FANTASY NASCAR Racin

Crafton was born in Tulare, California. Before turning to NASCAR racing in 2000, he raced go-karts, midgets, and mini sprints. Crafton began his go-kart career at the age of seven after receiving a kart as a present for graduating from kindergarten. He won multiple national and regional championships before moving to midgets at the age of 15, winning twenty main events. He joined the Featherlite Southwest Series as a substitute for his injured father, Danny Crafton, in 1996, filling in as driver of the #46 entry for the final three races of the season. Crafton took over the #46 full-time in 1997. His career went national when he became involved in the 1998 Winter Heat Series shown on ESPN at Tucson Raceway Park, during which he raced against other current NASCAR drivers Greg Biffle, Kevin Harvick, Kurt Busch, and Ron Hornaday. After four full-time seasons in the Featherlite Southwest Series, Crafton won the championship in 2000 on the strength of four wins that year. His success

in the Featherlite Southwest Series that season led to the invitation to make his NASCAR Truck Series debut for ThorSport Racing. Crafton made his Truck Series debut in 2000 at the season finale at California Speedway. Driving the PickupTruck.com Chevy for ThorSport Racing, he qualified 17th and finished ninth. In 2001, he piloted the #88 for ThorSport full-time with sponsorship from Fast Track Delivery Sealer and XE Sighting System. He had eleven Top 10s and finished twelfth in the championship standings, third behind Ricky Hendrick and Travis Kvapil for Rookie of the Year. Menard's first joined as an associate sponsor in 2002 and that season he earned six Top 10's and finished fifteenth in points. Crafton earned 11 Top 10's before finishing 11th in points in 2003. In 2004, Crafton

signed on to drive the #6 GM Goodwrench Silverado owned by Kevin Harvick Incorporated. He posted a best finish of third place in two races, and with six top fives and 17 top 10s, he ended the season fifth in the final standings. Despite strong statistics in 2004, he was released from KHI and returned to ThorSport for the 2005 season, where he won his first career pole at New Hampshire International Speedway, earning two top fives and 10 top 10s and finishing ninth in the standings. In 2006, he had four top-five finishes, 10 top-10 finishes and finished fourteenth in points. In 2007, he improved to eighth in points and posted ten top-ten finishes for the third consecutive season. Crafton's first NASCAR win came

at Charlotte Motor Speedway on May 16, 2008, in the North Carolina Education Lottery 200. It was his 178th start, the record for most starts a driver has had before getting his first win in the Truck Series. The win moved him into the top five in points for 2008. Later that season, Crafton filled in for Robby Gordon in practice and qualifying for the NASCAR Cup Series event at Homestead because Gordon was at the final off-road race of the season. In 2009, although he did not win a race that season, Crafton scored two poles (Chicagoland Speedway and Texas Motor Speedway), 11 top-five and 21 top-10 finishes, ultimately finishing second in the point standings behind champion Ron Hornaday. Crafton had another strong season in 2010, earning one pole at Texas Motor Speedway, 10 top-five and 20 top-10 finishes, resulting in a season-ending rank of fourth. 2011 saw the second win of Crafton's career at Iowa Speedway, in addition to poles at

Michigan International Speedway and Martinsville Speedway, where he broke the track qualifying record. However, four DNFs (Did Not Finish) due to engine failures, mechanical issues and accidents caused by other competitors led to only five Top 5s and 13 Top 10s, ultimately relegating Crafton to eighth in the final standings. In 2012, he had a decent season, finishing 6th in points. 2013 was Crafton's best season in his career to date. He won his third career race at Kansas in April. After this win, Crafton picked up the points lead and held it for the rest of the season. He finished in the top ten in the first sixteen races of the season, and 19 overall, with a worst finish of 21st in the season finale at Homestead. He clinched his first Truck Series championship with his start in that race, and was able to stay on the lead lap despite late

crash damage to become the first driver to complete every lap of the season in the Truck Series. Also, in 2013 Crafton would make his first career Xfinity start when he wheeled the #33 RCR owned Chevy to a third place finish. On March 30, 2014, Crafton scored his fourth career Truck win at Martinsville. On June 6, he won on fuel strategy at Texas Motor Speedway to win two races in a season for the first time in his career. It was also the first time he led more than 100 laps in a race. Despite crashing out at Dover and Gateway, his first DNFs in over two years, Crafton would ultimately go on to become the first back-to-back champion in the Truck Series. He made his first career Cup start in the Daytona 500 in 2015. He filled in driving the Joe Gibbs owned Toyota after Kyle Busch crashed in the Xfinity race and broke a leg; thus being out several races. Crafton finished on the lead lap in 18th. On

February 28, 2015, Crafton scored his sixth career Truck victory in the revived Atlanta race. On May 8, he used fuel strategy to win at Kansas after multiple other top five Trucks ran out in the closing laps, winning a second race at one track for the first time in his career. He is also the first driver to win two Truck races at Kansas. On June 5, he won at Texas, successfully defending his win from the year before, another career first. His fourth win of the season came at Kentucky after the race was cut short due to damage to the catchfence from Ben Kennedy's crash. Crafton scored his fifth victory of the season at Martinsville on October 31, marking his second win at Martinsville, and the deepest into the season he had ever won a race to that point. He would add one more win in the season finale at Homestead-Miami, marking his first career victory from

