Wallace Wins Truck Finale as Crafton Wins Title

Darrell Wallace Jr., driver of the #54 ToyotaCare Toyota, celebrates in Victory Lane

Getty Images for NASCAR

Darrell "Bubba" Wallace, Jr. scored his fourth NASCAR Camping World Truck Series win of the season in a thrilling battle with Kyle Larson, while Matt Crafton made history as the first driver to win back-t0-back truck series championships in Friday night’s Ford EcoBoost 200 season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Wallace passed his team owner Kyle Busch with a daring three-wide pass with 16 laps to go and then held off a furious charge from Larson on the final lap to earn Kyle Busch Motorsports their 14th win of the season and their second-straight owners championship.

Timothy Peters was third, followed by Busch and Ryan Blaney.

Crafton, who need to finish just 21st of better to clinch his second-straight title, finished ninth and beat out Blaney for the drivers title by 21 points, joining Jack Sprague, Ron Hornaday and Todd Bodine as a multi-year champion.

Matt Crafton

Getty Images for NASCAR

"It's definitely an awesome feeling to say you're back-to-back champion," said Crafton. "I definitely didn't want to talk about it at all the last few weeks. Without a doubt I wanted to go out there and do my job and try to win more races and lead more laps and that's what we did.

"I guess I'm getting pretty damn old or something if I'm making history. Without a doubt, to say that — to be on the list with those guys is unreal. I've watched Ron Hornaday race with my dad in the '80s, and he was an unreal race car driver, and to see Jack Sprague and all those guys win the championships, like I said, damn good race car drivers, and to say I'm on the list with them is pretty cool."

Wallace and Busch had combined to lead the final 33 laps, with Busch taking over the top spot following a caution with 20 laps to go.

Back under green, Blaney got past Wallace for second and began to reel in Busch when Wallace came roaring back, splitting the pair in a three-wide pass to move back into the lead with 16 laps to go.

Busch and Blaney would fade back into the top five as Larson – who had led a race-high 96 laps – began chasing Wallace.

Larson would finally track down Wallace with five laps to go, dropping to the inside in a bid for the lead, but could make the move stick as Wallace powered back on the high side. Larson would make one more charge in the final turn, but again could get the momentum to pull off the pass, with Wallace taking the win by two truck-lengths.

The victory was Wallace's second win in the last four races and his first win on a track longer than a mile.

"We beat the boss finally," said Wallace of beating out Kyle Busch. "I can't thank my guys enough for continuing to come up each and every race and never give up and have that desire to win. I told them before the race started, we want it more than anybody else. We don't have a shot at the title, but we want this race more than anybody else. And I had to work for it there. I had to battle off Kyle and Kyle, so a lot of things knocked off tonight in the mile-and-a-half win."

Friday night's victory was likely Wallace's last run for Kyle Busch Motorsports, as he is expected to move onto the XFINITY Series in 2015 driving for Joe Gibbs Racing.

"It is going to be sad to see him go," said Busch.

Kyle Busch Motorsports locked up their third owners title in the truck series, beating out Crafton's ThorSport Racing team by 24 points.

"It's a great milestone for us and a great accomplishment just on the fact that it's what we can race for," said Busch, who accounted for seven of KBM's 14-win season. "I couldn't be more proud of this 51 team. They fight hard, and they never give up. But same thing happened tonight with Bubba. He fought hard and never gave up, so it was awesome to see KBM win another one here tonight and hold off that 42 truck and be able to score an even higher win total for an organization in the series of 14 victories this year in 22 starts. Pretty impressive with these guys."

Coming into Friday night's race with a 25-point deficit, Blaney had been a long shot to have a chance of catching Crafton for the title, but despite an ill-handling truck and a broken shifter that could have ended his night altogether, Blaney and his Brad Keselowski Racing team rallied to finish fifth.

"It was a great couple years here with BKR and it's a shame we couldn't cap it off with a win and a championship," said Blaney, who is also expected to leave the truck series to run for the Wood Brothers in the Cup Series next season. "We struggled all night really, really bad. Just no grip. I couldn't believe how well it took off on that last run, we got it a little bit better, and then it kind of died off."

Ben Kennedy finished 17th in the event and took home the Sunoco Rookie of the Year award for 2014.

"This was something kind of on my bucket list this year. I think everyone wants to get Rookie of the Year their first year, and it's awesome to get it. I'm definitely humbled by it," said Kennedy, who is the son of International Speedway Corporation CEO Lesa France Kennedy and great-grandson of NASCAR founder Bill France, Sr. " I think it's a testament to the team and how hard the guys at Turner Scott Motorsports worked, especially the second half of the season. Really kind of came together and worked hard, and had positive thoughts going into every one, and this Rookie of the Year deal is awesome."

Results