OPINION: Matt Crafton's consecutive starts streak has not received enough attention
by Ben Schneider / LASTCAR.info Staff Writer
PHOTO: Mark J. Rebilas/Imagn Images
At last Friday night’s NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Matt Crafton took the green flag in his No. 88 Menards Ford for ThorSport Racing, extending an all-time series record by officially making his 570th career start.
All 570 of those starts have been consecutive.
To put this streak into perspective, the last time the Truck Series took the green flag without Crafton in the field was October 13th, 2000 at Texas Motor Speedway. Two days later, Dale Earnhardt won his final Winston Cup Series race at Talladega Superspeedway.
Yes, a Dale Earnhardt Cup victory is a more recent occurrence in this sport than a Truck race without Matt Crafton.
Of the 30 other drivers in Friday night’s Truck race, a whopping 13 of them were born after Crafton’s series debut on October 27, 2000, meaning his streak is older than 43.3% percent of the rest of field.
The truck from Crafton’s debut, featuring the “NASCAR 2000” logo below the A-post (PHOTO: Timecard100/@Nascarcatholic, X/Twitter)
Crafton’s longevity nearly goes as far back as the Truck Series itself. He made his debut in the final race of the series’ sixth season in 2000, finishing ninth at Fontana in Duke Thorson’s No. 88 Chevrolet. Ironically, Crafton picked up another ninth-place finish Friday night, scoring the 329th top-ten result of his Truck Series career, also a series record. He then spent four seasons running Thorson’s trucks full-time before moving to Kevin Harvick Inc. in 2004. In 2005, Crafton returned to Thorsport and has stayed with the team for the entire past two decades.
Crafton’s streak in the Truck Series resembles Jeff Gordon’s record of 797 consecutive starts in Cup. With the exception of that one season at KHI and the 2003 season finale when he moved to the ThorSport team’s No. 98, the majority of Crafton’s streak has occurred with the same team, number, and sponsor. While the Truck Series runs fewer races per year, Crafton’s streak has also surpassed Gordon’s in terms of seasons - he is currently in his 25th full-time year while Gordon retired following his 23rd.
In the Xfinity Series, which has typically run 33-35 races per season in recent years, Kenny Wallace holds the record with 547 career starts, albeit not all consecutive. Despite running anywhere from 8-10 fewer races per season, Crafton’s streak of 570 also extends beyond Wallace’s career total.
As for the next closest active Truck Series driver? It’s Crafton’s ThorSport Racing teammate Ben Rhodes, who sits at 213 career starts, the last 209 of which have been consecutive dating back to the 2016 season-opener at Daytona. The problem for Rhodes is that Crafton’s own streak is an active one. As long as they both keep racing, Rhodes can’t get any closer.
With a 361-start gap between the two, Crafton could retire tomorrow, and Rhodes would still need to race another 14 and a half seasons of 25 races each without missing a single start to break Crafton’s record. At only 28 years old, if Rhodes commits to being a “Truck lifer,” it’s not necessarily outside the realm of possibility that he could get to 570 at age 42…but it would take the same amount of stability from ThorSport that Crafton has enjoyed, not to mention a clean bill of health free from illness and injury, for him to get there.
Crafton’s truck from his 570th - and most recent - start at Las Vegas in 2025 (PHOTO: Mark J. Rebilas/Imagn Images)
To be clear, Crafton’s legacy is a complicated one. Achievements and accolades aside, his altercation with Nick Sanchez at Talladega in 2023 remains fresh in the minds of many. Sanchez described the incident as a “sucker-punch,” and while Crafton unsurprisingly saw it differently, the fight was serious enough that Elton Sawyer considered suspending Crafton, which would have obviously ended his streak. (Crafton would ultimately escape with a fine instead.)
Just a few months later, Crafton reportedly made a bet with Travis Pastrana that he would not lose a Nitrocross race to a female driver, a bet he would lose when Pastrana’s teammate, Gray Leadbetter, finished third, while Crafton only managed fifth. While no driver is perfect, and while I believe neither incident should completely define Crafton, it would be irresponsible to provide a career retrospective without at least acknowledging these recent controversies.
There is also no doubt that both the beginning and most recent seasons of Crafton’s career are a bit underwhelming compared to his peak in the mid-2010s. Of his 15 career wins, 13 came during the ‘10s - only his first career win at Charlotte in 2008 and his most recent win at Kansas in 2020 came outside the decade. Some might argue that his prime was too short given how many seasons he’s been behind the wheel.
That being said, Crafton’s win total is still good enough for sole possession of 10th on the all-time series wins list. In total, 15 wins in 570 starts comes out to a win percentage roughly 2.3%. Ricky Rudd, who with 788 consecutive starts held the Cup Series record before Gordon, won 23 times in 906 career Cup starts, for a similar win percentage of 2.5%. Coincidentally, Rudd was just inducted into the Hall of Fame last month.
Crafton also has three championship-winning seasons to his name - his 2013, 2014, and 2019 titles put him level with Jack Sprague for second-most all-time in the series behind only Ron Hornaday Jr. Considering Hornaday was also inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2018, while Sprague made his first appearance on the ballot just this past year, it is not unreasonable to suggest Crafton may be a future Hall of Famer himself. His championships combined with his longevity give him a Truck Series résumé rivaled by few others.
Whether you love him or hate him, it’s hard to imagine the Truck Series without him. So as we watch the trucks compete this season, let’s make sure we appreciate Crafton’s longevity while he’s still active. The series' story cannot be told in full without his own.
