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Crafton And Jones Score In NCWTS Finale

NCWTS champion Erik Jones flanked by crew chief Ryan Fugle and Kyle and Samantha Busch, championship car owners. [Joe Jennings Photo]

NCWTS champion Erik Jones flanked by crew chief Ryan Fugle and Kyle and Samantha Busch, championship car owners. [Joe Jennings Photo]

Homestead, Fla. – Matt Crafton and young Erik Jones scored wins in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series season finale at the Homestead-Miami Speedway on Friday evening. Dominating the Ford EcoBoost 200, Crafton went to victory lane for the sixth time in 2015 and 19-year old Jones became the youngest series champion with a sixth-place finish. To capture the crown, he needed to finish 15th or better. His margin of victory was 15 points.

Leading 93 of the 134 laps, Crafton made it look easy as he built up commanding leads and had a 2.9 second advantage when the checkered flag dropped. He drove the Ideal Door/Menards Toyota owned by the Thorson family. This was his first win at HMS and the seventh top-10 in 15 races on the 1.5-mile oval.

“Tonight’s win was awesome,” the victor said. “The last two years we haven’t been able to race here, and to be able to take the gloves off and not worry about the championship and just go out and win, 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 780 laps led.”

John Hunter Nemechek finished second in a Chevrolet and Tyler Reddick took third in a Ford.

Ben Kennedy, Timothy Peters and Jones rounded out the top-six finishers.

Driving a Toyota fielded by Kyle Busch Motorsports, Jones not only copped the crown he gave the owner’s championship to KBM for the fourth time, including the last three in a row. KBM now has the most owner titles in the NCWTS with four and the first team in history to win three in a row.

“It’s been a fun ride throughout the whole season and just getting to this point and the things we went through – the adversity we had in the middle of the season – to really see it all come around and get back to the championship form the latter part of the season and get the championship, man, you couldn’t ask for a better end of the year,” the new champion said.

And he gave the first driver’s championship to KBM.

“It’s just special to everyone at KBM,” noted Busch. “I mean, we’ve been in existence five seasons and this is our fourth championship. And this is our first driver’s championship, and it means so much more to have the opportunity to help these young drivers succeed and to do it with KBM and Toyota. There’s nothing greater than to have that feeling.”

Reddick finished second in points, 15 back, and Crafton, the 2014 champion, ended up third in points 22 in arrears. .

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