Tifft Rebounds For 12th-Place Finish in Homestead

In his second-career start at Homestead-Miami Speedway, Matt Tifft put a period on his 2016 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series campaign with a 12th-place finish. Tifft rallied from a loose wheel and regained a lap to claw his way back into contention by the end of the season’s finale. The Hinckley, Ohio native began his night from the 22nd position and wasted no time moving forward, entering the top-15 by lap 20. Shortly thereafter on lap 29, Tifft’s night would be threatened. A vibration forced him to make an unscheduled four-tire pit stop under green on lap 29, and from there, the rally from 32nd began. A fortuitous caution on lap 43 allowed him to take advantage of the wave around and rejoin the lead lap. With a 12-lap disadvantage on tires, Tifft muscled his BrainGear/Surface Sunscreen Toyota into the top-20 by lap 75. While he lost a lap to the leaders on lap 81, Tifft stayed in the Lucky Dog position until a lap 84 caution which brought him back into contention on the lead lap. After climbing his way to 14th, trouble on his final four-tire pit stop under yellow at lap 111 when another truck contacted Tifft’s front tire carrier, sent him back to 19th. The 20-year-old made the most of the season’s final restart on lap 115, completing four-wide passes and using every available lane on the progressively-banked surface to climb to 12th at the checkered flag. Tifft closed his 2016 NCWTS efforts with one top-five three top-10, and eight top-15 finishes in 10 starts.

“We started off just a little tight, but once we got rolling, we were pretty good tonight. We had the vibration. I’m not sure what it was, it started sparking and we were playing catch-up from there. It’s hard to come back from that. Then one of our guys got run into on pit road, and we didn’t have anything go our way in that department. I think we had top-five speed in our Brain Gear/ urface Sunscreen Toyota and could have gone up and played with those guys towards the front. It’s hard to capitalize on those things when you’re playing catch-up. Once again, we made a good finish out of a night that could have been worse. These guys at Red Horse Racing dig hard and we do everything we can to knock good finishes down. I’m glad we were able to come back and finish the season out on a solid note.”

RHR PR