Truck Series points leader, Matt Crafton, took the win at Texas on Friday Night by three car lengths, but it was not easy by any means. Crafton had to overcome three restarts in the final 20 laps to attain his third win of the year.
“The restarts were hairy,” Crafton said. “We spun the tires a ton on those restarts”
Crafton of course maintains his points lead for the championship, standing 25 points ahead of Tyler Reddick and 32 ahead of Erik Jones.
“We’re happy, we’re not satisfied,” Crafton said. “We will be satisfied when we head to Homestead [with the points lead.]”
Erik Jones’ winless streak continued as he lead 68 laps, but had a battery die on him during the middle of the race. Jones lost some time on pit road (more than a normal battery change) and had to salvage a 15th place finish.
This was Jones’ fourth race where he had lead more than 40% and had not gotten a win.
Brad Keselowski Racing and Tyler Reddick had a fast car all night, but pit road got in the way of a win. First, Reddick was given a penalty for going through too many pit stalls, which Keselowski disagreed with, saying an unoccupied pit stall should not count.
NASCAR tracks have 43 pit stalls for sprint cup races.
Truck fields are much smaller so some boxes are unoccupied & don't count as stalls.
— Brad Keselowski (@keselowski) June 6, 2015
Regan Smith also voiced his opinion over twitter.
Not sure the 19 truck did anything wrong, first 2 pit boxes don't look like they're used tonight so they shouldn't be counted.
— Regan Smith (@ReganSmith) June 6, 2015
Reddick was called for speeding on pit road later in the race during green flag pit stops, and finished 11th.
The series returns to the track next Saturday when they travel to Gateway Motorsports Park. The race starts at 8:30pm ET and will be televised by Fox Sports 1.
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