By Caleb Whisler, Staff Writer
After damage in the early stages of the Strat 200 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Matt Crafton salvaged a third-place finish.
Crafton was trying to avoid Sheldon Creed who went for a spin coming off turn four, but the No. 04 of Cory Roper ran into the side of the No. 88.
“That was hard fought for sure. I really had a great truck in the first few laps, but the No. 2 spun. I checked up to miss him, but the No. 04 ran in the back of me,” said Crafton of the incident.
Despite the damage to the quarter panel, Crafton battled his way to the front of the field. The biggest factor for Crafton was executing on restarts.
“We fought all night. We had some great restarts,” he said. “We got shuffled back at one point and drove ourselves back into the top-10. Right there at the end, it’s amazing that the truck was as fast as it was with the right rear quarter panel was.”
With his third-place finish at Las Vegas, Crafton is tied for seventh in the points standings with teammate Ben Rhodes and Todd Gilliland, just 21 points behind leader Grant Enfinger.