June 6, 2014

By John Sturbin
NASCAR Wire Service

FORT WORTH, TEXAS – Matt Crafton put a definitive end to his 13-year/26-race winless streak at Texas Motor Speedway Friday night, steamrolling the field en route to a NASCAR Camping World Truck Series victory in the 18th annual WinStar World Casino 400.

Crafton led a race- and career-high 118 of 167 laps around the high-banked, 1.5-mile TMS quad-oval to finish a massive 13.302 seconds ahead of runner-up and polesitter Justin Lofton and the No. 20 NTS Motorsports Chevrolet Silverado. Ironically, Crafton failed to lead a lap here last year while finishing fourth and 10th, respectively, in the spring and fall races, on the way to his first truck series championship.

Crafton gambled on fuel mileage, running the final 61 laps without pitting his No. 88 Slim Jim/Menards Toyota Tundra fielded by ThorSport Racing.

Joe Nemechek scored a solid third for his privateer team in the No. 8 smokeandsear.com Toyota.

Crafton also took over the championship points lead by 11 points over teammate Johnny Sauter, who finished seventh after pitting for fuel under green on Lap 163.

Timothy Peters, who began the night with a one-point lead (185-184) over Crafton and Sauter, suffered through a miserable night that started with a cut tire that sent his No. 17 Red Horse Racing Toyota to pit road on Lap 8.

Down two laps early, Peters’ night ended on Lap 45 when he got caught up in oil dumped by the grenading engine of German Quiroga in Turn 1 and hit the outside wall. The truck suffered extensive right-side damage, prompting Peters to head directly to the garage area for the night.