WILLIAM BYRON WINS AT LOUDON IN CHASE OPENER

LOUDON, N. H. – William Byron stole a page from his mentor and team owner, Kyle Busch.

Leading 161 of 175 laps in Saturday’s UNOH 175 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway – the first race in the inaugural NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Chase – Byron cruised to victory, the way Busch has done so many times before, and punched his ticket into the Chase's Round of 6.

Not that runner-up Christopher Bell, Byron’s stablemate at Kyle Busch Motorsports, didn’t make it interesting in the closing laps. As Byron worked traffic in the late going, Bell closed from 1.325 seconds behind with five laps left to .430 seconds down on the next-to-last lap.

But Bell ran out of time and crossed the finish line .446 seconds behind his No. 1-seeded teammate, who won for a series-best sixth time.

"I wore myself out passing some lappers," Byron said. "But with the amount of laps we had left, I thought I'd be OK. I was afraid the 4 (Bell) was going to catch us there at the end. We started to get tight, but that's what happens sometimes when you get out front.

"It was really good – just a great race for us. I can't thank these guys enough. Everyone at KBM, (sponsor) Liberty University – it's just really cool to get a win here in the Chase. It feels awesome."

Two-time series champion Matt Crafton came home third, followed by Tyler Reddick and Timothy Peters.

With the Chase field to be trimmed from eight to six drivers two races hence at Talladega Superspeedway, Ben Kennedy and Daniel Hemric fell below the provisional cut line. Kennedy finished 11th and trails Johnny Sauter (10th on Saturday and sixth in the standings) by one point.

If Kennedy's result was only mildly disappointing, Hemric's was a catastrophe. With his left rear tire cut down to the rim, Hemric spun in Turn 1 on Lap 25 to bring out the third caution of the race. His truck suffered a cut brake line and consequent fire in the left rear wheel well.

Hemric lost 33 laps under repairs, finished 28th and fell to last in the Chase standings, 21 points behind Sauter with two races left in the Round of 8. In all probability, Hemric will have to win one of those two events, at Las Vegas and Talladega, to advance to the Round of 6.

After leading the first 54 laps, Byron lost the top spot briefly when Cody Coughlin stayed out under the fourth caution and Bell, Kennedy, Crafton and Spencer Gallagher leap-frogged ahead of Byron with two-tire and fuel-only calls in the pits.

But Byron regained the lead from Bell on Lap 69 and held it the rest of the way. As Bell gained ground in the final laps, Byron was trying to save his equipment to prepare for a possible late caution.

"I was expecting it, so I didn't push too hard," Byron said. "I was expecting to get a caution, hopefully save something, but we gave it all we had there the whole race, and I just can’t thank these guys enough."

Byron leaves New Hampshire with a 16-point lead in the standings and guaranteed admission to the next round of the Chase. Crafton (+11 points above the cutoff line) is second in the Chase standings, followed by Bell (+10), John Hunter Nemechek (ninth on Saturday, +5), Peters (+3), Sauter (+1), Kennedy (-1) and Hemric (-21).

Note: Nemechek's No. 8 Chevrolet failed the post-race heights inspection. Any potential pnelaties will be announced next week.

Upon Further Review: Mirror image with No. 24 car

JOLIET, Ill. — While rookie Chase Elliott’s third-place finish puts him in a good spot to advance to the next round of the Chase, it doesn’t put away any frustration with trying to score that first Sprint Cup victory.

For the second time in the last four races, Elliott lost the lead in the late stages of a race.

Sunday, Elliott was leading at Chicagoland Speedway when a caution came out for Michael McDowell’s blown tire, sending the race into overtime. Elliott went to pit but came out second. Three cars did not pit. That meant Elliott restarted fifth. Martin Truex Jr. restarted fourth and took the lead shortly after the green flag waved to win his third race of the season.

“There are some things you just can’t control with the amount of guys that stay out and where you line up on a restart,’’ Elliott said. “We played the cards we were dealt and came up short.’’

So when will Elliott win?

Maybe one should look at the driver he’s replaced in the No. 24 — Jeff Gordon.

