ThorSport Racing Surges With Pair Of Drivers, New Crew Chief
No question, Matt Crafton (No. 88 Australian Gold Chevrolet) has been a solid championship contender for several seasons but don’t look now, the competition is seeing double.
Crafton’s first-year ThorSport Racing teammate, Johnny Sauter (No. 13 Fun Sand/Curb Records/Star De Atzlan Chevrolet), has overcome a slow start to make the Ohio-based team doubly troubling to NCWTS rivals.
Sauter, a Raybestos Rookie of the Year contender, won his first Keystone Light Pole at Texas, finished sixth in the WinStar World Casino 400 and posted his second consecutive top 10. Crafton ran second to winner Todd Bodine (No. 30 Copart Toyota) and took the championship lead for the first time in 205 starts (see points story page 2).
It’s not exactly a resurrection for ThorSport — Crafton finished fifth in 2008 standings — but the team never has fielded two contending trucks week-in and week-out.
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Credit that to solid support from Chevrolet including trips to the wind tunnel and seven-post chassis shaker.
And the arrival of Jason Overstreet, a series winning crew chief, who moved to the team’s Cleveland-area shop to call signals for Sauter’s No. 13 unit.
“They’ve always had people in place but the chemistry hasn’t been there to make the team (a possible winner) every week,” said Sauter. “(Jason’s) brought a lot to the table. We draw a lot off the 88 team; it’s a two-way street.”
Crafton laughs when a questioner refers to Sauter as a rookie. “He has more seat time in NASCAR’s three national series than all of us out here,” he said, referring to his teammate’s 290 starts in NASCAR Sprint Cup, Nationwide and Camping World Truck series. “He’s been a big plus.”
Crafton agrees that combining the talents and thought processes of his crew chief, Bud Haefele, and those of Overstreet have boosted ThorSport into elite ranks of multi-truck teams.
“All of us need leadership and (Jason) being here has helped very much and benefits all of us in the long run,” he said. “The 13 being a consistent truck will pay off for both of us.”
Close Finishes Are Regular Occurrence At Michigan
Erik Darnell’s dramatic victory over Johnny Benson a year ago was the closest NASCAR Camping World Truck Series finish since the advent of computer scoring.
Darnell took the win by .005 seconds which works out to about a quarter inch of bumper cover.
The dramatic ending to the Michigan 200 left many fans buzzing. Others merely smiled knowingly.
Although the finish was the series’ second closest, margins of victory in fractions of a second are nothing new at the 2-mile Michigan International Speedway where the 10th edition of the Michigan 200 unfolds on Saturday.
Five of seven races have been decided by less than a second. Two others ended under caution.
Greg Biffle set the standard in the track’s inaugural race, edging Jay Sauter by .153 seconds.
In 2002, the margin was even closer with Robert Pressley taking the measure of Jason Leffler by .102.
The 2003 Michigan 200 was an aberration. Brendan Gaughan ran away from his competition to win by 11.477 (fourth-widest margin ever in the series) and set a still-record pace of 154.044 mph.
The last three races, however, have seen a return to Michigan normalcy.
Benson prevailed by .116 in 2006. Travis Kvapil won his second Michigan 200 by .292 the following year.
Then there was the granddaddy of them all.
“I think the finish was a little more exciting than I would have liked it to be,” said Darnell, who gave Roush Fenway Racing its fourth Michigan victory. “It definitely makes for exciting racing the way the trucks go around here.”
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Leader’s Stumble Further Compresses Series Points Standings
Three-time NASCAR Camping World Series champion Ron Hornaday Jr. needed six races to grab the points lead — and just two to lose it.
Hornaday’s bid for three consecutive victories at Texas Motor Speedway came to an end with a mid-race pit road speeding infraction and later engine trouble that left the Kevin Harvick Inc. truck 19th at the conclusion of the WinStar World Casino 400.
That opened the door for Matt Crafton to parlay a second-place finish into a championship lead the Californian never previously held.
Crafton is one of the series’ most consistent drivers, having completed each of the eight races’ 1,254 laps. He’s finished among the top 10 in seven of eight races and no worse than 11th.
“It is cool to be the point leader but it is the worst feeling to finish second and not be there in Victory Lane where I know these guys should be with this truck,” said Crafton after finishing 1.321 seconds behind Todd Bodine.
Crafton’s best previous ranking was second on four occasions. He was second a year ago following spring’s Texas Motor Speedway race.
The good news for Hornaday is he lost only one position. The bad news is that he no longer has a comfortable lead over two drivers, Bodine and 1995 champion Mike Skinner (No. 5 Exide Toyota).
Third-ranked Skinner trails Hornaday by nine points with Bodine 27 further back in fourth. Just 135 points cover positions one through five and 189 fifth through 10th.
The battle for a spot in the top 10 is no less intense. Rick Crawford (No. 14 Circle Bar/International Truck and Engine Ford) took the spot on the strength of a fifth-place Texas finish.
Tayler Malsam (No. 81 One Eighty Toyota) is six behind Crawford in 11th as 60 points separate 10th from 15th.
Sauter Takes Raybestos Lead
Raybestos rookie contenders traditionally have done well at Texas Motor Speedway where they swept the top three finishing positions in the track’s 1997 inaugural race.
This past Friday’s WinStar World Casino 400 followed that trend as freshman drivers claimed a Keystone Light Pole, a pair of top-10 finishes and three drivers among the top 11.
Johnny Sauter became the second rookie in a row to win the pole for TMS’ spring race. He led 42 laps — most by a Raybestos rookie in 2009.
His performance elevated Sauter to No. 1 in Raybestos standings by four points over Tayler Malsam, who finished ninth.
Ricky Carmichael (No. 4 Monster Energy Chevrolet) marked his return to series competition with an 11th-place finish.
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Raybestos Rookie Of The Year Standings
Rk Driver Points 1. Johnny Sauter 87 2. Tayler Malsam 83 3. James Buescher 73 4. Ricky Carmichael 54 5. J.R. Fitzpatrick 52 6. Brent Raymer 30 7. Brian Ickler 22 8. Chris Jones 16 9. Chase Austin 15
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