Reversal of fortune for Crafton at Iowa Speedway

NEWTON - Matt Crafton fared well in Iowa this weekend. It's a nice switch from the tough season he's experienced so far.

Crafton improved a 10th-position start with a third-place finish at the NASCAR Camping World Trucks Series Lucas Oil 200 at Iowa Speedway on Sunday. The performance came less than a day after Crafton placed fifth in the ARCA Series Prairie Meadows 200, coming out of the 12th spot.

“We had a good weekend,” said Crafton, who actually led 28 laps in Saturday night's ARCA event.

Crafton earned his best Trucks Series finish of the season and his first top-5 since placing fifth in the NextEra Energy Resources 250 at Daytona International Speedway to kick off the season Feb.  13.  Crafton didn't end the last two Trucks Series races running, suffering engine trouble to place 27th in the last race June 12 and then getting knocked out by an accident late June 4.

“It was good to at least finish the race,” Crafton said with a bit of a laugh.

It was just his fifth top-10 finish in 10 starts, and the first since claiming seventh on May 14 in the Dover 200 at Dover (Del.) International Speedway. The crew had to make adjustments running a different truck on the .875-mile short track at Iowa Speedway.

“We had a big points day,” Crafton said.“This is a new truck for us and we brought it here. We threw a lot of changes at it yesterday.”

He grabbed 165 points with Sunday's showing and moved up to ninth in the season points race.