Crafton adds to ThorSport's 2013 dominance with Kansas win

Matt Crafton added his own win to ThorSport Racing's 2013 tally on Saturday by taking the win and driving his No. 88 ThorSport Toyota into victory lane in the SFP 250 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at Kansas Speedway. It was Crafton's third-career win in the series and ThorSport's third win in the first four races of 2013.

"I can't thank these guys enough. This truck was junk yesterday (in practice)," Crafton said. "It was a 20th-place truck yesterday."

Joey Coulter finished second in the No. 18 Kyle Busch Motorsports Toyota to give the manufacturer a one-two finish. Ryan Blaney finished third in the No. 29 Brad Keselowski Racing Ford after getting by the No. 62 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet of Brendan Gaughan on the final lap. Gaughan finished fourth.

The 167-lap race became somewhat of a wreck fest, with the yellow flag waving 11 times. The ninth caution of the race that came out for an incident between the No. 13 ThorSport Racing Toyota of Todd Bodine and the No. 14 NTS Motorsports Chevrolet of Brennan Newberry ended up turning into a red flag period. Only 18 of the 36 trucks that started the race were still on track by the end.

"Brennan got loose," Bodine said of the incident that brought out the red flag. "It's just one of those things in racing."

Crafton, along with teammate Sauter and race pole sitter James Buescher in the No. 31 Turner Scott Motorsports Chevrolet, took four tires during the eighth caution of the race with just over 50 laps to go. After several other drivers took only two, Buescher, Crafton and Sauter restarted the race 10th through 12.

Crafton and Buescher made their way up through the field quickly, though, moving up to fifth and sixth by the time the yellow flag waved again soon after the restart. Several laps later, Sauter joined them near the top-five.

When the race restarted following the 10th caution that came out with 36 laps to go, Crafton quickly made his way from fifth to the lead. He was able to hold off Coulter during an additional restart in the final 30 laps and remained in front of him to take the win.

Sauter finished fifth. He and Crafton have both posted top-10 finishes in all four Truck Series races so far this season. As a result, the teammates sit first and second in the championship points standings. After winning the first two races of the year, Sauter holds the lead, with Crafton in second, 12 points back.

Finishing the race sixth through 10th were Buescher in sixth, the No. 54 Kyle Busch Motorsports Toyota of Darrell Wallace Jr. in seventh, the No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet of Ty Dillon in eighth, the No. 9 NTS Motorsports Chevrolet of Ron Hornaday in ninth, and the No. 17 Red Horse Racing Toyota of Timothy Peters in 10th.