Sunday’s race was Elliott’s 32nd career Sprint Cup race. Comparing his stats to what Gordon accomplished in his first 32 races (his 32nd career start was the 1994 Daytona 500), the results are eerily similar. Consider their totals:

Wins: Gordon 0; Elliott 0

Runner-up finishes: Gordon 2; Elliott 2

Top-five finishes: Gordon 8; Elliott 8

Top-10 finishes: Gordon 12; Elliott 14

Poles: Gordon 1; Elliott 2

Laps led: Gordon 237; Elliott 238

Gordon scored his first career victory in the 1994 Coca-Cola 600. That was Gordon’s 42nd career series start.

Will Elliott beat that?

RESOUNDING DAY

Although Hendrick Motorsports saw its winless drought reach 22 races — tying its third-longest drought in team history — there was much for the organization to feel good about.

Three of its four drivers finished in the top 10 and its cars led 193 of 270 laps.

Chase Elliott led 75 laps and finished third.

Kasey Kahne finished seventh for his third consecutive top-10 finish.

Alex Bowman, driving the No. 88 in place of Dale Earnhardt Jr., finished a career-best 10th.

Jimmie Johnson led a race-high 118 laps but finished 12th after a speeding penalty on pit road late.

WHAT HARKENS AHEAD?

One of the fascinating aspects about the inaugural Chase in the Camping World Truck Series and Xfinity Series is that no one is quite sure what to expect.

This weekend completed the 12-driver lineup for Xfinity and eight-driver field for the Truck series. Their playoffs begin this week (Trucks in New Hampshire and Xfinity in Kentucky).

While many competitors professed excitement about the tracks in their Chase, some talked about being leery of the aggression surely to be seen in the coming races — just as it has in the Sprint Cup Chase, leading to driver confrontations on and off the track each of the previous two seasons of the elimination-style format.

“It’s going to be very interesting to see how everybody races,’’ said two-time Truck series champion Matt Crafton. “It’s going to bring a lot of different characters.’’

Said Timothy Peters: “I guess the unknown is that the Trucks are already aggressive anyway and the Chase is adding that to boot. The unknown is how many people want to be play bumper cars.’’

There’s also that feeling among some in the Xfinity Series, especially with five of the seven races on 1.5-mile speedways. Track position will be critical.

“I feel like restarts are going to be really important,’’ Brennan Poole said.

Justin Allgaier said aggression could be a key in the Chase but not how much.

“The aggression level is really high right now,’’ he said. “I don’t think it will elevate a whole lot, but I think you’re going to have to manage that through the Chase. You watch a guy get too aggressive and get himself in trouble, then you’re going to have to back yourself down to make sure that you are going to capitalize.’’

Most drivers anticipate the aggression will increase as it gets closer to the championship in Miami.

“Most of these young kids understand the Chase format because they’ve watched it,’’ Brendan Gaughan said. “The problem is understanding it. They see John Hunter Nemechek do what he did a couple of weeks ago (vs. Cole Custer ). They see Ryan Newman at Phoenix (move Kyle Larson out of the way two years ago to reach the final).

“They see all the exciting things. You can make the Chase pretty exciting.’’

PIT STOPS

— Martin Truex Jr. had three wins in his first 369 Sprint Cup starts. He has three wins in his last 27 Cup starts.

— Denny Hamlin’s sixth-place finish extended his career-best streak of consecutive top-10 finishes to nine races.

— Trevor Bayne was Roush Fenway Racing’s top-finishing driver Sunday at Chicagoland. He placed 23rd.

— Clint Bowyer finished 22nd for the third consecutive race.

— Austin Dillon (14th) has placed between 12th and 16th in each of the last four races.

— Jimmie Johnson led 118 laps Sunday. He had led 120 laps in the previous 22 races combined.

— Through 27 races, Kasey Kahne has led 0 laps this season.

— Tony Stewart (16th) has failed to finish in the top 15 in each of the last five races.

Truck series points standings after Kentucky Speedway

SPARTA, Ky. — William Byron maintained his grip atop the Camping World Truck Series points standings with his fourth victory of the season Thursday.

Byron, who clinched a spot in the inaugural truck series Chase spot with the win, leads Matt Crafton by 13 points in the rankings.

