CONCORD, N.C. — Erik Jones will lead the field to the green flag for this afternoon’s XFINITY Series race in the Queen City.
The driver of the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota scored the pole for the Hisense 300 at Charlotte Motor Speedway with a time of 29.261 and a speed of 184.546 mph. It’s his seventh career pole in the series and fourth of the 2016 season.
Teammate Daniel Suárez will start second in his No. 19 JGR Toyota after posting a time of 29.273 and a speed of 184.470 mph. Denny Hamlin will start third in his No. 18 JGR Toyota after posting a time of 29.473 and a speed of 183.219 mph. Austin Dillon will start fourth in his No. 2 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet after posting a time of 29.567 and a speed of 182.636 mph. Kyle Larson will round out the top-five in his No. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet after posting a time of 29.597 and a speed of 182.451 mph.
Elliott Sadler will start sixth in his No. 1 JR Motorsports Chevrolet. Joey Logano will start seventh in his No. 22 Team Penske Ford. Justin Allgaier will start eighth in his No. 7 JRM Chevrolet. Darrell Wallace Jr. will start ninth in his No. 6 Roush Fenway Racing Ford. Ty Dillon will round out the top-10 in his No. 3 RCR Chevrolet.
Cole Custer will start 11th in his No. 88 JRM Chevrolet. Brandon Jones will round out the 12 drivers that made the final round of qualifying.
TJ Bell and Morgan Shepherd were the two drivers that failed to make the race.
CONCORD, N.C. — In case you missed it, Erik Jones topped the chart in first XFINITY Series practice at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
The driver of the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota was the fastest in the first practice session with a time of 29.808 and a speed of 181.159 mph. Denny Hamlin was second in his No. 18 JGR Toyota with a time of 29.903 and a speed of 180.584 mph. Ryan Blaney was third in his No. 12 Team Penske Ford with a time of 30.021 and a speed of 179.874 mph. Daniel Suárez was fourth in his No. 19 JGR Toyota with a time of 30.029 and a speed of 179.826 mph. Ty Dillon rounded out the top-five in his No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet with a time of 30.089 and a speed of 179.468 mph.
Austin Dillon was sixth in his No. 2 RCR Chevrolet. Cole Custer was seventh in his No. 88 JR Motorsports Chevrolet. Kyle Larson was eighth in his No. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet. Brennan Poole was ninth in his No. 48 CGR Chevrolet. Brandon Jones rounded out the top-10 in his No. 33 RCR Chevrolet.
Suárez posted the fastest 10 consecutive lap average at a speed of 175.708 mph. Austin Dillon was second at an average speed of 173.709 mph. Ryan Reed, who posted the 20th fastest single-lap time in his No. 16 Roush Fenway Racing Ford, was third at an average speed of 172.642 mph.
When William Byron began his first full season in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series driving for Kyle Busch Motorsports, he was expected to have a few good runs throughout the season. The 18-year-old already had a championship under his belt when he won the 2015 K&N Pro Series East championship driving for HScott Motorsports in partnership with Justin Marks, so he had already proven he had the talent needed to win in one of NASCAR’s biggest series.
It took him five starts, but at Kansas on Saturday, he managed to hold off two-time series champion Matt Crafton for his first series win. With that win, Byron validated KBM owner Kyle Busch’s decision to sign him, and Byron became another shining star on the rise in NASCAR. Currently lined up with rookie teammates Cody Coughlin and Christopher Bell, Byron’s KBM predecessors include current XFINITY Series superstar and five-time race winner for KBM’s truck program Bubba Wallace and 2014 Rookie of the Year/truck series champion Erik Jones.
A lot of the success could be credited to the Joe Gibbs Racing engines that the KBM Toyotas receive, but let’s not sell the drivers short. Jones and Bell may be champions and Wallace may have been a multiple-time winner, but Coughlin comes from a long line of racers and has more than a few years experience in stock cars, while Bell, a former dirt standout, won at Eldora last year in his third truck series start.
HOMESTEAD, FL – NOVEMBER 20, 2015: Erik Jones, driver of the No. 4 Toyota, celebrates with a burnout after winning the series championship at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Photo by Robert Laberge/Getty Images
How Busch came across Jones is a great example of how the KBM drivers are graded in regards to potential. In the 2012 Snowball Derby held at Five Flags Speedway in Pensacola, Jones was able to hold off Busch to score his first win in the prestigious event. Busch immediately made a move to sign Jones to his race team, and it paid off within a year as Jones scored his first series win, then two years later scored his first championship.
