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The Craftsman Truck Series has held six races this year. Kyle Busch’s No. 51 Toyota has been in five of them. The Education Lottery 200, at Lowe’s Motor Speedway Friday night, should’ve been Busch’s third victory.
In lieu of Busch, 31-year-old Matt Crafton drove a Chevrolet to the first victory of a 178-race career, holding Chad McCumbee and Brendan Gaughan at bay.
“Finally we can shut them up,” Crafton said of his critics. “Now they can say, ‘When’s the second one coming?“‘
Crafton successfully blocked Chad McCumbee’s pass attempt in Turn 3 of the final lap and pulled away. Brendan Gaughan finished third, followed by Erik Darnell and Rick Crawford.
“Congratulations to Matt Crafton,” McCumbee said. “They’ve been trying for so long and have come so close.”
Busch, who led 86 laps after starting from the pole, sustained significant right-side damage to his Toyota and never recovered.
“My truck was glued to the race track I guess way better than his,” Busch said in reference to Hornaday. ”
Busch’s No. 51 Toyota was left with a broken splitter and damage to the right front fender. He came in for repairs, then was back on the track for the restart in 12th place with 26 laps to go.
With sparks flying off the right front, Busch came onto pit road again for more work after a wreck with 20 laps to go. He was 15th on the restart with 16 laps left.
Johnny Benson stormed past the sputtering Darnell for the lead with seven laps to go, but was black-flagged for jumping the restart.
Moments later, Hornaday was hit from behind by Bodine with five laps to go and spun into the grass. Hornaday got back on the track after the caution flag was waved, sped down the track and lightly bumped Bodine’s car.
“He just flat tried to kill me,” Hornaday said. “You don’t spin somebody out on the straightaway. ... We were pretty good friends. I don’t know what’s going to happen now.”
The wreck allowed Crafton to take the lead, and he held on, leading to a hearty celebration with his crew in Victory Lane after ending his long drought.
“We never gave up,” Crafton said. “This truck got wrecked at Kansas and I had a really good truck there. They took it back to the shop, rebuilt it and made it as good as ever.”
