Justin Lofton raises the trophy in victory lane after winning the NASCAR Truck Series North Carolina Lottery 200 auto race in Concord, N.C., Friday, May 18, 2012.(Photo by The Associated Press)
55 starts.
That’s all it took for Justin Lofton to end up in Gatorade Victory Lane. Friday night at Charlotte Motor Speedway, Lofton beat Brad Keselowski for his first career NASCAR Camping World Truck Series victory. A driver who didn’t think he had enough gas to finish this race, was able to cross the stripe and do one heck of a burn out for the crowd at the track.
Lofton’s victory in the North Carolina Education Lottery 200 was the third first time winner of 2012. He joins John King who won at Daytona International Speedway and James Buescher who won at Kansas Speedway earlier this season. Lofton has also finished in the top ten in all five Camping World Truck Series races of 2012.
Once Lofton climbed out of his No. 6 CollegeComplete.com Chevrolet, all he could say to describe this moment was “amazing,” and adding that “it’s been a long time coming.”
And if you watched the SPEED coverage, you saw Ron Hornaday, Jr. climb out of his truck and come over to Brad Keselowski after the race. No punches were thrown, but fans were able to here some very colorful language. Keselowski explained the incident between the two drivers that happened during one of the final restarts, Keselowski would tell the media, “The 9 truck ran me over on the restart and hurt himself in the process.” He would then follow-up saying “I respect him, but guess I shouldn’t anymore.” Hornaday would apologize on camera to Keselowski and tried to explain that other trucks behind him caused he incident.
Could NASCAR fine the drivers for language aired on SPEED?
The next race for the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series is June 1st, 2012 at Dover International Raceway. Coverage begins with the NCWTS Set-Up at 3:30PM on SPEED.
Unofficial Race Results:
1. Justin Lofton
2. Brad Keselowski
3. Todd Bodine
4. Jason Leffler
5. Ron Hornaday, Jr.
6. Jason White
7. Joey Coulter
8. Jeb Burton
9. Timothy Peters
10. Ty Dillion
11. Parker Kligerman
12. Brendan Gaughan
13. Dakoda Armstrong
14. Miquel Paludo
15. Matt Crafton
16. John Wes Townley
17. David Starr
18. David Reuitmann
19. Cale Gale
20. Bryan Silas
21. Caleb Holman
22. James Buescher
23. Jake Crum
24. Max Gresham
25. Johnny Sauter
26. Jennifer Jo Cobb
27. Brennan Newberry
28. Ryan Sieg
29. Nelson Piquet Jr.
30. Paulie Harraka
31. Chad McCumbee
32. Chris Fontaine
33. John King
34. Dennis Setzer
35. Ross Chastain
36. Clay Greenfield