With Byron, it may not be something as dramatic as Jone’s big break, but it’s obvious Busch saw how fast the kid is. He’s been fast all through the 2016 season, and although he had a shaky start at Daytona and an engine failure at Atlanta, he’s been mounting an excellent title offense and now that he’s solidly in the Chase, he can focus on getting more wins and bettering himself as a driver. With that, Byron could place an emphasis on being a championship threat and carrying on that winning heritage at KBM.
After several weeks of unhappy fans, lackluster racing, and multiple Sprint Cup regulars winning all of the XFINITY Series events, Saturday’s Fitzgerald Glider Kits 300 provided a much-needed shot in the arm for a division struggling with credibility. Polesitter Erik Jones passed Cup regular Kyle Larson with an aggressive maneuver with three laps remaining and managed to hold off teammate Kyle Busch to earn his third-career win after leading 62 laps. Jones became the first XFINITY Series regular to win a race since Regan Smith won at Dover last fall.
The race yesterday was everything that every other XFINITY race this season hasn’t been: Exciting.
There were multiple lead changes (10). There was plenty of beating and banging for the lead. There were plenty of tense moments. And in the end, thankfully, a XFINITY Series regular won a race, guaranteeing that there won’t be an absolute shutout of those guys from Victory Lane in 2016.
It’s old news that the XFINITY Series has been suffering recently. Multiple races have been shutouts, with Cup regulars often leading every lap, sometimes by huge margins. In 2015, six XFINITY regulars won in 33 events. In 2014, that number was nine. XFINITY regulars have been getting the short end of the stick regarding success in the division, so to see Jones taking his No. 20 and muscling it past a pair of established Cup stars was good to see, from both the division’s standpoint and from the fan’s standpoint.
BRISTOL, TN – APRIL 16: Erik Jones, driver of the No. 20 Gamestop/Performance Designed Products Toyota, celebrates after winning the NASCAR XFINITY Series Fitzgerald Glider Kits 300 at Bristol Motor Speedway in Bristol, Tennessee. (Photo by Matt Hazlett/Getty Images)
Will this ultimately fix the big problem that the series is facing? No. That looks to be a long way off. But that’s not going to take away what a success Saturday’s race was. The heat races were a bit of a bore, but that was understandable; the drivers wanted to take care of their cars for the main, where it mattered. Should every XFINITY event feature qualifiers and a main event? Probably not. But if nothing is going to be done to address the Cup drivers running rampant in the series, then let the powers that be possibly look into shortening the races. That, or possibly bringing back some of the old tracks that put the division on the map (Gateway, Pikes Peak, Nashville Fairgrounds).
Whatever the case, wherever the division goes from here, it’s obvious that NASCAR needs to look at Saturday’s race and properly gauge the reaction of the fans as well as the series regulars. Twitter blew up with rave reviews of the event, drivers and fans alike were singing praises, and many were glad to see legitimate racing at Bristol for the first time in a long time, considering the racing product had declined following Bruton Smith’s “renovation” of the track in 2007. So much can be done for this struggling division based off of Saturday’s race, and fans and drivers can only keep their fingers crossed that something will be done.
BRISTOL, Tenn.– Erik Jones got a great restart in the closing laps and passed the leader to score the victory at Thunder Valley.
The driver of the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota passed to the outside of Kyle Larson with three laps to go to win the Fitzgerald Glider Kits 300 at Bristol Motor Speedway. It’s the third win in the XFINITY Series for the 19-year-old rookie out of Byron, Michigan.
“I don’t know, we had a really good restart there,” Jones said. “The 18 hadn’t been getting going. I lost my voice because I’ve been screaming so much on the cooldown lap. We got a really good restart and Kyle just left the top open and we went up there and he worked pretty hard to keep us behind him. We just kept digging and it worked out. Just an awesome feeling. I never thought we’d get our first win here at Bristol this year.
“I figured at some point in the year we could get a win when those guys weren’t in the field, but it would be a tall task with them in the field. Here at Bristol for those two guys, this is one of their best tracks. I’m just so excited and you can tell, I’m out of breath. I wasn’t working that hard. Just so excited about the win and to be here in victory lane and beat those guys. This is a really big day for us.”
Kyle Busch led 43 laps on his way to a runner-up finish in his No. 18 JGR Toyota.
“When I went to the gas on the last two restarts, it just didn’t accelerate,” Busch said. “I lost all my acceleration and those guys were just gone. I didn’t even have a chance. Jones cleared me by the time we got to Turn 1, that’s how bad it was.
