Champions are crowned at Homestead

HOMESTEAD, Fla. – Matt Crafton earned a consecutive Camping World Truck title for the first time in series history.

Crafton, 38, finished ninth at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Friday and finished a comfortable 21-points ahead of second-place Ryan Blaney.

“Thank you very much buddy,” Crafton said to his crew chief Carl “Junior” Joyner. “Thank you.”

“It’s been awesome,” Joyner replied. “Two in a row I guess we’ll get three next year.”

“Hell yeah,” Crafton said.

Crafton, who won two races and posted 13 top fives, 17 top 10 finishes and enjoyed an average finish of seventh, became the fourth truck driver with multiple titles. It’s also the second championship for team owners Duke and Rhonda Thorson since the Sandusky, Ohio-based ThorSport Racing debuted in 1996.

"To say I made history is definitely very, very cool but it's all about the guys that are behind me," Crafton said humbly. "Without them, I'm just an average race car driver at best."

As Crafton wrapped up his second title, Kyle Busch Motorsports also enjoyed its second consecutive truck owner’s championship and third overall. The organization celebrated with a double burnout with Busch in the No. 51 truck and race winner Darrell “Bubba” Wallace in the No. 54 Toyota Tundra on the front stretch.

“Awesome job for the 54 bunch, man, that’s cool,” Busch said on the radio. “Good job 51, thanks Eric (Phillips, crew chief), appreciate you sticking with us. It was a good time, bro.”

Busch was referring the Phillips new position at Joe Gibbs Racing where he starts his new job as a crew chief on Wednesday. The team owner split driving duties this season with Erik Jones, who ran 12 races. Together the KBM drivers won 10 of 22 events.

Wallace’s greatest accomplish on Friday was “beating the boss”.

Last season the No. 51 KBM team tied ThorSport’s No. 88 Menard's truck for the title and won on a tie-breaker (wins).