Matt Crafton Shows His ‘Never Quit’ Mentality

Matt Crafton went into Homestead with the odds not in his favor but that didn’t stop him from delivering another dominant performance en route to his 6th win of the season.

Matt Crafton entered Homestead knowing that he needed a win to have any chance at the Championship. He trailed leader and eventual Champion, Erik Jones, by 32 points going into the race and Tyler Reddick was also in the mix. Crafton had to hope that luck went his way but it just never did.

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However, he still proved why he was the two-time defending champ and why he had 5 wins on the season going into the race. He owned Homestead, another 1.5-mile track, by leading 93 of the 134 total laps and looked like he was as determined as ever even though the other two drivers ahead of him were having great nights.

The win was Crafton’s first at the track and it was another accolade in his storied career with the Camping World Truck Series. Since 2001, he has been a full-time driver in the series and that kind of stretch with trucks is something you don’t see very often but his loyalty has been great for NASCAR and it’s given them a face for one of their less popular series.

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Crafton scored his first win in a truck at Charlotte in 2008. Then in 2013, he found something that set him ahead of the rest of the pack. Since then he has had 9 wins, 33 top-5’s and 54 top-10’s. Along the way, his average finish of around 7th place has given him a type of consistency that puts him in contention every weekend.

His winning attitude has given him plenty of success in other series too. Though he’s only raced five NASCAR races in something besides a truck, his experience and skill has given him great opportunities such as getting to run in Kyle Busch’s M&M’s car for the 2015 Daytona 500 where he finished 18th.

In 2013, he raced in three Xfinity races where he finished 3rd on two separate occasions at Kentucky. It doesn’t matter where he goes, Crafton is going to have success.

In the season finale at Homestead. he raced his truck so hard all night and didn’t give up despite the fact that a Championship was a long shot. All he cared about was winning that race and continuing to show his incredible skill in an overlooked series of NASCAR.

Though he was passed a few times, that didn’t stop him from coming right back and making up for it on re-starts. His continued dominance throughout the 2015 season was special to watch.

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Matt Crafton is arguably the best truck driver in the series at the moment, even though Erik Jones is the defending champion, but he shows so much passion each and every weekend and is one of NASCAR’s better drivers that has just flown under the radar due to his lack of racing in other series.