“I ran too low for a lap and Erik got to my outside. I tried to slide him into (Turn) 1 and I was hoping he’d make a mistake and I’d get another shot at him in 3, but I just ran into the side of him. I did a really poor job the last two laps and I just blame myself.”
Larson, who led the most laps at 94, was edged out by Busch at the line and settled for rounding out the podium. Austin Dillon finished fourth in his No. 2 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet.
“This was definitely a different race today,” Austin said. “It was interesting to have the heat races. The No. 2 Rheem Chevrolet was really strong for the second heat race. Danny (Stockman, crew chief) and the guys had the handling dialed in for me. After the heat race, a lot of rubber was laid down and the handling for the main changed. I got pretty tight in the center of the corners but with only 200 laps, it’s hard to make adjustments. I’m proud of the No. 2 team. We have some things we’re going to try next week at Richmond that I’m pretty excited about.”
Justin Allgaier rounded out the top-five in his No. 7 JR Motorsports Chevrolet.
Daniel Suárez finished sixth in his No. 19 JGR Toyota. Ty Dillon finished seventh in his No. 3 RCR Chevrolet.
“That was definitely a tough finish at the end,” Ty said. “I’m disappointed the way it turned out. We had a lot faster car than a seventh-place finish. It was difficult to pass and make a move today, unless you could really race the bottom of the track. I enjoyed the heat racing today, but wish we were there at the end to have a chance to win the Dash4Cash.”
Kevin Harvick finished eighth in his No. 88 JRM Chevrolet. Joey Logano finished ninth in his No. 22 Team Penske Ford. Aric Almirola rounded out the top-10 in his No. 98 Richard Petty Motorsports Ford.
“We struggled,” Almirola said. “We were off on our balance. We did all of our practice in the morning yesterday and the track was never really the same today. That’s good though because I felt like I learned quite a bit that will help me tomorrow and we’ll go from there. All in all, it was a pretty good day for us…We qualified in the top-10 and pretty much raced in the top-10 all day, so I’m proud of that.”
The race lasted one hour, eight minutes and 10 seconds at an average speed of 93.829 mph. There were 10 lead changes among four different drivers and three cautions for 29 laps.
BRISTOL, Tenn.– Erik Jones will lead the field to the green flag for this afternoon’s XFINITY Series race at Bristol Motor Speedway.
The driver of the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota scored the pole for the Fitzgerald Glider Kits 300 with a time of 15.239 and a speed of 125.914 mph. It’s his fifth career pole in the XFINITY Series and second of 2016.
Austin Dillon qualified second in his No. 2 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet with a time of 15.284 and a speed of 125.543 mph. Kyle Larson qualified third in his No. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet with a time of 15.337 and a speed of 125.109 mph. Daniel Suárez qualified fourth in his No. 19 JGR Toyota with a time of 15.347 and a speed of 125.028 mph. Kyle Busch rounded out the top-five in his No. 18 JGR Toyota with a time of 15.355 and a speed of 124.963 mph.
Joey Logano qualified sixth in his No. 22 Team Penske Ford. Justin Allgaier qualified seventh in his No. 7 JR Motorsports Chevrolet. Aric Almirola qualified eighth in his No. 98 Richard Petty Motorsports Ford. Brandon Jones qualified ninth in his No. 33 RCR Chevrolet. Ty Dillon rounded out the top-10 in his No. 3 RCR Chevrolet.
Ross Chastain qualified 11th in his No. 4 JD Motorsports Chevrolet. Kevin Harvick rounded out the 12 drivers that made the final round of qualifying in his No. 88 JRM Chevrolet.
Carl Long and Morgan Shepherd were the two drivers that did not qualify.
Next up for the XFINITY Series will be the two heat races with race 1 at 12:30 p.m. and race 2 at 1:30, all times ET.
Erik Jones made a clean sweep of Thursday’s NASCAR XFINITY Series practices, pushing atop the leaderboard in the final session at Texas Motor Speedway.
Jones, driving the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 20 Toyota, blazed to a speed of 183.830 mph in final prep for Friday night’s O’Reilly Auto Parts 300 (8:30 p.m. ET, FS1, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.) He netted his first XFINITY win last April at the 1.5-mile Fort Worth track.
Kyle Busch, the defending Sprint Cup champ and a three-time winner this season in the XFINITY Series, turned the second-fastest lap (182.297 mph) in JGR’s No. 18 Toyota.
