NASCAR Cup Series

Matt Crafton focused on win -- not second title -- in NASCAR truck finale

Published Nov. 14, 2014 8:00 a.m. ET

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Jared Turner

Matt Crafton is on the cusp of NASCAR history.

The surprising part?

He doesn't want to discuss it.

By finishing just 21st in Friday night's Ford EcoBoost 200 at Homestead-Miami Speedway, (8 p.m. ET on FOX Sports 1), Crafton will become the first back-to-back champion in the 20-year history of NASCAR Camping World Truck Series -- even if Ryan Blaney, the only other driver in the title hunt, earns maximum points.

Crafton, who has built a reputation as a paragon of consistency over his lengthy run in NASCAR's No. 3 division, has been no less so this season.

With a series-high 13 top fives -- including two victories (Martinsville and Texas spring) -- in 21 starts, Crafton holds a 25-point buffer on Blaney heading into Friday night's finale.

Barring a disaster of the not-so-Crafton-like sort in South Florida, the 38-year-old driver and 14-year veteran of the truck ranks will do what no other driver has done before -- earn consecutive championships.

In the process, Crafton would join four-time champion Ron Hornaday, three-time champ Jack Sprague and two-time champ Todd Bodine as the only drivers to score multiple truck championships.

Those drivers never went back-to-back, however. Crafton can and likely will come Friday night -- even if he'd rather avoid the subject.

"We're not going to talk about that," Crafton said Thursday during a press conference featuring the two truck title contenders at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Pressed to at least address the possibility of such a monumental feat, the 2013 champ and ThorSport Racing driver downplayed its significance.

"It's something I haven't thought about, something I don't really put a lot of thought into," he said. "Me and Junior (Joiner, crew chief) at the beginning of the year, we talked, and we went into this year with a little bit different mindset -- to see how many laps we can lead. We do that every year, but at the same time, let's not worry about points. Let's not points race. I said, at Homestead let's see where we end up, and that's what we've done every race this year, and that's all we're doing."

Long touted for his consistency and occasionally criticized for his dearth of wins, Crafton has recorded only five victories over 337 truck starts dating back to 2000. But two of those victories have come in 2014, Crafton's first multi-win season.

Unlike last year when the Tulare, Calif., native jumped out to a big lead early and admittedly went conservative in the season's second half, Crafton has made a concerted effort this season to stay on offense instead of merely playing defense.

So why the change in philosophy?

"Because I had to listen to Junior (Joiner) be pissed off that we didn't lead more laps and win more races last year, and we had the points race the last half of the season," Crafton said. "So we talked about it at the beginning of the season (and said) we're going to lead more laps, we're going to win more races, and do whatever it takes to do it. As I said, I've been a man of my word there."

He plans to carry this new approach into the season's final race.

"Last year -- Matt said it perfect -- we didn't want to be the guy to lose a 50-point lead," Joiner said. "So we had to be conservative, and we had to dot our I's and cross our T's and do everything right when we showed up every week.

"This year we've been able to go for wins, and we've had good speed. Gosh, if we'd just leave that darn 51 (the Kyle Busch Motorsports Toyota shared by Kyle Busch and Erik Jones) in his motor home, we'd have about eight wins, I think."

While Crafton is position to celebrate his second drivers championship on Friday night, Kyle Busch Motorsports appears poised to capture the 2014 owner title.

With Busch and Jones at the wheel, the No. 51 KBM truck has rolled up an impressive 10 victories between the two drivers this season.

The No. 51 team leads Crafton's No. 88 team by 18 points coming to Homestead, and is a lock for its third owner title in five years with a finish of 14th or better.

Busch, the owner of KBM and the one responsible for seven of the No. 51 Toyota's 10 victories, will be behind the wheel of the truck on Friday night.

But the focus will be on Crafton and his lone championship pursuer, who is in a virtual must-win situation. Despite his long odds of a title, Blaney has every intention to go down swinging.

"I'm definitely going to treat it like a must-win race," said the second-generation driver, who is seeking to become the youngest ever truck champion at 20 years, 10 months, 14 days old.

"Sorry, but if we end up wrecking, we wreck. We got to do the best we can and go all out."

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