PHOENIX: Matt Crafton holds his 8-year-old daughter on his lap and says he has no trouble teaching him how to run with respect in and out of racing etiquette as he begins his karting career.
The 45-year-old’s Crafton parenting skills don’t necessarily extend to a NASCAR Truck Series garage.
I’m not going to be here and be their father and tell them what they’ve done right and wrong, Crafton said.
With trucks championship berths at stake at Martinsville Speedway last week, tensions and anger flared up and honors were the hot topic out of the race.
Sheldon Creed lost a chance to defend his series championship and exchanged words with Crafton, accusing him of racing without respect in the closing laps. John Hunter Nemechek nearly lost a spot in the field when Austin Wayne Self kicked him out of the race. And yes, the respect or the perceived lack thereof was on the tip of Nemechex’s tongue.
Crafton believed cooler heads would prevail with the truck championship on the line Friday at Phoenix Raceway. Crafton, Nemechek, Ben Rhodes and Jane Smith in Championship Four. The first of the four contenders is the 2021 champion.
In a major battle for his racing career, Smith said there was enough room on the track for the contenders to find their place.
Smith said, I always think that those who complain about how fat we are, they are the fattest. I mean, there are veterans in this game who like to draw a card of honor to them because they are veterans. I don’t know, make room because there are new people here.
Nemechek, the series leader with five wins, moved to Kyle Busch Motorsports Holler at the final lap in Martinsville and his 39th-place finish was good enough to field him.
He said it was a helpless feeling sitting on the sidelines, unable to do anything about his condition.
Unlike Crafton, Nemechek was concerned that undisciplined driving could affect the outcome.
You don’t know how others are going to race, he said on Thursday. Whether its playoff people or non-playoff people. This goes back to what everyone has been preaching for some time now. Its worth more than anything else. I was that young man coming in at the time who knew no better than to go out there and run as hard as everyone else. I look forward to seeing you when we run tomorrow.
Nemechek took an unconventional road to truck chain controversy. Nemechek had just three top-10 finishes in the Cup last year and was out on his ride at the end of the season. Instead of joining a team not able to win the race, he got down to drive a Kyle Busch truck so he could prove competitive. Nemechek made the most of his moves and was the points leader for most of the season.
Like Nemecheck a year ago, 22-year-old Smith’s future is bleak.
Smith tries to focus on winning the championship he didn’t get last season, when he was runner-up in Phoenix. His GMS Racing team is headed to the Cup Series next year. Smith said he asked his representatives not to discuss any possible rides for the next season until after Sunday.
Wins and championships do that, he said. This is my life. I don’t have any family. I have nothing to fall back on. You make it or you don’t or you fail.
Smith only needs to look at last week’s race in Martinsville as an example of turning the impossible into opportunity. He was last in the eight-driver field in Martinsville and had to win to earn a spot in Friday’s winner-take-all finale.
Smith crossed the line for the win when he reached the end with a checkered flag from a three-ride scramble.
By the numbers of Phoenix, the championship is really ready to hold.
Nemechek has two second places in seven career starts, Rhodes has never been better than fourth in six starts, Crafton has a runner-up in 20 starts and Smith was second in the race for the 2020 championship.
Only one will hoist the trophy on his head.
Others, well, they will find the defeat something to lament about.
All were whiners, Smith said.
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