Fort Kent native finishes 12th in NASCAR truck series race

Crafton and Reddick made the most of banner seasons in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series despite coming up short to newly crowned champion Erik Jones in Friday’s season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Fort Kent native Austin Theriault, returning to his first truck series race since a crash in an October 3 race in Las Vegas, finished 12th in the Ford EcoBoost 200. That damaged Suarez’s vehicle enough that he had to leave the race a few laps after the restart.

Tyler Reddick: Finished third Friday and was runner-up behind Jones for the championship.

Crafton wound up third in the final series standings, 22 points behind Jones, but relished a year flush with dominance and laps led, doubling the amount of victories in both championship seasons combined.

Jones, who drives for Kyle Busch Motorsports, competed in three Sprint Cup races this year for Joe Gibbs Racing – two as a replacement for Matt Kenseth during his recent suspension, and one when Busch was recovering from a broken leg earlier this year.

Crafton, driver of the No. 88 ThorSport Racing Toyota, is a 15-year veteran of the Truck Series, with his series debut coming at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Calif., in October 2000. He remained among the top 10, trailing Reddick but in position to win the championship, for much of the rest of the race. “In 2016, we’re going to be strong for it”.

“It’s a shame, I think we had a really good truck, but we never really needed to race or had the opportunity to go up and race with the guys up front”.

Crafton took the lead from Christopher Bell on Lap 89 and didn’t trail after that.

Jones, on the other hand, will have to resist the temptation to take unnecessary risks in pursuit of KBM’s first driver’s championship.

“Absolutely, I think the Xfinity Series is completely necessary”, Jones said of JGR’s plans for him.

“I don’t know what the exact career path is for me down the road”, he added. “I say it each and every race, I don’t worry about the points, and I haven’t anxious about the points”. I feel like there’s a plan in place for that opportunity to arise. And he’ll be doing it as a proven NASCAR champion.