Piquet passes Crafton on last lap to win at Vegas

Nelson Piquet Jr. converted a last-ditch, last-lap pass for the lead Saturday night at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, prevailing in the Smith's 350 to seal his second Camping World Truck Series victory of the season.

Piquet dove low to the inside of Matt Crafton in the first turn and made the winning move stick on the backstretch of the 1.5-mile track. Crafton, whose winless streak stretched to 30 races, finished .223 seconds behind the Brazilian at the checkered flag.

Pole-starter Joey Coulter, who made a bold, three-wide move to briefly lead after the final restart, settled for third after leading a race-high 40 of the 146 laps. Las Vegas native Brendan Gaughan took fourth and Todd Bodine rallied from a first-lap spin to finish fifth.

It was the third national-series victory in what has been a breakthrough NASCAR season so far for Piquet, who also won in the Nationwide Series' event at Road America in June and the Truck Series' race at Michigan in August. Piquet twice tried to pull in front of Crafton over the final green-flag run, but made the third time the charm.

"I have no idea what happened," Piquet said. "I had to give it a last try, I stuck it in there and God gave me a little bit more grip on the inside and we made it. It feels great. We really needed this win — probably the best win of my career. For sure, [one of the] top-five moments of my career."

For Crafton, who led 13 of the last 14 laps except for the final one, the third runner-up finish in the past four races at Las Vegas had an unmistakable sting.

"That sucks, it plain and simple sucks," Crafton said. "We had a great truck and were really good there at the end. He had a real good run there at the end … but my God, that's a tough one to lose on the last lap."

Ty Dillon finished 10th to keep his lead in the standings by one point over James Buescher, who wound up sixth. Timothy Peters finished eighth and ranks third, 24 points off the top.

Parker Kligerman led 36 laps but was sidelined with 20 laps remaining after his third scrape with the outside retaining wall. The 19th-place result dropped Kligerman one spot to fifth in the series points, 39 points behind Dillon.

Action-sports star Travis Pastrana recovered from a sixth-lap spin to finish 15th in his Truck Series debut.

Results

FIN ST CAR DRIVER MAKE SPONSOR PTS/BNS LAPS STATUS
1 13 30 Nelson Piquet Jr. Chevrolet OmniTracs / Iceberg / tdm transportes 47/4 146 Running
2 4 88 Matt Crafton Toyota Menards 43/1 146 Running
3 1 22 Joey Coulter Chevrolet RCR / Darrell Gwynn Foundation 43/2 146 Running
4 6 2 Brendan Gaughan Chevrolet South Point Hotel & Casino 0 146 Running
5 10 11 Todd Bodine Toyota Toyota Care 39/0 146 Running
6 15 31 James Buescher Chevrolet Great Clips 38/0 146 Running
7 12 33 Cale Gale * Chevrolet Rheem 37/0 146 Running
8 2 17 Timothy Peters Toyota Toyota / Red Horse Racing 37/1 146 Running
9 3 18 David Mayhew Toyota Dollar General 0 146 Running
10 5 3 Ty Dillon * Chevrolet Bass Pro Shops / Tracker Boats 35/1 146 Running
11 7 32 Miguel Paludo Chevrolet Duroline Brakes 33/0 146 Running
12 9 29 Grant Enfinger Ram Reese Towpower 33/1 146 Running
13 16 23 Jason White Ford GunBroker.com 31/0 146 Running
14 19 09 John Wes Townley * Toyota Zaxby's 30/0 146 Running
15 17 98 Travis Pastrana Toyota AM / PM 0 146 Running
16 21 99 Bryan Silas * Ford Rockingham Speedway 28/0 146 Running
17 18 5 Ryan Reed Ford Racehard.com / RyansMission.org 27/0 145 Running
18 33 57 Norm Benning Chevrolet Norm Benning Racing 26/0 135 Running
19 14 7 Parker Kligerman Toyota Toyota / Red Horse Racing 26/1 126 Accident
20 8 6 Justin Lofton Chevrolet Imperial Valley Full Plate 24/0 114 Accident
21 11 13 Johnny Sauter Toyota SealMaster 23/0 114 Accident
22 24 39 Ryan Sieg Chevrolet RSS Racing 22/0 111 Alternator
23 22 214 Brennan Newberry Chevrolet NTS, Inc. 21/0 102 Accident
24 32 165 Chris Lafferty Chevrolet Superseal Construction Products 20/0 27 Accident
25 23 08 Ross Chastain * Toyota South Carolina Watermelon Association 19/0 26 Susp.
26 28 27 Travis Miller Chevrolet Hillman Racing 18/0 23 Overheating
27 20 9 Ron Hornaday Chevrolet Smokey Mountain Herbal Snuff 17/0 20 Engine
28 30 10 Jennifer Jo Cobb Ram Horejsi Graphics 16/0 19 Clutch
29 34 84 Chris Fontaine Chevrolet Glenden Enterprises 15/0 13 Transmission
30 25 07 Johnny Chapman Toyota Wear Your Gear / www.Bobber .info 14/0 11 Rear Gear
31 27 93 Dennis Setzer Chevrolet RSS Racing 13/0 7 Vibration
32 26 25 B.J. McLeod Chevrolet Boggy Creek Air Boat Rides 0 5 Overheating
33 29 38 Chris Jones Chevrolet RSS Racing 11/0 4 Vibration
34 31 200 Clay Greenfield Ford Obregon Construction 10/0 3 Overheating

* Denotes Rookie