Matt Crafton, driver of the #88 Fisher Nuts/Menards Toyota, leads a pack of trucks during the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Kroger 200 at Martinsville Speedway on October 31, 2015 Photo – Jonathan Moore/Getty Images
Matt Crafton, driver of the #88 Fisher Nuts/Menards Toyota, takes the checkered flag to win the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Kroger 200 at Martinsville Speedway on October 31, 2015 Photo – Todd Warshaw/Getty Images
Matt Crafton, driver of the #88 Fisher Nuts/Menards Toyota, celebrates with a burnout after winning the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Kroger 200 at Martinsville Speedway on October 31, 2015 Photo – Jonathan Moore/Getty Images
Matt Crafton, driver of the #88 Fisher Nuts/Menards Toyota, celebrates in victory lane after winning the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Kroger 200 at Martinsville Speedway on October 31, 2015 Photo – Sarah Crabill/Getty Images
Those who were delivering a post-mortem to Matt Crafton’s hopes for a third straight NASCAR Camping World Truck Series title after last weekend’s race at Talladega learned on Saturday that the lid on the coffin is far from nailed shut.
Crafton survived five restarts in the last 50 laps of Saturday’s Kroger 200 at Martinsville Speedway and won the race by 0.396 seconds over John Hunter Nemechek, who shoved third-place finisher Cameron Hayley out-of-the-way after a restart with two laps left to secure the runner-up position. Continue reading →
Roush Fenway Racing’s Chris Buescher is now leading the NASCAR XFINITY Series standings by 26 points over second-place Chase Elliott with just four races remaining in the season. Buescher does control his own destiny – but it’s tough, very tough. If he finishes second in the next four races, he’ll clinch no matter what any other driver does.
Buescher came to this point in the season by being impressively consistent. In 29 starts, he has posted two wins at Iowa and Dover with 11 top-fives and 19 top-tens – that’s a top-ten finishing percentage of 65.5%. And, his average finish this season is an 8.1 – best among championship contenders. Continue reading →
Austin Dillon, driver of the #33 Rheem Chevrolet, poses with the Coors Light Pole Award after qualifying for pole position NASCAR XFINITY Series Drive for the Cure 300 at Charlotte Motor Speedway on October 9, 2015 Photo – Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images
Austin Dillon, driver of the #33 Rheem Chevrolet, leads the field past the green flag to start the NASCAR XFINITY Series Drive for the Cure 300 at Charlotte Motor Speedway on October 9, 2015 Photo – Sarah Crabill/Getty Images
Austin Dillon, driver of the #33 Rheem Chevrolet, leads the field on the first lap of the NASCAR XFINITY Series Drive for the Cure 300 at Charlotte Motor Speedway on October 9, 2015 Photo – Jonathan Ferrey/Getty Images
Austin Dillon, driver of the #33 Rheem Chevrolet, takes the checkered flag to win the NASCAR XFINITY Series Drive for the Cure 300 at Charlotte Motor Speedway on October 9, 2015 Photo – Sarah Crabill/Getty Images
Austin Dillon, driver of the #33 Rheem Chevrolet, celebrates with a burnout after winning the NASCAR XFINITY Series Drive for the Cure 300 at Charlotte Motor Speedway on October 9, 2015 Photo – Sarah Crabill/Getty Images
Austin Dillon, driver of the #33 Rheem Chevrolet, celebrates in victory lane after winning the NASCAR XFINITY Series Drive for the Cure 300 at Charlotte Motor Speedway on October 9, 2015 Photo – Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images
When NASCAR comes to Charlotte Motor Speedway, Austin Dillon doesn’t mind being a creäture of habit.
After experienced veterans Kyle Busch and Kasey Kahne knocked themselves out of contention 151 laps into Friday night’s Drive for the Cure 300 NASCAR XFINITY Series race at the 1.5-mile track, Dillon streaked away from Erik Jones to win by 2.809 seconds over the Joe Gibbs Racing driver.
With the victory, Dillon completed a season sweep at Charlotte, both wins coming from the pole position. The triumph was Dillon’s third of the season in the XFINITY Series and the sixth of his career.
Dillon’s closest call came not on the track, but during the pre-race ceremony. A fireball from one of the skyrockets used to liven up the proceedings dropped out of the evening sky and singed Dillon’s firesuit. Continue reading →
Dover Bound: Chris Buescher Returns to Complete the Sweep
Roush Fenway Racing’s Chris Buescher returns to Dover International Speedway for the Hisense 200 hoping to see Victory Lane Déjà vu and complete the single-season sweep at the Monster Mile.
Earlier this season, Buescher and crew chief Scott Graves played the fuel mileage strategy to perfection beating second-place finisher and 2015 Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Challenger Matt Kenseth by more than 11 seconds at Dover.
This weekend, Buescher will attempt to pull off the sweep, becoming the seventh driver in series history to carry out the feat: Robert Pressley (1992), Todd Bodine (1993), Randy LaJoie (1996), Kyle Busch (2010 and 2014), Carl Edwards (2011), Joey Logano (2012 and 2013; four straight). Continue reading →