Sprint Cup regular Kyle Larson was third-best at 181.922 mph in the Chip Ganassi Racing No. 42 Chevrolet. Ty Dillon (181.269) was fourth-fastest in the Richard Childress Richard Childress Racing No. 3 Chevy.
Daniel Suarez and rookie Brandon Jones tied for the fifth-best spot at 181.147 mph.
Coors Light Pole Qualifying is set for Friday at 4:45 p.m. ET, broadcast on FS1.
Jones shows muscle in early Texas session
Defending race winner Erik Jones topped the speed chart in opening NASCAR XFINITY Series practice Thursday at Texas Motor Speedway.
Jones registered a best lap of 186.968 mph in the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 20 Toyota in preparation for Friday night’s O’Reilly Auto Parts 300. The 1.5-mile track was the site of Jones’ first XFINITY win last April.
Ty Dillon claimed the second-fastest lap, driving the Richard Childress Racing No. 3 Chevrolet to a speed of 183.968 mph in the 85-minute session. He is a former winner at the 1.5-mile track, prevailing at Texas in the Camping World Truck Series in 2013.
Dillon was followed by RCR teammate Brandon Jones at 183.175 mph, third-fastest in the No. 33 Chevrolet. Jones’ JGR teammate Daniel Suarez was fourth-best at 182.865 mph in the No. 19 Toyota.
Brennan Poole and Jeb Burton tied for the fifth-fastest lap with identical speeds of 181.837 mph.
Sprint Cup champion Kyle Busch, winner of three of the last four XFINITY Series races, was ninth-fastest in another Gibbs-owned Toyota.
HAMPTON, Ga.– For the second time today, Erik Jones tops the field in XFINITY Series practice. The driver of the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota was the fastest in the final practice session with a time of 30.551 and a speed of 181.467 mph.
Kyle Busch was second in his No. 18 JGR Toyota with a time of 30.641 and a speed of 180.934 mph. Ty Dillon was third in his No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet with a time of 30.718 and a speed of 180.481 mph. Daniel Suárez was fourth in his No. 19 JGR Toyota with a time of 30.740 and a speed of 180.351 mph. Kyle Larson rounded out the top-five in his No. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet with a time of 30.746 and a speed of 180.316 mph.
Brad Keselowski was sixth in his No. 22 Team Penske Ford. Kevin Harvick was seventh in his No. 88 JR Motorsports Chevrolet. Paul Menard was eighth in his No. 2 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet. Brennan Poole was ninth in his No. 48 CGR Chevrolet. Jeb Burton rounded out the top-10 in his No. 43 Richard Petty Motorsports Ford.
Suárez posted the fastest 10 consecutive lap average at a speed of 178.745 mph. Harvick was second with a speed of 177.911 mph. Menard was third with a speed of 177.257 mph.
The XFINITY cars will be back on track tomorrow at 8:35 a.m. for qualifying.
With rain interfering one last time and delaying the race start for over an hour, here is what else was surprising and not surprising from the season finale, the 17th annual Ford EcoBoost 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
Surprising: The last race of the year at Homestead was surprisingly filled with a series of firsts and lasts. Kyle Busch, of course, scored a host of firsts with his trip to Victory Lane, winning his own first championship as well as winning the first championship in the Cup Series for his manufacturer Toyota.
There were, however, an even greater number of lasts in the race, including the last race for Jeff Gordon, the final run for Sam Hornish Jr. under the auspices of Richard Petty Motorsports, the final race for Michael Waltrip Racing as a company, the finale for Go Daddy as sponsor or Danica Patrick’s car, and the final race for Justin Allgaier with HScott Motorsports.
And while Jeff Gordon basked in the accolades of his last trip around the track behind the wheel, others such as Clint Bowyer bemoaned his last run after crashing and finishing dead last.
“I don’t know what the hell happened to our car,” Bowyer said. “My car got loose. I couldn’t catch it. I hate to have it end this way.”
“Unfortunately, it’s over.”
Not Surprising: It may have been his first Sprint Cup championship, but Kyle Busch was already a champion coming into his final race, having secured the Truck championship as owner, with Erik Jones behind the wheel.
“I don’t know how you top this, but I’d sure like to see,” Busch said. “I wouldn’t do it without everyone that surrounds me, my wife, my family, my friends, my employees at KBM, Joe (Gibbs), J.D. (Gibbs), the team at JGR, Adam (Stevens, crew chief).”
