Crafton on final wreck: ‘That was just last-lap Daytona’ – Nascar

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DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Matt Crafton‘s position as a 17th-year veteran and two-time champion in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series has afforded him the clout to hand out scrutiny about how his peers race.

The late-race intensity that sent his No. 88 Toyota arcing skyward like paper in a gale, though, was met with a shrug and a grin.

“That was just last-lap Daytona,” Crafton said.

Rookie Kaz Grala prevailed in Friday’s Camping World Truck Series opener at Daytona International Speedway, somehow threading his way through chaos at the front of the pack to win the NextEra Energy Resources 250. The event was bookended by wild crashes, one on Lap 2 and the last on the 100th and final trip around the 2.5-mile track.

Crafton’s wheels-up pirouette became the focal point of the last-lap fracas. The 40-year-old driver’s ThorSport Racing entry emerged at the front of the pack shortly after the white flag dropped, helped by an aerodynamic assist from teammate Ben Rhodes. The pack wound up in a three-wide jumble as it headed to the backstretch for the final time, with Johnny Sauter, winner of the race’s opening two stages, in the middle and Rhodes shuffled up top.

Patience was long gone by then. Rhodes lost control as new teammate Grant Enfinger’s bumper shoves amplified. Crafton was nearly clear of the fray, but Rhodes’ truck clipped his right-rear fender to trigger the chain reaction.

“I’m like, ‘oh, this is not good,’ ” said Crafton, who wound up 14th in the 32-truck field. “Then you feel that light sensation and you know what’s going to happen from there. …

“I’m very happy that it only went over one time and landed back on its wheels, without a doubt. The race was just … it was crazy, just chaos all night and there was just stupidity all night to say the least. Some of this plate racing is crazy. I mean, they beat the rear bumper off some of these trucks. I don’t know how they didn’t wreck more, to be honest. A lot of people did a lot of great, great saves out there.”

Sauter was attempting to become the season opener’s first back-to-back winner since Todd Bodine repeated in 2008-09. But his GMS Racing truck was snared in the late pileup, with Crafton’s No. 88 appearing to land on the bed of Sauter’s.

“I elected to go three-wide and tried to make something happen, because who the hell wants to finish second, you know?” said Sauter, who was scored 15th. “In hindsight, there’s a million different scenarios that go through your mind and I’ll have a lot better grasp of it when I can sit home and watch it, study it and try not to make the same mistake next time.”

The final crash was especially costly to ThorSport, which had all four of its Toyotas added to the 12-truck crash tally.

“I don’t know what else to say because these guys have worked so hard,” said Rhodes, credited with 12th place. “I’ve got such good teammates. It’s unfortunate we were all caught up in it.”