Daniel Hemric moved up a spot into third in the points standings

The series’ next race is July 20 at Eldora Speedway.

The truck points after Kentucky:

Fire at ThorSport Racing shop ruled accidental

The June 13 fire at ThorSport Racing’s shop was accidental and started outside the building in mulch underneath a stairway, according to a report by the Ohio State Fire Marshal.

About 40 percent of the building was lost because of the fire. The report listed fire damage as $10 million. The team fields entries in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series for Matt Crafton, Ben Rhodes, Cameron Hayley and Rico Abreu. Fifteen of the team’s trucks were saved, but the suspension room and fab shop were destroyed. Fire units from four communities were called to the fire.

The report did not list an exact cause of the fire. The investigator wrote: “I was unable to eliminate careless smoking material discarded into the mulch bed on the exterior of the building as the heat source for this fire.”

The report noted that automatic sprinkler and fire alarms in the building did not activate because “the fire spread from the exterior into the roofline and walls. This was above and beyond the sensors and sprinkler heads. The interior alarms did activate once fire crews arrived and began to ventilate the interior rooms.”

The report also noted that “several sprinkler heads on the east side of the building activated once the roof collapsed and fire spread to interior portions of the building.”

The investigator detailed fire damage found in the patio area. After removing metal siding, the investigator reported that “fire damage was visible from the ground level into the void space between the metal wall covering and the original building. … Both the composite wood and wood framing was heavily damaged at ground level and evenly damaged on the interior facing side indicating fire spreading from the ground level upward.”

The report also included interviews with those who worked at the shop. They noted the patio area was often a place for employees to take lunch breaks during weekdays. No one reported seeing anyone smoke in that area that weekend before the fire.

“Copious amounts of water used during the fire attack washed a large portion of the mulch and other ground cover away from the building,” the investigator stated in the report. “I was unable to identify smoking materials in the area of origin but did see smoking materials on the grounds of the brick patio. The area of origin was the east side exterior of the building below the stairs. The mulch bed and ground cover is the specific area of origin.”

The report states the case is closed with no further investigate actions to be performed.

Follow @gillesrobson

Byron takes over lead in Truck Series standings after Gateway

William Byron failed to earn his third straight NASCAR Camping World Truck Series win in Saturday’s Drivin for Linemen 200 at Gateway Motorsports Park.

Although he finished 17th, it still was a good day for the rookie driver as he jumped to the top of the Truck Series point standings.

Byron knocked Matt Crafton from the top spot. Byron leads Crafton by one point. Timothy Peters is five points behind Byron.

The series’ next race is July 7 at Kentucky Speedway.

Here’s how the Truck Series points look after Gateway:

Watch Live: NASCAR America 6-7 pm ET — Hornish wins at Iowa, Reed’s retro look

Today’s episode of NASCAR America airs from 6 – 7 p.m. ET on NBCSN.

Mike Massaro hosts with Dale Jarrett from our Stamford, Connecticut studio, while Steve Letarte and Kyle Petty will be at NBC Sports Charlotte.

On today’s show:

* We’ll recap the racing action this past weekend at Iowa Speedway, including a phone interview with Xfinity winner Sam Hornish Jr.

* Dustin Long gives the latest on the attack upon NASCAR driver Mike Wallace over the weekend.

* We’ll have the revealing of Ryan Reed’s Darlington Speedway throwback paint scheme.

* A recap of Kurt Busch’s visit to the Formula One race in Azerbaijan with the Haas F1 Team.

* Prior to LeBron James’ epic Game 7 on the hardwood, fellow Ohio native Sam Hornish Jr., celebrated in victory lane at Iowa Speedway. We have him LIVE on NASCAR America to discuss his emotion-filled victory and what it was like climbing into a car for the first time in over six months.

* As the Camping World Truck Series crosses the halfway point in its regular season, William Byron has taken the top spot on the Chase Grid from two-time series champion, Matt Crafton. Coming off a K&N Pro Series East title last season, Byron is continuing to emerge as one of NASCAR’s brightest young stars.

If you’re not near a TV, you can watch online or on the NBC Sports app via at the NASCAR stream on NBC Sports.