“You surround yourself with good people in business and in sports and it sometimes will more than likely pay it back.”
“You know, this is pretty special.”
Surprising: There were no baby steps involved this season for Martin Truex Jr., who finished 12th in the race but fourth in the championship standings, his highest finish to date.
“Super proud of our season and really proud to come this far to come from 24th in points last year to fourth this year is a pretty big step,” Truex said. “I don’t think most people realize just how big of a deal it is and how hard it was for us to get that far.”
“You never know what the future holds, but excited already about next year, and I think we’ll be back here in mid-December testing already for next year. Not a whole lot of rest, and looking forward to spending a week or so down here relaxing and having a few beers, catching a few fish, and really just let it all soak in what we’ve been able to accomplish, and really proud of everybody on our team.”
Not Surprising: While he did not win the race, Kevin Harvick scored his own record of sorts, finishing in the second place for the 13th time for the season. Harvick became the 10th Cup driver to score double-digit runner-up finishes in a single season and his was the first since Bobby Allison in 1972.
“The 18 car, he just had the speed all night, for the most part,” Harvick said. “You know, as the night went, I just couldn’t find anywhere that would make the car run better. The higher I would run, the looser it would get. I’d get on the seams and then it would push the front and slide the back. Just never could find anything.”
“I know we’re disappointed about finishing second tonight, but it’s kind of the theme of the year, finishing second. Unfortunately it’s just one short, but all in all, it’s been a great couple years, and couldn’t be prouder of our bunch of guys.”
Surprising: While one Kyle was in Victory Lane, another Kyle, Larson that is, was bemoaning a bit the chance that he had to get his first Cup victory. The driver of the No. 42 Target Chevrolet was stung by the final caution after riding the wall to a fifth place finish.
“I think I was 1 water bottle away from my first cup win,” Larson tweeted after the race. “Congratulations to Kyle Busch, such an amazing comeback story you had this year!”
Not Surprising: Team Penske finished the season strong, with a third and fourth place finish for Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano respectively.
“I was really proud of my team tonight, really happy with what they were able to give me and we were able to take a run at it, we just didn’t quite have enough at the end on that final restart to hold those guys off.” Keselowski said after the race. “We were really strong and we just didn’t have enough to close it at the end.”
“Unfortunately, we didn’t win and that’s what we wanted to do,” teammate Logano said. “We had a fast Shell/Pennzoil Ford that led a lot of laps, so I’m proud of the laps we led. We had a few good runs and made an adjustment that just took it out of the track and by the time we got it back we lost too much track position. We had a bad pit stop under green and lost more there, so it was too little, too late. We couldn’t redeem ourselves after a couple mistakes tonight.”
Surprising: While Brett Moffitt reveled in winning the 2015 Sunoco Rookie of the Year title, he also revealed that his 2016 future driving plans are a bit up in the air at present.
“Throughout the season, Front Row has given me a great home, and it’s a great place to be, and thankful for this opportunity and being able to bring home the Rookie of the Year title,” Moffitt said. “Right now my slate is empty.”
“I mean, we’re working hard, but it’s hard to secure the funding to be able to run in any of the top three series. If anything would come forward, I’d be more than willing to work with any series, whether it was truck, XFINITY or another Cup ride.”
Not Surprising: One young up and coming driver no doubt summed it all up as he raced with one of his idols for the last time.
“I was a big fan of Jeff Gordon growing up,” Ryan Blaney, driver of the No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford, said. “You’re obviously honored to be in his last race with him. I got to race around him a little bit at the beginning of the race. I was having trouble passing him. I was trying to be as nice as I could and let him race his own deal.”
“But that was fun racing hard with him there.”
Surprisingly, that concludes the 2015 race season, which seems to have gone by in the blink of an eye. Enjoy the off-season, Happy Thanksgiving, Happy Holidays and here’s to a great 2016!
As strong as he was in winning Friday night’s Ford EcoBoost 200, Matt Crafton was already looking ahead to 2016.
Crafton, whose hopes for a third consecutive NASCAR Camping World Truck Series championship were dashed by a crash at Phoenix last week, won his sixth race of the season, holding off John Hunter Nemechek and Tyler Reddick in the season finale.
Although Crafton’s No. 88 Toyota Tundra finished 2.9 seconds ahead of Nemechek and more than six seconds ahead of Reddick, the 39-year-old veteran still wound up third in the point standings, 15 behind 19-year-old Erik Jones.
