Race Weekend Central

William Byron Holds Off Rico Abreu, Matt Crafton In Texas Truck Thriller

Frontstretch’s Truck Series content is presented by American Trucks

William Byron won his second Camping World Truck Series race of the season after getting around a dominant Matt Crafton with just five laps to go.

Crafton had led 133 laps of the 167-lap race before being passed by the 18-year-old Byron. Crafton had recovered after causing the first caution of the night by cutting a tire and smacking the wall. Although Crafton didn’t end up continuing his winning streak at both Texas and this season (both ended at two), he did finish second and held on to the points lead.

Byron’s race wasn’t over after getting around Crafton, however. During the final two laps, a hard charging Rico Abreu almost passed his fellow rookie driver, but Abreu went too high in the first two turns on the white flag lap and hit the wall. Abreu cut a tire and ended the night finishing ninth, his best career finish.

Finishing in third was pole sitter Johnny Sauter, his fourth top five of the season. Ben Kennedy had his best finish of the season in fourth while Tyler Reddick rounded out the top five, his third straight top-10 finish.

It wasn’t a perfect day for Kyle Busch Motorsports, though. Christopher Bell started ninth, missed a shift on the start of the race, and didn’t even complete a lap on his way to a 32nd-place finish.

Full unofficial results can be found here.

About the author

Michael has watched NASCAR for 20 years and regularly covered the sport from 2013-2021. He moved on to Formula 1, IndyCar, and SRX coverage for the site, while still putting a toe in the water from time-to-time back into the NASCAR pool.

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Biff Baynehouse

Crafton burned off his last set of tires off! Ha! Abreu pulls a KyLar with two to go! Oops!
Billy “Red” Byron – more burn-out practice! CWT win #2! Very impressive run by the kid & the #9 crew! Congrats!
There was an highly irregular circumstance in this race. Lucky for Nascar, it turned out to be a non-factor. Regardless, Mr. Super Brad Keselowski should ask NASCAR what justification there was in issuing the #88 Yota of Crafton an extra tire after he cut one on debris. Because under identical circumstances (as stated by Goodyear reps) #29 Ford of Tyler Reddick & Brad Keselowski Racing cut a tire & was NOT issued an extra tire. Also the #19 Ford of Daniel Hemric, also of Brad Keselowski Racing also had a flat & got no such consideration.
Why the asymmetric systemic governing latitude amongst competing manufacturers?

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