Crafton wins NASCAR Truck Series race at Dover

DOVER, Del. (AP) Matt Crafton had long considered the menacing Miles The Monster trophy the coolest in the series.

He finally has one of his own.

Snapping a winless streak at Dover International Speedway that stretched 15 years, Crafton held off Daniel Suarez down the stretch and raced to a Truck Series victory Friday.

The 39-year-old Crafton was 0 for 15 at Dover.

''I always wanted Miles,'' he said. ''We've gotten close. We've had very fast trucks. But our Toyota was very, very good today.''

The two-time season champion had been unable to turn 75 career laps led into a victory in his previous starts on the mile concrete track. Crafton had said he never thought he'd be able to break though and win at a track that had given him fits. Coming off a second-place finish last weekend at Kansas Speedway, Crafton led 78 of the 200 laps in the No. 88 Toyota.

Crafton holds a two-point lead over Timothy Peters in the points race and all but secured a spot in the Truck Series' eight-driver version of the Chase. He has 12 career Truck victories.

''I've got some cool trophies in my collection, no doubt, but Miles, he's cool,'' Crafton said.

With truck owner Kyle Busch rooting him on from pit road, Suarez was second. Kyle Busch Motorsports driver William Byron won last week at Kansas.

''I was trying to ride the wheels off of this thing to try and complete the pass,'' Suarez said. ''I thought we were faster than the 88 but clean air is the difference there.''

Christopher Bell, Johnny Sauter, and Cole Custer completed the top five. Peters was 14th and Byron, the pole-sitter, led a race-high 80 laps and was 11th. Byron was running sixth late in the race until he was penalized for having a pit crew member tagged for going over the wall too soon.

Suarez is still looking for his first career NASCAR win in the Xfinity or Trucks series. But he pushed Crafton hard and they matched the 1-2 finish of last year's race at Texas Motor Speedway.

''He definitely made me nervous,'' Crafton said. ''There were a couple times they said he was (close) and I thought, `I better go now.' We were 21st that last practice and my guys never gave up.''

Crafton joked that he had always eyed the Monster trophy in four-time series champion Ron Hornaday Jr.'s collection and used it as motivation to win one of his own. He had four top-five finishes and nine top 10s over his previous 15 starts.

''To not win here as long as it's taken me, it's much sweeter,'' Crafton said.