jamie Dick(i), Chevrolet, Transmission, 43
31. (2) Miguel Paludo, Chevrolet, Accident, 35
32. (20) John Wes Townley, Toyota, Accident, 27
33. (29) Mike Harmon(i), Chevrolet, Overheating, 8
34. (26) Chris Jones, Chevrolet, Carburetor, 5
35. (22) JJ Yeley(i), Chevrolet, Brakes, 4
36. (32) Scott Saunders, RAM, Vibration, 2

Average speed of race winner: 103.028 mph.
Time of Race: 2 hours, 25 minutes, 53 seconds.
Margin of victory: 0.167 Seconds.
Caution flags: 11 for 52 laps.
Lead changes: 18 among 10 drivers.

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Posted on April 20, 2013 by Holly Cain

After winning Nationwide seasons, Stenhouse eager to see Cup success

Related: Lineup | Coverage options | Race starts at 1 p.m. ET

KANSAS CITY, Kan. — When you are a heralded two-time NASCAR Nationwide Series champion who won about one in five races last season, it’s easy to understand a high level of confidence and expectation.

And that’s precisely why Sprint Cup Series rookie Ricky Stenhouse Jr. is so encouraged with his best qualifying effort of the season, a third-place start in Sunday’s STP 400 at Kansas Speedway. It’s just a question of what took so long.

It has been a frustrating and humbling start to the two-time champ’s first full-time Cup season and Stenhouse is hopeful that this will be the week he rights the ship.

Last year in Nationwide, he won six races — including here at Kansas. This year in Cup, he doesn’t have a single top-10 run.

A quarter of the way through the 26-week regular season, Stenhouse is ranked 20th in points. He has had only one top-15 run in his No. 17 Ford Fusion — a 12th-place showing in the season-opening Daytona 500. Most recently, he has tallied finishes of 25th at Martinsville and 40th at Texas. He’s hoping to change that this weekend.

"I think you just have to hit your stride and hit it at the right time. We’ve had some bad luck lately."

— Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

“It feels good,’’ a smiling Stenhouse said Friday after turning in a solid qualifying performance. “We had a track bar break at Martinsville and cut a left-rear tire at the beginning of the Texas race, so it feels good to come here and be fast.’’

Stenhouse and the rest of his Roush Fenway Racing team have been fast since unloading at Kansas Speedway. His qualifying run was no fluke, either — he was second-fastest in Saturday’s opening practice and eighth-quickest in final practice, substantial improvements compared to previous races.

“It seems like when you roll off the truck with a fast car, you generally have that fast car throughout the weekend, so that’s what we’re hoping to obtain, and carry this throughout the weekend,’’ said Stenhouse, who has only one previous top-10 start in 2013.

It not only gives him a well-timed dose of confidence, but a very real feeling that he can make a run — not just at a top-10, but at a win.

“I want to go for it,’’ Stenhouse said. “I think you just have to hit your stride and hit it at the right time. We’ve had some bad luck lately … but we’re in good position to start the race. And if we do everything right, we can definitely contend for a win.’’

Stenhouse gives an honest assessment of why his learning curve has been so steep. After working with the same crew chief, Mike Kelley, for three years in the Nationwide Series, he’s newly paired with Scott Graves in Cup. With this new relationship, he must find and cultivate a new comfort level.

He’s also the first to point to small but costly mistakes on his part as well as the team’s, and quick to note that you’ve got to up your game when competing in NASCAR’s big leagues.

On top of getting used to his new surroundings, there is the additional spotlight on the Rookie of the Year competition. His primary competition is also his girlfriend, Danica Patrick, who leads Stenhouse by three points in the rookie championship standings even though Stenhouse has earned top rookie honors in four of the first seven races.

“For sure I thought I’d have one (top-10) by now,’’ Stenhouse said. “I definitely think we should have had a couple top-10s. I felt like we’ve run well enough at a couple tracks to get a top-10, we just didn’t put everything together.

“You’ve got to put everything together on the Cup side; (on) the Nationwide side you could get away with a couple little mistakes and still finish top-five, top-10. But everybody is so good in this series and the cars are so close, it’s just not that easy.

“But I see potential in what we’ve got and we’re trying to minimize those mistakes in the race car, whether it’s me hitting a wall, telling them I need something and they make an adjustment and I go back out and figure out that’s not what I needed.

“Communication is definitely key. I was with Mike and those guys for three years and that was a long relationship, and after half a year you’ve got it figured out. I think by the midpoint of this season we’ll have it figured out. We’re off to a good start here at Kansas.’’

Graves, also in the midst of his first full-time Cup season, is more measured in his expectations.

“The first five races we did exactly what we were supposed to do,’’ Graves said. “We went and finished every lap of the race. The last two races have been a disappointment, though. … And now we’ve got some ground to make up.

“He’s learning the Cup cars and how to race with the guys at the Cup level — the difference between the Cup car and the Nationwide car with more power and things like that,’’ continued Graves.

“So he’s learning how to manage that throughout a race and I know from my point of view, being fairly new at the crew chief position, I’m just learning how to actually manage the race and make the right calls and decisions.

“It’s definitely learning on all of our parts at this point.’’

Even a gradual approach to Cup success feels too slow for Stenhouse, who is a popular personality in the garage, a well-respected former open-wheel driver and considered a likely future Cup champ by most.

“He’s one of those drivers that’s giving you everything every lap,’’ Graves said of Stenhouse. “And that’s what you want.

“I’d say as a group, we all feel like we got beat up a little bit the last couple weeks and now it’s our time to go out and show them, ‘Hey, we belong here and let’s get some of that back and show them what we’ve got.’ "

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