By Jerry Jordan, Editor
FORT WORTH, Texas – After finishing in the Top 5 at Texas Motor Speedway in the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Trucks Series on Friday night, Matt Crafton had a brief conversation with Johnny Sauter on pit road and then said he would like to see less downforce on the trucks because they are too stuck to the track.
It was an interesting thought considering many in the sport think the truck series has incredible racing. They would be right but Crafton believes his idea could make it even better.
“I think they just need to take a bunch of the downforce away,” Crafton said, explaining that the splitters on the trucks are too big. “Take all the stuff underneath these trucks away, I feel. If they made the splitters smaller it would definitely be a step in the right direction. The vacuum is so big they are suctioned to the ground and that is what we live and die by right now. And that is why they are so aero-dependent.”
Despite his fifth-place finish, Crafton said it wasn’t the outcome he desired and he would have liked to see more side-by-side action on the track. There were times during the race when the trucks would fan out in single file but with nine cautions the field would get bunched back together for a while.
“Track position is key everywhere but it is unbelievable how hard it is to pass here,” he said. “It’s exactly like Johnny (Sauter) just said, if you get a good restart and have a good launch off of Turn 2 then you have something for them but if you have a bad restart you are done.”
A very insightful observation by Crafton which also applies to the Cup series cars. Those have become ground effect vehicles and it’s absolutely ruined racing.