Tag: Tulare

Our selection for “NorCal Driver of the Week” is veteran NorCal race car driver, Matt Crafton, who got his second career win in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series on Saturday night in Newton, Iowa at the Iowa Speedway. Matt drives the No. 88 Menards Chevrolet Silverado for ThorSport Racing from Sandusky, Ohio. The 35 year old driver is from Tulare, south of Visalia, on Highway 99. Matt is a 1995 graduate of Tulare Union High School. He began racing at age seven after receiving a Go-Kart as a gift for completing kindergarten. Young Matt won regional and national championships before moving on to midgets and micro sprints at age 15. He started competing in the Featherlite Southwest Series in 1996 at age 20, winning the championship in 2000. Also that year, he competed in the final race of year in the Truck Series at California Speedway. Since then, Matt has started 258 consecutive races in the Truck Series and has earned the nickname “Mr. Consistency”.

Earlier this year Matt shared this: “I say this all the time – Duke and Rhonda Thorson are like second parents to me. Duke and I talk on the phone sometimes twice a day, just talking about life,” says Crafton. “They are such a strong, supportive leadership team for all of their drivers. I am so confident going to the track that they ‘have my back,’ in however we perform. So me and my guys know on the 88 that we have a responsibility to that family. The Menards family, and also the ThorSport family. This can be our year.”

Matt finished 1/3 of a second ahead of 2nd place finisher Austin Dillon, grandson of Richard Childress. Matt’s team got him out fourth for the lap 161 restart, one of the fastest pitstops of the day. Crafton raced to the front and battled Dillon, who briefly took the lead on lap 188. For 3 laps they raced door to door. “It felt a lot longer than that because I was holding my breath,” said Crafton. “I knew if I got him underneath me, I could make him piss his right, rear tire off and make it loose,” Crafton said. “Just get the tire hot, it starts slipping. And once it started slipping, he was in trouble.” “Once I got clear of him, I felt like I could drive away from him.” and he did.

“This win was exactly what we needed,” said Crafton in victory lane. “This means so much to me, the team and all the sponsors that support us. This is really a huge momentum-builder for the team. In the last four weeks, anything that could have gone wrong did, and now here we are in victory lane. Our truck was really loose at the beginning, but once it came to me, we only needed minor air pressure adjustments for the rest of the night.”

With this win, Matt moved up from 8th to 5th in the series point standings, only 44 points behind teammate Johnny Sauter. After being the points leader for several weeks early in the year it is nice to be back in the top 5. Matt’s next race is Friday, July 22nd at Nashville Superspeedway.

Congratulations Matt, from all of us here at NorCal Car Culture, it was a great race, and you and your team earned a well deserved trip to victory lane.

To keep up to date on Matt Crafton’s race results please visit his driver page at www.racing-reference.info.

Matt Crafton from Tulare, CA and driver of the No. 88 Menards/Ideal Door Chevrolet Silverado, fought loose conditions and a mid-race pit road unavoidable accident to power home in the 18th position in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series O’Reilly Auto Parts 250 at Kansas Speedway. With ten previous starts, four top tens and a career best fifth place finish here – Crafton had solid practice runs Friday plus some impressive loop statistics on track despite the disappointing finish. He sits fourth in overall NCWTS driver points going into Texas Motor Speedway.

“We just struggled all day; it’s all I can say. I wanted to post a higher qualifying time (17th), but we were working pretty heavily on our setups during practice. It happens. I was solidly running in fourth to sixth there for a good stretch, and we even had the chance to lead a few laps there on a cycle, so we were gaining some momentum until the pit road crash happened.”

Crafton encountered pit road contact with the No. 66 of Justin Marks, whose pit stall was adjacent to the No. 88 pit stall. “I was coming out, and Justin was coming in. It wasn’t anyone’s fault, it just happens and it’s bad luck all around. It really did change our momentum, because the right front headlight was completely caved in and we had aerodynamic issues the rest of the race. My guys did their best on our pit road recovery time, putting as much Bondo fiberglass cloth tape on that thing as they could to get me back out there without vibrations – but it had a big effect on where we could run.”

