NASCAR Nationwide Series and NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Championship

NASCAR Nationwide Series and NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Championship Press Conference Notebook

Notebook Items:

·         With Truck title in sight, Crafton approaching final race with singular focus

·         Dale Earnhardt Jr. discusses Greg Ives becoming his crew chief

·         Keselowski not changing his driving style

Nov. 13, 2014

With Truck title in sight, Crafton approaching final race with singular focus

By Reid Spencer

NASCAR Wire Service

HOMESTEAD, Fla.—Call it superstition.

Call it the ultimate exercise in compartmentalization.

With a 25-point lead entering the final NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race of the season Friday night at Homestead-Miami Speedway (8 p.m. ET on FOX Sports 1), Matt Crafton steadfastly refuses to discuss the prospect of a second straight championship — something no other driver has accomplished in the 20-year history of the series.

“If it’s meant to be, it’s meant to be,” Crafton told the NASCAR Wire Service after the NASCAR Nationwide Series and NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Championship Press Conference at the 1.5-mile track. “I’ve stuck with that saying since Daytona. We have a shot at winning it, and if everything… the stars and the moon align, and we just go out there and do what we’ve been doing all year, we should be fine.”

That’s a colossal understatement. All Crafton has to do in Friday’s season finale is finish 21st or better to shut out the only other driver still in contention for the championship, Ryan Blaney. Only twice in 21 starts this season — and not since the seventh race of the year at Gateway Motorsports Park outside St. Louis — has Crafton finished outside the top 21.

In his last 14 races, his worst finish is 14th at Talladega, and that’s his only result outside the top 10 during that stretch. Only an early catastrophe could keep the NCWTS trophy out of Crafton’s hands.

Nevertheless, Crafton contends he can block thoughts of an unprecedented second straight title out of his mind.

“I haven’t had one sleepless night — not one sleepless night — waking up and thinking about it,” Crafton said. “If we do what we’re supposed to do, and we do what we’ve been doing all year, we’ll be fine. God willing, it’ll happen.”

Crafton, 38, is content with life in the Truck Series, but he also has shown speed on occasional stints in the No. 33 Richard Childress Racing NASCAR Nationwide Series car. In four NNS starts over the last two years, he has finished third twice, 10th and 12th.

“If I stay here for the rest of my driving career, I’ll definitely be happy with that,” Crafton said of the Truck Series. “I know each and every week I can go win races. I have no desire to go somewhere where I’m going to run 15th to 25th and be happy with that.”

Nonetheless, Crafton is justifiably proud of what he’s accomplished in his four Nationwide starts.

“We’ve been very, very fast and led laps in a lot of those races as well. I know I proved to a lot of people that I can do it, I can go run with the capability of the guys in the Nationwide Series. If I had that opportunity to go run with them, I’d go run with them — in the right equipment.”

CHANGE OF PLANS FOR EARNHARDT

Crew chief Greg Ives, who led Chase Elliott’s NASCAR Nationwide Series team this season, was on a career track that would have kept him with Elliott long-term.

Steve Letarte’s decision to leave Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s pit box for the NBC Sports TV booth, however, caused Ives’ career to go off-script.

As Elliott’s car owner at JR Motorsports, Earnhardt got a close look at the working relationship between Elliott and Ives. But Earnhardt said that had less to do with the choice of Ives as his crew chief than the vacancy created by Letarte’s impending departure.

“I think that (Ives) was sort of tabbed as a crew chief at HMS (Hendrick Motorsports) prior to working with Chase,” Earnhardt said. “He just moved to JRM to get his bearings and get some experience. The plan was sort of for him and Chase to stay together for the future and for them to work together long into the future, as Chase moved up.

“But other opportunities came about for myself and for Chase, and so this is kind of what’s going to work out for everybody in the best interests of all the teams combined. I’m pretty excited, because I know how talented Greg is, and at the same time, I feel like that, in a way, Chase is in a better position, too. He’s going to be working with a great guy next year in Ernie (Cope), and his future is solidified in the mind of (owner) Rick Hendrick as to what’s going to happen after that.”

DIFFERENT STROKES FOR DIFFERENT DRIVERS?

Brad Keselowski tried to go up the middle between Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson late in the Chase race at Texas.

The result? A cut tire and a 29th-place finish for Gordon, a fight on pit road and criticism of Keselowski from many of his peers.

Last Sunday at Phoenix, Ryan Newman door-slammed Kyle Larson on the final lap to pick up the one position he needed to advance to the Championship 4 Round of the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

For the most part, Newman got a pass for doing what was necessary to retain his title hopes.

To be sure, there were differences between the two incidents. Newman’s move worked — he got the position he needed. Keselowski’s didn’t, in the sense that it didn’t propel the driver of the No. 2 Ford to the victory he sorely needed.

And Newman began apologizing immediately after the Phoenix race. At Texas, Keselowski was unapologetic.

“Clearly, the standards are different across the driver platforms,” Keselowski said on Thursday, appearing as the owner of championship contender Ryan Blaney's NASCAR Camping World Truck Series entry. “I think we all see that. I can sweat that, or I can sit here and point out that I’m still the youngest one of the guys that have won a championship in the last decade, which makes me kind of the newest guy in the circle.

“I’m a threat to those that are established in the sport. I understand that. I accept that, and they’re going to try to put a double standard on me to hold us back. I’m not going to stand for it, and I’m to continue to do the things I do, knowing that and hoping it will put me in a position to be a threat for many years to come.”