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NASCAR CAMPING WORLD TRUCK SERIES: FORD ECOBOOST 200

November 20, 2015

Matt Crafton

Homestead, Florida

THE MODERATOR: We're going to hear now from our race winner and two‑time NASCAR Camping World Truck Series champion, certainly a very worthy and deserving champion, Matt Crafton. Matt wins tonight's Ford EcoBoost 200. He's the driver of the No.88 Ideal Door Menard's Toyota, and he's joined by crew chief Junior Joiner.
Six wins in 2015 for Matt Crafton. His first win at Homestead‑Miami Speedway. Matt, you had them covered up here tonight. Talk about your win here tonight. I'm sure you would have liked to have got that third straight championship, but overall your thoughts about tonight's win and then the season in total.
MATT CRAFTON: Tonight's win was awesome. Like I said, the last two years we haven't been able to race here, and to be able to take the gloves off and don't worry about a championship and just go out and win, and that's all we had to do was worry about winning, and I said nothing else was going to make us happy. So that's what we did tonight.
We had a phenomenal season. Six wins and 700‑‑ I think they said 780 laps we led. That's a pretty good season. We just had one column that was bad for us: DNFs. I made mistakes and everybody made mistakes. But I promise you one thing, it's going to make us stronger for 2016.
THE MODERATOR: And Junior Joiner, certainly championships have been in y'all's vocabulary the past few years, and getting that sixth win here tonight. Talk about the victory here tonight, winning for the first time for Matt Crafton at Homestead‑Miami Speedway as you look back on the two titles y'all have won.
JUNIOR JOINER: Let's talk about how good I make him look (laughing). Man, I can't say enough about him and our whole Menard's Tundra team. Everybody just steps up their game each and every week, and I feel like every time we build a truck, it's better. Everyone tries to do that but we just seem to take that to another level on our island up there in Sandusky. Thanks to Duke and Rhonda Thorson. These Triad men, they've stepped up their game like immensely.
It's really nice to ‑‑ just on one hand, we lost our fuel mileage, but they asked me if I wanted it back, and I said absolutely not. I want the horsepower and we'll lead laps and figure out how to win races, and that's what we've done.
Again, I kind of like this guy. I don't think I'll trade him for anyone.

Q. Matt, you kind of touched on this after winning Martinsville, but if you compare the two championship seasons with three wins combined in them versus this season, six wins, how do you rank them, and you've always said you don't look at points, but the checkered flags is the thing. Is that kind of the view after this year?
MATT CRAFTON: Oh, absolutely. The first year we wanted to get that championship and we won one race that year and I points raced a lot, I'm not going to lie, and I just tried not to put myself in any bad positions and we top‑fived and top‑tenned them to death that year. I didn't really make mistakes with wrecking. Junior didn't make any mistakes and Triad and everybody had a great year. After that we got that first championship under our belt, he made me promise him that we weren't points race anymore. That drove him crazy because he knew we could win more races. So let's lead more laps, let's win more races than last year. We led more laps, we won more races.
And then this year I said these guys are unbelievable what they build these trucks up there in Sandusky, Ohio and what Duke and Rhonda give us to be able to go out and win six races. I say it each and every race, I don't worry about the points, and I haven't worried about the points. The last five races, six races, I knew I was going to have to be that much more aggressive, and I was.
If you look at the last five races how many laps we led, I guarantee we led most laps in 90 percent of those races, and we just had stupid stuff happen. If you look at Talladega you got debris on the grille and had to fall to the back to get the debris off, and then got caught up in a late‑race wreck, and then last week racing hard. Took my gloves off and like I said, I knew I had to win that race and I was going to do whatever it took to win that race. Yes, did I mean to wreck him? Absolutely not, as I said, it was just hard racing.

Q. Matt, can you talk about the battle with John Hunter Nemechek there?
MATT CRAFTON: That was a lot of fun. I mean, the first run we were good. We were really good on the short run, and the long run we missed it a little bit. We got off and I kept communicating with him. And it's just amazing what Junior can do to these trucks. We said we didn't want to jump on the other side of the fence and make it really free, and we made it a little bit better. The last run we really hit a home run there. It was good on the short run and really, really good on the long run, as well.

