It took a record 178 races but Matt Crafton scored his first career NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series win Friday night when he picked up the checkered flag in the North Carolina Education Lottery 200 at Lowe's Motor Speedway.
Crafton held off Chad McCumbee in a green-white-checkered finish to score his historic win in a wild night of racing.
"Finally, we can shut them up," Crafton said. "Now they can say, 'When's the next one coming?
"Track position was everything. I have a really good group of guys. We've been together for two years now. We're a small group of guys, but we're going to win more races. I can promise you that."
Crafton has competed as a regular on the series for several years but was never able to break into victory lane while racing for a variety of teams.
"We never gave up,” Crafton said. “This truck got wrecked at Kansas and I had a really good truck there. They took it back to the shop, rebuilt it and made it as good as ever.”
The overtime run was set-up by a controversial tangle between Todd Bodine and Ron Hornaday.
As the field raced through the frontstretch tri-oval, Bodine made contact with the rear bumper of Hornaday's truck sending the No. 33 sliding through the infield grass.
Hornaday went back on track and ran down Bodine, sliding up into the side of the No. 30 Toyota as the field paraded through turn three under caution.
Once the race went back to green, Crafton had his No. 88 in front and was able to stay ahead of the hard-charging McCumbee, also trying for his first win, and Brendan Gaughan to the finish line.
"I kept trying to set him up and I had him set up, I was just a little bit too tight to get him," McCumbee said. "We were both going for our first win. If I couldn't get the win, I'm glad Matt got it."
Hornaday was involved in an earlier accident with polesitter Kyle Busch, who led the most laps of the race at 86, but was sidelined after the incident.
Hornaday apologized for that accident, but wasn't so accepting in his later tussle with Bodine.
"There's no excuse for that. He flat tried to kill me," Hornaday said. "You don't do that on the straightaway. We were pretty good friends, but I don't know now."
Erik Darnell was leading late in the race but spun his tires in the night's second-to-last restart, recovering to finish fourth. Rick Crawford finished fifth.
Hornaday continues to lead the series points race, by five over Crawford.
The Craftsman Truck Series now heads to Mansfield Motorsports Park in Ohio next Saturday.
