While Crafton may be a long-time competitor in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, the theme for this weekend is “new” after the changes made in the off-season.
For starters, this will be the first race that Crafton runs as a married man as Crafton married long-time girlfriend Ashley on January 7th.
"It was great, but I actually traveled more than we do when we're racing,” Crafton says of the off-season. “Right after Homestead, Ashley and I headed out to the sand dunes in Glamis with the sandrail. We got married in the beginning of January in Mexico, then went on our honeymoon in Costa Rica. Then we went right back out to California to play with the sandrail one last time and drove the motorhome all the way back to North Carolina together. After three days straight in the motorhome without killing each other, I think Ashley and I proved that we can be married. But between all of our traveling, testing, and a few trips to Sandusky, I was home for a total of eight days between Homestead and the middle of February."
As a married man, Crafton heads into his 12th season in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. In 11 previous starts at Daytona, his best finish is a fifth that came in 2010.
"Daytona and I have sort of a love/hate relationship,” he says. “It's one of those tracks that can be good to you or it can be bad to you. It was bad to me for a long time, but the last three years I've finished in the top ten, so I'm hopeful that we'll go into 2012 and it will be good to us."
While there may be a lot of different strategies at Daytona, Crafton looks to take the strategy of riding at the back till the end.
“One of the great ones on superspeedways was Bobby Hamilton Sr.,” Crafton says. “He always rode around in the back and waited for 10 or 15 laps to go and made his charge then. In the beginning of my career, I was always the young guy that was up there trying to lead every lap, and I wrecked probably the first eight times in a row I went out there. Finally, I took that mindset, the way that Bobby Hamilton Sr. did it, the way he won a lot of races, and I tried it. It was the first race I ever finished at a superspeedway, and I finished in the top five doing it. It definitely works."
Crafton hopes to continue his success at Daytona as this will be the first race with new crew chief Junior Joiner.
“I've known Junior and worked with him for about 13 years,” Crafton says. “We worked together the year I won the Southwest Tour championship and he's always been an important part of this team. He's actually one of my best friends; he was the best man at my wedding. So needless to say, it's going to be fun, without a doubt. I think we're going to win some races, have a great season together and hopefully bring home a championship."
Along with a new crew chief, Crafton and ThorSport Racing will be teaming up with a different manufacture in 2012 as they made the switch from Chevrolet to Toyota.
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