NASCAR Truck Series: Matt Crafton wins 2019 championship, becomes 3-time champion
By Asher Fair
Matt Crafton didn’t win a race in the 2019 NASCAR Truck Series season, but that didn’t stop him from securing the championship at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
ThorSport Racing’s Matt Crafton secured the 2019 NASCAR Truck Series championship with his second place finish in the 23rd and final race of the season, the Ford EcoBoost 200, at Homestead-Miami Speedway. This championship is the third title of his Truck Series career, as he also won the championships back in the 2013 and 2014 season.
Crafton started this 134-lap Championship 4 season finale around the four-turn, 1.5-mile (2.414-kilometer) Homestead-Miami Speedway oval in Homestead, Florida in ninth place in his #88 Ford, and after leading nine laps, he had to settle for second behind Hattori Racing Enterprises’ Austin Hill.
But Hill was not a Championship 4 driver. In fact, it was Crafton’s speed late in last Friday night’s round of 6 finale at ISM Raceway that played a key role in eliminating Hill from the playoffs following the round of 6, as it allowed Crafton to advance to the Championship 4 in the fourth and final transfer spot.
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Crafton finished the 2019 season without a victory; in fact, he hasn’t won a race in over two years, having last won in July of 2017 — nearly 28 months ago and 59 races ago — at Eldora Speedway.
But he finished ahead of the other three Championship 4 drivers in the Ford EcoBoost 200, and he did so quite comfortably.
Crafton finished the race 1.569 seconds behind Hill. The other Championship 4 drivers, Niece Motorsports’ Ross Chastain, GMS Racing’s Brett Moffitt and Halmar Friesen Racing’s Stewart Friesen, finished the race in fourth, fifth and 11th place in their #45 Chevrolet, #24 Chevrolet and #52 Chevrolet, respectively.
Chastain finished 9.201 seconds behind Crafton, Moffitt finished 12.135 seconds behind Crafton and Friesen finished 18.229 seconds behind Crafton.
This race was only the second race in which Crafton finished ahead of these other three drivers this season. It hadn’t happened in over five months when he finished in second place in the June race at Texas Motor Speedway behind only Kyle Busch Motorsports’ Greg Biffle.
Meanwhile, Moffitt finished ahead of Crafton, Chastain and Friesen in 10 of the season’s first 22 races, Chastain finished ahead of Moffitt, Crafton and Friesen in six of them and Friesen finished ahead of Chastain, Moffitt and Crafton in five of them.
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The 2019 NASCAR Truck Series season is now officially in the books, and the next race on the schedule is the 2020 season opener, the NextEra Energy 250, at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida. This race is set to broadcast live on Fox Sports 1 beginning at 7:30 p.m. ET on Friday, February 14.