the pole; his season total of six wins are more than in his entire career prior to 2015. However, Crafton struggled more noticeably with consistency than in the previous two season. He crashed out at Gateway for the second year in a row after tangling with John Hunter Nemechek, and a few weeks later crashed out at Pocono after getting hit by Brad Keselowski. He would get swept up in a third wreck at Talladega with Stanton Barrett after being penalized for speeding on pit road, and while racing eventual series champion Erik Jones for the win at Phoenix would wreck out one final time, all of which eventually consigned him to third in points behind Jones and Tyler Reddick. On May 13, 2016, Crafton scored his twelfth career Truck victory at Dover. Eight days later, he scored his second career victory

at Charlotte, marking the first back-to-back victories in his career. This turned things upside down. But just seven races into the season; a raging fire damaged much of the team's race shop, the company marched on, spent weeks working piecemeal out of everything from the parking lot of a former grocery store to a section of bays inside a custom trailer manufacturing facility. But for six weeks, the four teams and approximately 85 employees worked "old school," minus many of the technological necessities prevalent throughout all three of NASCAR's national series. Needless to say; the fire was a set back to Crafton and his race performances as he had four finishes of 22nd or worse over the next ten races. Things could have been

worse because as some fire fighters battled the blaze; some others were able to get inside and save several of the race vehicles. Fire crews were sent into a portion of the building not threatened to push the team’s Trucks out of the shop. They would push the Trucks to the door and then the ThorSport employees would grab it where there was no smoke and push it down the ramp and to the grass. In all 12 of the teams race trucks were saved along with three haulers. The team would make the Chase; but finish second in the points. Also in 2016 Crafton would make his first Cup start. He was called in as a last minute replacement to run replacement to run the Daytona 500 after Kyle Busch crashed in the waning laps of

the Xfinity race and suffered compound fractures of his left leg and a broken right foot. He started 43rd and drove to an 18th place finish. In 2017 Crafton signed to return to ThorSports Racing with Menards again serving as the sponsor. Coming off a good season in 2016; the team had high hopes of claiming the Championship that got away the previous season. However the team struggled to find victory lane. He finished second at Atlanta; but would post only one other Top 5 finish in the first ten races. Crafton had always performed poorly on the only dirt track race of the season at Eldora; so he had bought him a dirt late model and was racing it; hoping to improve his results.

Apparently, it paid off as Crafton would claim his first (and only) win of the season at Eldora; which qualified him for the Chase. He progressed through all the different rounds to the finale' at Homestead. However, none of those them made it to the final round could keep up with Christopher Bell as he claimed the Truck Series Title. Crafton posted a good finish (6th) but was fourth best of those that made the final round. Crafton returned to Thorsports Racing in 2018. Crafton was joined by teammates Myatt Snider and Ben Rhodes. Crafton went win less for the first time since 2012. He did qualify for the Chase via points but was eliminated the race before the Finale'. He ended up sixth in the final points standings. 2019 saw much of the same for Crafton and his team. They were just "consistent". Nothing flashy and hardly ever

contending for the win. Once again he went winless for the season and only posted two second place finishes. Most races he finished between fifth and ninth. Still it was good enough for him to point his way into the Chase. Once in he posted finishes good enough to make it to the final Championship race at Miami. The race only featured three yellow flags; with two of those being at the end of the stages. It ran green from lap 68 until the checkers at lap 134. Austin Hill proved to have a very dominant truck and led 56 laps. Crafton's team had the truck's handling 'close' when the green dropped and the races three yellows kept the other teams from having a shot at making their

trucks better. In the end Crafton finished second and won his third Truck series Championship. 2020 saw Crafton's team improve the performance of his truck and he ran more races toward the front. He broke through and won for the first time since 2017 at Kansas. He finishes second twice before the Chase started. During the Chase he posted solid results with every finish in the top ten. The final race before the Championship his teammate, Grant Enfinger, won and that knocked him out of a shot to defend his championship the next race at Phoenix. Crafton ran competitive in 2021. He failed to get a win; but he had five Top 5 finishes, with a best of second at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway, right outside St Louis. He made it to the Championship race at Phoenix; but

his car never handled all night and the best he could manage was a 12th place finish. In 2022, Crafton had a year to forget. He only posted two top fives finishes for the entire season. His ThorSports team-mates Ty Majeski and Ben Rhodes seemed to do ok; in fact, Majeski and Rhodes made it to the Championship four at Phoenix, with a shot to be the champ. But Crafton just never seemed to be able to get anything going. He had to fend off Derek Kraus just to make it into this year Chase field. Matt would finish ninth in points. Except for one race where he crashed out; and one where he had transmission failure; he

ran all but four of the total laps in the races. His finishes just wasn't up near the top like they were used to seeing. It was like normal to see his be on the lead lap; but not running 15th or so. This was two years in a row he had went winless; He had two top five and 12 Top ten finishes; while finishing 21 of 23 races. Crafton will be back with ThorSport Racing in 2023 to look and make improvements over his 2022 results. Crafton’s 2023 season was much like he had in 2022. Neither season did he get a win; and both years he had two top five finishes. His best finish was fourth on the dirt at Bristol. He also made one Cup start. It to came on the dirt at Bristol as he drove the #51 for Rick Ware. He started 24th but would fall out with over heating problems and finish 34th. He is expected to be back full time in 2024 driving for ThorSport Racing. Crafton holds several records: Most consecutive Truck series start by an active driver (544); In 2013, Crafton has passed Terry Cook's record of consecutive starts in the series.

Fantasy NASCAR Racing

MATT JUSTIN CRAFTON - 06/11/1976