After 13 seasons in the series, Matt Crafton won the 2013 Camping World Truck Series Championship when he fired his engine in Homestead.
Matt won races and finished in the top five seven times and in the top ten 19 times. Getting caught up in a late race crash, and some hard racing kept his owners at Thor Sport Racing from also taking home the Owner’s Championship which was claimed by Kyle Busch Motorsports when Kyle won the final race of the season.
For me the most memorable events of the CWTS 2013 season include:
- ‘the slap heard round the motorsports world’ when the girlfriend of a ‘road course ringer’ Mike Skeen slapped Max Papis after he and her boyfriend were involved in an on-track incident.
- Darrell Wallace Jr. became the second African-American to win a NASCAR national touring series race as he won his first in Martinsville.
- Chase Elliott made waves on a road course in when he moved/turned Ty Dillon on the final laps of the race at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park to win the race.
- The trucks also returned to dirt, after a 42 year hiatus, racing at Tony Stewart’s Eldora Speedway in the ‘Mud Summer Classic’.
- Kevin Harvick spoke his mind (and said what everyone else thinks) in Martinsville after an on-track incident with Ty Dillon. He called both Dillon boys ‘spoiled rich kids who got everything handed to them’ and ‘had no respect’. Of course he later apologized, but things were tense for a while at ‘Pop-Pop’s shop.
Overall I found the season lackluster. I expect great racing from the trucks, but found a lot of the races were boring with one driver getting out front and staying there, or single file racing. Todd Bodine lost his ride mid-season and Ron Hornaday lost his before Homestead. There were lots of kids making waves. 19-year-old Darrell Wallace Jr., 19-year-old Chase Elliot, 19-year-old Ryan Blaney, and 19-year-old Erik Jones were all winners during the season.
Austin Dillon was awarded the Nationwide Series Championship. Sam Hornish needed to finish ahead of his teammates Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano to secure the title. Both were in the race at Homestead to help Roger Penske win the owner’s championship. He got that trophy, but Sam was left holding the bag with regard to the driver’s championship. Sam was one of four winners in the series in 2013. Kyle Busch won a record 11 races and Joey Logano and Brad Keselowski split most of the remaining races between them. Austin Dillon never managed to make it to victory lane.
The quality of the racing was okay. There were some incredibly boring races and some good races and one or two great races, though I don’t think I’d qualify any as excellent. Watching Sprint Cup drivers win the races over and over was less than satisfying. Watching Penske sacrifice the driver’s championship for the owner’s championship was sad. He seemed to stop supporting Sam about halfway through the season. Sam is without a ride now. I guess Roger decided Sam wasn’t worth the investment at that point. The only memorable incident was the mega-crash at Daytona in the first race. The children started thinking and being aggressive at the end of the race and a car ended up through the catch fence injuring spectators, some of whom had to go to the hospital. The drivers all walked away with minor injuries. The catch fences were restructured and the doors changed after that incident.
Jimmie Johnson won his sixth Sprint Cup Championship. He and Matt Kenseth raced hard, but respectfully throughout the Chase. The battle was close, within 10 points, for most of their championship run. A bad race in Phoenix for Matt stretched the deficit to 28 points going into the final race at Homestead. Jimmie needed to finish 23rd or better, no matter what Matt did, to win the championship. Matt finished second and Jimmie finished fifth.
Matt Kenseth won an impressive 7 races during the season, a personal record. He also won 3 poles – another personal best. His move from Roush Fenway Racing to Joe Gibbs Racing this season paid massive dividends for the Wisconsin native as he and crew chief Jason Ratcliff seemed to click immediately. Matt considered the season a success before the Chase with five race wins. Two additional wins during the ten run battle for the title shored up that sentiment. Matt’s daughter is friends with Jimmie’s daughter and the drivers have become closer friends as a result of the girls’ relationship. Matt expressed respect for Jimmie, Chad, and the 48 team throughout the Chase. He rebuffed all attempts to stir up controversy or ill-will or hard feelings toward Jimmie.
Jimmie Johnson won 6 races in 2013 including both the Daytona 500 and the summer Daytona race. It was the first time in 31 years (since 1982), and only the third time in the history of NASCAR, a driver went to victory lane at both Daytona races in the same season.
The big stories of the Sprint Cup season included:
- Denny Hamlin’s feud with Joey Logano resulting in a crash at California Speedway in March which left Denny with compression fractures of two vertebrae and took him out of the car for six weeks. Denny returned, but struggled throughout the season.
- Tony Stewart wrecked at the Sprint Car race at Southern Iowa Speedway in July and broke his leg in at least two places. His season ended then.
- Danica Patrick became the first female to win the pole for the Daytona 500. Her newly revealed relationship with fellow driver and fellow rookie of the year contender Ricky Stenhouse Jr. was the subject of much publicity during Speedweeks and throughout the year.
- Spin-gate, as it came to be known, at the 26th race of the season in Richmond dominated the news for a while. After an odd statement from his crew chief, Clint Bowyer mysteriously spun out bringing out a caution flag and altering the points picture. When Clint spun, Ryan Newman was leading the race. If Ryan had won, he (and Jeff Gordon) would make the Chase and Bowyer’s teammate Martin Truex Jr. (and Joey Logano) would not. That spin changed everything. Newman had a slow pit stop. Gordon had a bad restart and Carl Edwards went on to win the race after jumping the restart. The booth team, Allen Bestwick, Dale Jarret, and Andy Petree were skeptical about the spin. Dale Earnhardt Jr. was talking, on the radio, to his crew chief about the spin. He said it looked to him like Clint was trying to spin out – just before he did. Martin Truex Jr. and Joey Logano were in. Jeff Gordon and Ryan Newman were out. On Monday night NASCAR President Mike Helton called a press conference and announced a points penalty against all of Michael Waltrip racing. NASCAR determined that MWR General Manager Ty Norris attempted to manipulate the outcome of the race, and the battle for the Chase, but telling MWR driver Brian Vickers to pit at an opportune moment for Joey Logano and Martin Truex Jr. to gain positions and get into the Chase field. The highest fine in NASCAR history was levied against Michael Waltrip Racing. Each team was penalized points and each crew chief was put on probation. Ty Norris was suspended indefinitely. The points penalty took Martin Truex Jr. out of the Chase and Ryan Newman replaced him. More audio surfaced over the next day or two including a conversation on David Gilliland’s radio in which he’s told to let the 22 car (Joey Logano) get ahead of him and that Travis will owe Front Row Motorsports big. Since there was no similar chatter on the 22 radio NASCAR could do nothing in that situation. On Thursday NASCAR CEO Brian France called a press conference and announced Jeff Gordon would be added to the Chase field – an unprecedented 13th entry – due to the circumstances of the race in Richmond. Brian felt Jeff had been unfairly affected by the occurrences in Richmond and that it was only fair to add him to the field. He closed the book on the incident at that point.
- In the final race Paul Menard’s tire exploded. He had a fire underneath his car. When he came into the pits to put it out, the tire exploded off the car just as a couple of crewmen got to the car. No one was injured, but Slugger Labbe said that car was totaled. He said the windows were blown out, the floorboards damaged, the heat shield damaged.
Congratulations to 2013 NASCAR Champions Matt Crafton and Jimmie Johnson on impressive performances this year.
Overall I enjoyed the NASCAR season. It renewed my hope in NASCAR. The racing was growing ever more boring in the past few years and my enthusiasm was beginning to wane. This season increased my interest early on. The summer had a lot of boring races, but interesting garage news and the racing improved as the season drew to a close. I’m looking forward to 2014.