“I was having so much fun there at the end of this race,” said Crafton after his first career victory at HMS. “Six wins with as many laps as we’ve led–it’s been awesome this season. We just made too many mistakes. I made too many mistakes. … I promise one thing: It’s going to make us stronger in 2016.”
Crafton said he was happy to be able to “take the gloves off” and go all out for a win at HMS. “That was a lot of fun,” he said. “It’s amazing what Junior (crew chief Joiner) can do with these trucks. On that last run, we hit a home run there.”
Ultimately, Kyle Busch’s eye for youthful talent paid off as Jones did what he needed to in becoming the youngest driver ever to claim a CWTS title (19 years, 5 months, 21 days) and first NASCAR Next alum. He also became the first to win a driver’s title for Kyle Busch Motorsports.
“He put it to me when he beat me in a Super Late Model race,” recalled Busch, who will race for the Sprint Cup title on Sunday. “I tend to pick up on the talent of younger kids. Actually, the first time he raced against me, he blew my doors off, then blew up 40 laps later. I said, ‘Good. I don’t have to race (against) this one.’”
There was no blowing up Friday night.
Jones entered the race 19 points ahead of Reddick, his nearest competitor, and 32 points ahead of Crafton, the Keystone Light Pole-sitter. Making his first HMS start, Jones needed only to avoid trouble and finish 15th or higher to claim the series crown.
Erik Jones becomes the youngest driver ever to claim a CWTS title. Photo by Noel Lanier
Jones, who notched three wins this season and has seven career CWTS victories, finished sixth in the race behind Ben Kennedy and Timothy Peters. He qualified fifth and was content to race safely and efficiently, remaining in the top 10 for most of the race and avoiding any calamity on the track.
“I can’t think of a better way to repay these guys. I can’t think of a better ending than that,” said Jones, who expects to drive full-time in the XFINITY Series for Joe Gibbs Racing next year after parts of three seasons with Kyle Busch Motorsports.
“Eric’s done a lot of growing up in a short period of time,” Busch said. “I’m glad he stuck with me and our plan. I think he has a lot of bigger and greater things ahead on his plate.”
NASCAR Drive for Diversity and NASCAR Next alum Daniel Suarez appeared to have the strongest truck early in Friday’s race, charging from sixth to the lead. But Suarez slid up the track into the truck of Dexter Stacey on Lap 61, falling back to 15th, then found the wall again on Lap 83.
That left Crafton in position to dominate the race. He led 93 of the 134 laps, leaving NASCAR Next driver Nemechek (Chevrolet) and Reddick (Ford) in his wake to battle for second.
Reddick, driving for Brad Keselowski Racing, started fourth and advanced to second behind Crafton with 40 laps to go. But by then, Jones, who briefly slid back to 14th after a caution flag shuffle, had rallied to seventh, keeping Reddick, also a 19-year-old driver, at bay in the chase for the title.
“We were very consistent this year. I’m proud about that,” Reddick said. “We just have to move on to next year. I know what second place feels like and I really don’t like it too much. If I didn’t have enough reasons to win a championship, I’ve got one more.”
NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Race – Ford EcoBoost 200
Homestead-Miami Speedway
Homestead, Florida
Friday, November 20, 2015
Average Speed of Race Winner: 126.725 mph.
Time of Race: 01 Hrs, 35 Mins, 10 Secs. Margin of Victory: 2.942 Seconds.
Caution Flags: 4 for 18 laps.
Lead Changes: 14 among 6 drivers.
Lap Leaders: M. Crafton 1-30; J. Nemechek # 31-48; T. Reddick 49; J. Townley 50; D. Suarez(i) 51-60; J. Nemechek # 61-62; M. Crafton 63; J. Nemechek # 64-65; M. Crafton 66-67; J. Nemechek # 68; M. Crafton 69-78; J. Nemechek # 79; M. Crafton 80-83; C. Bell 84-88; M. Crafton 89-134.
Leaders Summary (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led): M. Crafton 6 times for 93 laps; J. Nemechek # 5 times for 24 laps; D. Suarez(i) 1 time for 10 laps; C. Bell 1 time for 5 laps; J. Townley 1 time for 1 lap; T. Reddick 1 time for 1 lap.
Top 10 in Points: E. Jones # – 899; T. Reddick – 884; M. Crafton – 877; J. Sauter – 809; T. Peters – 804; C. Hayley # – 766; D. Hemric # – 733; J. Townley – 730; B. Kennedy – 690; S. Gallagher # – 677.