If you plan to stream the show on your laptop or portable device, be sure to have your username and password from your cable/satellite/telco provider handy so your subscription can be verified.

Once you enter that information, you’ll have access to the stream.

Click here at 6 p.m. ET to watch live via the stream.

BYRON WINS SECOND CONSECUTIVE TRUCK SERIES RACE

RELATED: Complete race results | Updated Chase Grid

NEWTON, Iowa -- Following his second NASCAR Camping World Truck Series win of the season last weekend at Texas Motor Speedway, Sunoco Rookie of the Year contender William Byron used a late race restart and three-wide pass to charge from fourth to first to win Saturday night's Speediatrics 200 at Iowa Speedway.

Byron, driving the No. 9 Liberty University Toyota Tundra, swiped the lead from Cole Custer on a restart with nine laps remaining, but a caution six laps from the finish saw the Charlotte, North Carolina, native have to defend his presence at the front.

In a two-lap shootout, the 18-year-old Byron fended off challengers Custer and Cameron Hayley for a series-high third win in just his ninth Truck Series start.

"My gosh, it's awesome just to be a part of Kyle Busch Motorsports and to have the group of guys I do," said Byron from Victory Lane. "It's amazing. I'm so fortunate to be in this position.

"We had a couple setbacks there. I stalled it on pit road and I had a few setbacks on some restarts, but we kept after it until that last restart. It's awesome."

Custer, with new crew chief Marcus Richmond, led three dramatic laps following a Lap 188 restart which saw the race lead exchange several times before Byron sailed away permanently on Lap 191.

"For the first 10 laps or so, the others were probably better than us on four tires," said Custer, who recorded his season best finish. "After that it kind of equaled out. I thought I had them there when I took the lead.

"I can't thank Marcus and everyone enough. They worked their tails off all weekend. I really appreciate that. I think we're going in the right direction."

Byron, who led a race-high 107 laps, took the lead from pole sitter John Hunter Nemechek on a Lap 54 restart and led until the event's third caution.

The running order changed dramatically following a caution on Lap 146 when five teams elected to take two tires during the final pit stop, handing the lead to Tyler Reddick.

During the stop, Byron stalled his truck leaving pit road putting him 10th on the restart. Using four tires to combat his mistake, the NASCAR NEXT alumnus began carving his path through the field and found himself back in contention when the fourth yellow of the night waved just 24 laps from the checkered flag.

The event was red flagged for five minutes, 46 seconds for track cleanup after an incident involving Caleb Holman and Derek Scott Jr. on Lap 174 .

Next up for the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series is a stop at Gateway Motorsports Park for the running of the third annual Drivin' for Linemen 200 on Jun. 25.

UPDATE: ThorSport Racing haulers and some Trucks survive fire

A ThorSport Racing spokesperson confirmed to NBC Sports that the team’s four haulers, along with some tool and pit boxes, were removed from the shop before a pre-dawn fire spread.

Some of the team’s trucks also survived, but a team spokesperson was unsure of the exact number.

The spokesperson told NBC Sports that as of nearly 2 p.m. ET the fire was contained but firefighters were battling some smaller issues.

The fire at the team’s Sandusky, Ohio, race shop was reported at 12:12 a.m. ET. Fire crews from Perkins Township responded along with a unit from Sandusky, Ohio.

The team stated that no one was injured. The team also reported that the fire started in the basement of the 100,000-square foot shop.

A spokesperson for Kyle Busch Motorsports, a fellow Toyota team, stated that they had reached out to ThorSport Racing officials and offered whatever assistance is needed from parts and pieces to a place to work.

A Toyota spokesperson told NBC Sports that many teams, including those from competing manufacturers, were offering their assistance to ThorSport Racing.

The four-truck ThorSport team — the longest tenured in the Camping World Truck Series — raced last Friday at Texas Motor Speedway with two-time series champion and current points leader Matt Crafton, Rico Abreu, Ben Rhodes and Cameron Hayley.

The Truck series races Saturday at Iowa Speedway. The team stated it plans to compete.

Check back for more details as they become available.

Camping World Truck race results from Texas

Rookie William Byron passed Matt Craftonwith five laps to go and then held off Rico Abreu‘s late challenge before Abreu hit the wall to win Friday night’s NASCAR Camping World Truck race at Texas Motor Speedway.

