Three-Time Truck Series champion Matt Crafton blasted NASCAR for ruining the series following the conclusion of the Championship race at Phoenix on Friday night.
Back in August it was announced that Crafton would retire from full-time competition with Ty Majerski taking over the ride at ThorSport Racing. However, at the end of October, Crafton isn’t calling it a retirement and plans to race part-time next year. When asked by Frontstretch where he might compete next year, Crafton said, “I always said anywhere I use two feet. ‘Cause a lot of these race tracks we go to a mile and a half, all seriousness, I mean you can put a monkey in them. They can drive them. It’s pathetic what NASCAR has done to the Truck Series. They’ve got too much down force and not enough motor. And you try to talk to them about, and I’ll probably get in trouble for it, but they just have their opinions on stuff.”
“And it’s not really fun racing when you run around a mile and a half and most of the time you’re wide open,” he continued. “And I want to be able to use two feet where you can lift and actually use brakes and the driver make a difference. And some of the mile and a halfs, you’re only as good as the stuff you’re sitting in.”
In contrast, Crafton shared his excitement about going dirt racing, “Yes, it’s a different discipline where you actually get to use two feet and a driver make a difference. And sometimes on this stuff you really can’t make a difference. On some of the bigger race tracks. I mean driver can make a little bit of difference, but I mean if you’ve got a rocket ship, you’re just going to be fast as all heck. And if you’re running around there wide open, it’s not like the driver can do a whole lot to make a big difference. So that’s what’s gotten worse. That’s not fun.
“When you go there to those places and you run around there wide open and you arc it in more, you drive it in straighter, like you can’t do anything as a driver to make it go faster,” he reiterated.
And at that point, you’re like, ‘This isn’t fun.’ So I want to go to places where I can lift and lift earlier, or drive it in deeper, and use more brake, and just change the driving style of it to maybe make the vehicle go faster because the places that you go where you’re running wide open, we’re really not going to make much difference. We’re just holding the steering wheel and just trying to do our best.”
Crafton finished 13th at Phoenix after starting in 25th. He finished 15th in the overall points standings.
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