1. Matthew Justin Crafton was born on June 11,1976 and is an American professional stock car racing driver.
47 Facts About Matt Crafton
1. 2.
Matt Crafton competes full-time in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, driving the No 88 Ford F-150 for ThorSport Racing in his entire career for the team except in 2004.
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Matt Crafton began his go-kart career at the age of seven after receiving a kart as a present for graduating from kindergarten.
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Matt Crafton won multiple national and regional championships before moving to midgets at the age of 15, winning twenty main events.
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Matt Crafton joined the Featherlite Southwest Series as a substitute for his injured father, Danny Crafton, in 1996, filling in as the driver of the No 46 entry for the final three races of the season.
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Matt Crafton's 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 NASCAR drivers Greg Biffle, Kevin Harvick, Kurt Busch, and Ron Hornaday.
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Matt Crafton made his Truck Series debut in 2000 at the season finale, held at California Speedway.
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Matt Crafton had eleven top-tens and finished twelfth in the championship standings, third behind Ricky Hendrick and Travis Kvapil for Rookie of the Year.
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Matt Crafton earned 11 top 10s before finishing 11th in points in 2003.
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In 2004, Matt Crafton signed on to drive the No 6 GM Goodwrench Silverado owned by Kevin Harvick Incorporated.
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Matt Crafton 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.
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Later that season, Matt Crafton filled in for Robby Gordon in practice and qualified for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series event at Homestead because Gordon was competing in the final off-road race of the season.
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In 2009, although he did not win a race that season, Matt Crafton scored two poles, 11 top-five and 21 top-10 finishes, ultimately finishing second in the point standings behind champion Ron Hornaday.
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Matt Crafton had another strong season in 2010, earning one pole at Texas Motor Speedway, 10 top-fives, and 20 top-10 finishes, resulting in a season-ending rank of fourth.
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Matt Crafton 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.
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Matt Crafton 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.
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Matt Crafton made his Nationwide debut that year, running the No 33 car for Richard Childress Racing, since the car was sponsored by Menards.
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Matt Crafton performed well in all 3 races, finishing 3rd at both Kentucky races and 10th at Chicagoland.
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On March 30,2014, Matt Crafton scored his fourth career Truck win at Martinsville.
20.
On February 28,2015, Matt Crafton scored his sixth career Truck victory in the revived Atlanta race.
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Matt Crafton was the first driver to win two truck races in Kansas.
22.
Matt Crafton 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 is more than in his entire career before 2015.
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However, Matt Crafton struggled more noticeably with consistency than in the previous two seasons.
24.
Matt Crafton crashed out at Gateway for the second year in a row after tangling with John Hunter Nemechek, and a few weeks later, he crashed out at Pocono after getting hit by Brad Keselowski.
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Matt Crafton 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.
26.
On May 13,2016, Matt Crafton scored his twelfth career Truck victory at Dover.
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Matt Crafton finished 2nd at Homestead to Austin Hill and 2 spots ahead of Ross Chastain to claim his 3rd career Truck Series Championship.
28.
On July 25,2020, Matt Crafton broke a 67-race winless streak by winning at Kansas Speedway for the 3rd time in his career.
29.
In 2021, Matt Crafton went winless again but made the Championship 4 and benefited by late-race chaos at Martinsville.
30.
Matt Crafton did not make the playoffs easily in 2022, as he had to hold off Derek Kraus for the final spot, which he succeeded at doing.
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Matt Crafton was eliminated in the first round of the playoffs, landing only 9th place in points with 2 top 5s for the season.
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Matt Crafton made the playoffs in 2023 without winning a race but was eliminated again at Kansas.
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In 2024, Matt Crafton would fail to qualify for the playoffs for the first time since the playoffs were introduced to the Truck Series in 2016.
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Matt Crafton made three starts in the Nationwide Series with Richard Childress Racing in 2013, the first of which came at Kentucky, where he finished 3rd.
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Matt Crafton then scored an additional 3rd-place finish in the Kentucky 300.
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Matt Crafton made an additional start at Las Vegas the following year, where he finished 12th after starting 33rd.
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Matt Crafton was called in to substitute for Menard's No 27 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet twice in 2014; first at January Daytona testing after a pipe burst in Menard's house, and Matt Crafton was third fastest with a speed of 194.342 miles per hour.
38.
Matt Crafton practiced and qualified for Menard at the Auto Club 400, qualifying 30th.
39.
Menard eventually ran the first stage before Matt Crafton relieved him for the remainder of the race; he was involved in a multi-car wreck on lap 163 but finished 14th.
40.
Matt Crafton ran his first Cup race in the 2015 Daytona 500, substituting for Kyle Busch in the Joe Gibbs Racing No 18 after Busch suffered a compound leg fracture in the previous day's Xfinity Series race.
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Over four years later, he made his second Cup start in the 2019 First Data 500 at Martinsville in the No 36 of Front Row Motorsports after Matt Crafton Tifft was hospitalized with a health issue.
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In 2012, Matt Crafton, supported by Travis Pastrana, competed in the TORC: The Off-Road Championship series' PRO 2WD truck race at Chicagoland, finishing third.
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Matt Crafton came back to TORC in 2015, running in the Pro 4WD division in a Chris Kyle Memorial Benefit-sponsored truck at Texas.
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Matt Crafton raced in the 2014 and 2015 IWK 250 pro stock races at Riverside International Speedway in support of the IWK Health Centre in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
45.
Matt Crafton sat on the pole for the 2014 edition of the race, and wound up finishing 10th, one lap down.
46.
In 2015 Matt Crafton started third and quickly made his way to the front of the pack before retiring from the race with brake failure, ultimately finishing 21st.
47.
In March 2019, Matt Crafton participated in the Michelin Pilot Challenge sports car race at Sebring International Raceway, driving a Ford for Multimatic Motorsports alongside ThorSport Racing teammates Grant Enfinger, Ben Rhodes, and Myatt Snider.