It’s the second victory of the season for Byron, who drives for Kyle Busch Motorsports. Crafton finished second with Johnny Sauterthird. Abreu hit the wall in each of the final two laps and fell to ninth.

Matt Crafton remains Truck points leader after Texas race

Rookie William Byron moved up two spots to third in the NASCAR Camping World Truck point standings after his win Friday night at Texas Motor Speedway, but Matt Craftonremains the series leader.

Crafton holds an 18-point advantage onTimothy Peters after the season’s seventh race of the year. Byron is next, 23 points behind Crafton.

William Byron chases down Matt Crafton for second Truck of rookie season

FORT WORTH — William Byron chased down two-time champion Matt Crafton and then fended off fellow charging rookie Rico Abreu to win the Rattlesnake 400 at Texas Motor Speedway.

Bryon was able to cruise the final two laps after Abreu got into the outside wall twice after reaching Byron’s bumper.

Byron has now won twice in the last four Camping World Truck Series races after his victory at Kansas Speedway last month.

The rookie’s win ended a two-race win streak for Crafton, who had also won the last two June races at TMS.

Byron was followed by Crafton, Johnny Sauter, Ben Kennedy and Tyler Reddick. Abreu finished ninth.

MORE: Race results

HOW WILLIAM BYRON WON: After Matt Crafton’s tires wore down, Byron passed him with five laps to go and fended off a charging Rico Abreu to take his second Truck win.

 WHO HAD A GOOD NIGHT: Matt Crafton blew a tire and hit the Turn 3 wall while leading on Lap 11. Crafton then charged back from 25th in 20 laps to lead a race-high 133 laps before finishing second … Johnny Sauter started from his first pole in three years and led nine laps before finishing third, his fourth top-five finish of the season … Ben Kennedy finish fourth after starting 15th for his first top-five result of the season …Tyler Reddick brought out the second caution on Lap 52 after he lost a rear tire and spun exiting Turn 4. Reddick battled back to finish fifth … German Quiroga started second in his first Truck race since 2014 and finished eighth for his 18th top 10 of his career.

WHO HAD A BAD NIGHT: Rookie Christopher Bell pulled up lame on the first lap after a bad shift caused engine problems. Bell went to the garage where he finished last. …Spencer Gallagher lost a tire just passed Lap 30 and had to pit. He finished 27th, 14 laps down … Mike Bliss brought out a caution with 72 laps to go when he smacked the wall out of Turn 4. Bliss finished 28th … John Wes Townley spun in Turn 3 with 48 laps to go, shredding his right-side tires. Townley finished 17th, a lap down.

NOTABLE: William Byron is now the second-youngest driver to win at Texas Motor Speedway behind Chase Elliott … Matt Crafton holds an 18-point lead over Timothy Peters in the season standings

NEXT: Speediatrics 200 at Iowa Speedway on June 18 at 8:30 p.m. ET on Fox Sports 1.

Rico Abreu kisses the wall, then chance at first win goodbye

FORT WORTH — Rico Abreu hopped down from his No. 98 Toyota and was immediately met by two crew members.

As William Byron conducted his second victory burnout of the year on the Texas Motor Speedway front stretch, they helped the 4-foot-4 Abreu remove his helmet and safety equipment and told him there was no reason to be mad.

Minutes before, Abreu had gone from running second with three laps to go in the Rattlesnake 400 to finishing ninth, his best result in nine Camping World Truck Series starts.

As Byron drove his No. 9 truck past where Abreu stood on pit road, on the way to victory lane, one crew member told the Abreu he had just experienced some of the most fun he’d ever had.

When Byron passed Matt Crafton with five laps to go, Abreu soon followed. The native of St. Helena, California, spent the next two laps driving like he had for most of the race and his whole career – staying as close to the Texas Motor Speedway wall as possible.

“When it gets hot and slick like that, your tires get wore out; I just felt so comfortable up there,” Abreu said of the area of the track and style of racing he mastered while rising through the ranks on dirt tracks.