Q. I know you battled with Tyler Reddick and Erik Jones all season. What did you think of Erik Jones, who goes out and wins a title tonight?
MATT CRAFTON: Oh, I mean, Tyler Reddick, that kid has really, really truly impressed me. Anybody that goes back and see where that kid came from, he's a little dirt racer. He's not an asphalt racer. I remember watching him race last year, and like I've told him before, he was a weapon. He was a dart without feathers. Then he's racing for a championship this year, and I'm like, man, that kid must have had an off‑season put it all together. He was fast last year but never could put a whole race together, and this year he was very, very surprising.

Q. How about Erik Jones?
MATT CRAFTON: He's a good little race car driver. He's going to have a long, long career without a doubt. Hopefully get enough Kleenex.

Q. Have you regretted or had any second thoughts about that move last weekend in Phoenix?
MATT CRAFTON: I mean, yeah, you're definitely going to think about it, yeah, man what if I did that. What if I had just lifted and I could have drove back by him later and we could have raced, and we could have settled it right there at the end, and Junior said, No, absolutely not. You did everything you did. And that's what's so good about me and Junior's relationship, we have each other's back regardless. It doesn't matter ‑‑ I would have just absolutely blew the corner and just wrecked and it was a stupid thing. We have each other's back, and I kind of say, no, I would have raced him just as hard and did everything I did, because if he wins that race, and even if I finished second I was pretty much out of the championship. I knew I had to win that race and that I was going to do everything I possibly could.

Q. And back on the trend talking about the youngsters, what is it about John Hunter Nemechek that the kid seems absolutely solid and can't get anything going with that race team as far as sponsorship, as far as somebody taking a look at him to give him an opportunity for a full‑time gig? Is it just that tough right now in the series?
MATT CRAFTON: Oh, it's absolutely that tough. Like I said, there's so many of these‑‑ everybody always talks about the good crop of young drivers that there is, but there is‑‑ it's amazing how good equipment they're in. I mean, Erik Jones is a great, great race car driver, but he's in some of the best equipment. Tyler Reddick, I mean, he's a great race car driver. He's in great equipment. If you guys put these guys in some of the 15th place trucks, they're not going to run in the top 5 with it. I don't care how good they are. That's what some people don't understand.
John Hunter, they've got good equipment and everything, but you see what they do, and like I said, I know how hard that kid works and how hard his dad works and to see what we race with him, and he races his butt off. It's really, truly an accomplishment what that family does with what they have.

Q. Do you have any input on who's going to replace Sauter on your team next year?
MATT CRAFTON: Nope.

Q. Is that a good or a bad thing?
MATT CRAFTON: I mean, we've talked a lot. Duke has me a part of, like I said, all the drivers that have called, and he asks me my opinions on all of them, so I guess, yeah, I do have some opinion on them, certain feedback on it I should say.

Q. Speaking of Johnny Sauter, tonight was his last race with ThorSport Racing. Can you talk about what he's brought to the table and what he's meant to the program the last several years?
MATT CRAFTON: Johnny is a great, great race car driver. It's terrible that we're losing him because he's been very good to the program. He's helped the program to be where it is today. As I said, I'm sure he's going to have a great success over where he's at, and he's going to be definitely one of the ones who will race for a championship. But at the end of the day, I'm focused on winning more races, winning more championships with ThorSport. To see what Duke and Rhonda Thorson have done with me in my career, I think this is my 15th year with them, if I'm not mistaken, and I left for one year. And it was very much a learning curve. I went back and started to drive for them. You see what we've done. You're never going to meet‑‑ I can honestly say this, you're never going to meet a more loyal owner in this sport than Duke and Rhonda Thorson.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you very much, Matt and Junior. Congratulations on an outstanding season, and you've been a great champion. Thank you.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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