Despite the finish, several positives came out of the Kansas race. The veteran driver still showed he could post superior numbers – to include the second most green flag quality passes throughout the race – with 82 green flag passes after pass leader Kyle Busch. He also posted two of the fastest race lap times and raced 108 laps in the top 15 – even after the pit road crash – giving him 65% of the race in the critical top 15 range, which is important going into the summer series of Truck races. The No. 88 crew also posted the fastest pit stop times of the year during the race.

“I’m really proud of my team on getting me out there for track position in Kansas,” Crafton continued. “I can’t say enough about how hard they are working to get better each week on pit road, and it’s really showing now as we’re getting into the summer. We just need to regroup in general, not look backwards and focus this week on Texas. I run well there and I like the track, so we’re pouring all of our time and energy into setting up that truck.”

ThorSport Racing Press Release

Matt Crafton of Tulare, CA has a busy weekend planned. First off, on Friday he will compete in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race in Dover, Delaware. After the race he will fly to Toledo, Ohio to race in the Menards 200, an ARCA series event at Toledo Speedway. He will drive the No. 88 Menards Ford Fusion for Kimmel Racing. This was all arranged by Matt’s primary sponsor Menards to put on a good show for the fans in Ohio. Here is some more info from ThorSport Racing.

Sandusky, Ohio -May 10th, 2011 – Matt Crafton, driver of the No. 88 Menards / Certainteed Chevrolet Silverado, makes his eleventh NASCAR Camping World Truck Series start at Dover International Speedway on Friday, May 13th for ThorSport Racing. With four top ten finishes and his best finish of fifth in 2008 for Crafton, currently third in driver points, he feels as ready as he’ll ever be to take on the “Monster Mile.”

“I’ve had concussions here, been life-flighted out of here, had good days and had bad days,” the driver said. “Welcome to the Monster Mile, it can eat you alive or give you the best ride you’ve ever driven. It’s one of my favorite racetracks, and I really mean that. It’s crazy to say at a place that’s beaten me up before, but that’s the beauty of Dover. You have to trust your instincts and not make any mistakes. We’re ready this year from all fronts to attack.”

Doing “double driver duty,” Crafton will fly directly from the Truck Series race to compete in the ARCA Racing Series Menards 200 in a Kimmel Racing-fielded entry, the No. 88 Menards Ford Fusion.

“Speaking” for Autism in Dover

The No. 88 Menards / Certainteed Chevy will also don the Autism Speaks Puzzle logo for the Dover Lucas Oil 200 on Friday as a tribute to children with autism. “This is the second year in a row that we’ve supported Autism Speaks, and it’s a great way that we can raise awareness for a group doing good things across the country,” Crafton continued.

Adopting Servicemembers for the No. 88

The No. 88 pit stall will have three extra “honorary pit crew” on Dover weekend, as the ThorSport Racing team supports members of the Dover Air Force Base. Staff Sergeant Erik Chittick, the 436th Civil Engineer Squadron Crew Chief; Technical Sergeant Heather Michaud, the 436th Civil Engineer Squad Fire Inspector; and Technical Sergeant James Ellis of the 9th Airlift Squadron; will all get to “catch tires” with Mechanixwear gloves alongside the No. 88 crew.

“It’s really neat to have any kind of military members with us at any race, but Dover is very special,” said Crafton. “They do so much at Dover AFB and are usually not recognized, to include the ‘honor flights’ of our fallen service men and women. These are folks who quietly serve, and it’s an amazing facility that I’ve toured before. I’m glad we can show them a fun day of racing and being part of our team.”

Carrier Joins Forces with TSR to “Keep Racing Cool”

Carrier, the world leader in air conditioning, heating and refrigeration systems, has joined forces as the Official HVAC provider for ThorSport Racing. As part of the partnership, Carrier will provide heating and cooling systems for ThorSport Racing’s new 100,000-square foot facility in Sandusky, Ohio – opening to the public in August 2011. For more information on Carrier, visit www.Carrier.com.

Getting “CSI” on the “ISO” at Dover AFB

As a “thank you” from the Dover AFB staff, the ThorSport Racing No. 88 and No. 13 teams will be touring the C17 Flight Line and the C5 ISO-Chronical Inspection on Thursday night alongside Max & Tati Papis; and crew members from Red Horse Racing. Well known as the “CSI” of Dover AFB, the crew will be touring wings and tails of planes – watch out drivers, no wing walking!

For more information on Matt Crafton and ThorSport racing please visit www.thorsport.com or www.menardsracing.com.