The driver Abreu was chasing down had the same strategy. However, Byron, who won his first race at Kansas Speedway last month, “wasn’t paying attention much” to Abreu as he bore down on him.

“I was still running the top, because that’s what I was running (all night),” Byron said. “Then they said ‘two back’ and I was like ‘Man, we’ve got to figure something out here, so I got to make sure I hit both corners right.'”

Byron did that, taking away Abreu’s racing line, which Byron called the “name of the game” Friday night.

“A couple of guys took my line away and got me into the wall a bit, but you just can’t give up on it,” Byron said. “That outside gives you such huge momentum down the frontstretch.”

Abreu took the momentum he had and reached Byron’s bumper as they came down to two laps to go. But as they entered Turn 1, Abreu’s favorite place on the track became very uncomfortable.

“I figured I maybe could have cleared him off of (Turn) 4, maybe coming to the white,” Abreu said. “But I just got too tight behind him and got into the wall. Can’t have that stuff happening.”

Abreu kept his speed up enough that teammate Matt Crafton, who was running in third, believed Abreu would have “definitely” finished second.

But those chances ended after the white flag when Abreu once again impacted the wall in Turn 2. This time, he didn’t leave the wall until he was on the backstretch.

“That shows how much heart he had that he wanted to win the race,” said Crafton, who led a race-high 133 laps. “He likes that high, wide and handsome stuff and it bit him right there.”

The loss didn’t shake the confidence of Abreu, who started the night in 13th. But he felt bad for the crew members that met him after the best night of his short Truck career.

“They built a great truck this weekend and I just smashed it all,” Abreu said. “I got speed, I just got to put a whole damn night together. I haven’t figured that part out yet.”

Matt Crafton: No movement on a Drivers’ Council in the Truck series

FORT WORTH – A year ago at Texas Motor Speedway, two-time Camping World Truck Series champion Matt Crafton stated he believed all three of NASCAR’s national touring series should have a Drivers’ Council.

Crafton’s statement came a month after the Sprint Cup Series’ first council formed.

“(NASCAR’s) constantly making rule changes and trying to make the sport better and sometimes we as drivers feel things whenever they make a rule change, and I think they need to hear it sometimes,” said Crafton at the time. “Not in a bad way or good way, but we need to be able to talk to them for sure.”

Crafton, in his 16th full-time season in the Truck series, now says he hasn’t heard any rumblings about the formation of similar Drivers Councils for the lower-tier series.

“I haven’t had any talks about it,” Crafton told NBC Sports in his team’s hauler Thursday. “I wish they would; they would talk to us. There’s not a whole lot of drivers in this series that they’re probably going to listen to, because they haven’t been here long enough to listen to them.”

The Sprint Cup Drivers Council currently is comprised of nine drivers, including five past champions and defending series champion Kyle Busch. In the Truck series, Crafton is the only champion from the last 10 seasons actively driving in the series. Last year’s champion,Erik Jones, is driving full time in the Xfinity Series.

Crafton said a hypothetical Drivers Council for the truck series would be comprised of series veterans.

“I know there is probably a handful of them they probably should listen to and be able to speak their minds and talk to them about things,” Crafton said. “I’m not saying the rookies shouldn’t have a voice, but at the end of the day, they need to earn the respect to have it.”

Veterans of Crafton’s caliber are sparse among the 20 drivers who have run all six races in 2016. Of those 20, Crafton is one of five drivers who have competed in every race over the past two seasons (22 races in 2014, 23 races in 2015). That includes, Johnny Sauter,Timothy Peters, Ben Kennedy and Tyler Young.

John Wes Townley, who won his first Truck race last year, has missed only four races since 2012. Drivers such as John Hunter Nemechek and Cole Custer, both multiple race winners, likely would have attempted full-time seasons if not for NASCAR’s age limits for tracks larger than 1.25-miles.

If he officially were able to convene with his fellow veterans and a couple of younger drivers with NASCAR, Crafton knows at least one topic he’d like to discuss.

“Differences in how (the trucks) drove in traffic five years ago and how they drive in traffic now,” Crafton said “I’d like to talk about some of that stuff with them and see if we can make the racing even better than what it is already.”

John Wes Townley leads final Truck practice in Texas

FORT WORTH – The final Camping World Truck Series practice for the Rattlesnake 400 at Texas Motor Speedway was led by John Wes Townley.

While recording 28 laps in the 90-minute session, Townley put up a top speed of 179.420 mph. William Byron followed Townley at 178.950 mph. The rookie also navigated the 1.5-mile track with a session-high 51 laps.

The top five was filled out by Spencer Gallagher, Ben Rhodes, and Matt Crafton. Crafton, who has won the past two June races at Texas, was fastest in the first practice session.

Crafton recorded the best 10-lap average at 175.797 mph.

Results, stats for Truck Series’ JACOB Companies 200 at Dover

With his victory in the JACOB Companies 200 at Dover International Speedway, Matt Crafton became the fifth different winner through the series’ first five races of the year.

Crafton led the last 78 laps, outrunning Daniel Suarez to the win.

Filling out the top five was Christopher Bell, Johnny Sauter and Cole Custer.

Dover win gives Matt Crafton lead in Truck point standings

Winning the Camping World Truck Series’ race at Dover International Speedway launched Matt Crafton five spots to the top of the point standings.

Crafton leads Timothy Peters by two points after five races this season.

Filling out the top five is Daniel Hemric, Ryan Truex and Spencer Gallagher.

Matt Crafton takes first win of year in first Dover victory

With a Daniel Suarez behind him and hungry for his first-career win, Matt Crafton stayed perfect in the final 78 laps of the JACOB Companies 200 to win his first Camping World Truck Series race of 2016.

Crafton, a two-time series champion, hadn’t won at Dover International Speedway in his first 15 starts at the 1-mile track. Now Crafton is eligible for the Truck series’ Chase playoff.

“I always wanted Miles (Dover’s trophy),” Crafton told Fox Sports 1. “We’ve came close and ran second (in 2013). This Menards Toyota Tundra was fast today. It’s all about these guys behind me, I can’t say enough about them – they never give up because we were not very good in the last practice.”

Crafton started fifth after Friday’s qualifying session was rained out.

“Last night (crew chief) Junior (Joiner) sat down and they worked on it all day and made a little headway and finally made progress,” said Crafton, who took the lead on Lap 123. His closest challenger was Suarez, who wasn’t able to get close enough to Crafton’s rear-bumper during the last 27 lap green-flag run.

“I was trying to run the wheels off this thing to try and complete the pass,” Suarez told Fox Sports 1. “We were a little faster than (Crafton) but clean air is a big difference here.”

Suarez’ runner-up result was his best finish in four Truck starts this season. He had failed to finish in the top 15 in his first three races.

HOW MATT CRAFTON WON: After taking the lead on Lap 123, Crafton held off all challengers through two restarts to lead the final 78 laps.

WHO HAD A GOOD RACE: Daniel Suarez was in the top five all afternoon, but couldn’t catch Crafton in the final stretch, finishing second for the fourth time in his Truck career … A week after crashing on the last lap at Kansas, Johnny Sauter kept his truck out of trouble, finishing fourth for his second top five of the year … Cole Custer bounced back from a penalty for jumping a restart to finish fifth, his best finish of the year.

WHO HAD A BAD RACE: Pole-sitter William Byron led the first 80 laps, but lost the lead during pit stops. The rookie pit under caution with 30 to go and was penalized for his crew going over the wall too soon before finishing 11th … ThorSport teammates Ben Rhodes and Rico Abreu were in the top 10 on a Lap 61 restart when Rhodes got loose in Turn 3 and made contact with Abreu, sending them both into the wall. It was the second accident in as many races for both drivers… With 69 laps left and right after making a green-flag stop, John Wes Townley got loose in Turn 3, overcorrected and hit the outside wall in Turn 4. Townley finished 29th.

NOTABLE: All five races this season have been won by a different driver, four of them by series regulars.

QUOTE OF THE DAY: “I’ve been telling Junior (Joiner) all year, to get out of the box and he said we have to win a race first. Now we can get out of the box.” – Matt Crafton after his first win of 2016.

NEXT: N.C. Education Lottery 200 at Charlotte Motor Speedway; May 20 at 8:30 p.m. ET on Fox Sports 1.