Tough trucks or just tough luck? Crafton penalty unfair

Tough Trucks. Tough drivers. Tough racing.

If NASCAR truly believed its own promotional slogans, it would've added up to tough luck for Ron Hornaday and Todd Bodine in this past Saturday's Camping World Truck Series race at Gateway International Raceway -- and let's move on to New Hampshire.

But instead NASCAR went limp, forgot the advertising hype and all of a sudden, it was just plain tough for Matt Crafton and everyone watching the Copart 200.

Gateway to trouble

Then leader Matt Crafton was held in the pits after being black-flagged for rough driving.

• Bodine gets wrecked
• Hornaday gets wrecked
• Drivers' points of view
• Winner Skinner's take

As a competitor all you can ask for is fairness and consistency when your league's ruling body hands down decisions. If you get that, you'll lose some and you'll win some -- but the bottom line is you'll have a pretty good idea of what to expect no matter what you did to prompt the ruling.

On Saturday, it appeared fairness and consistency went out the NASCAR control tower's window.

On a single-file restart with eight laps to go, series points leader Ron Hornaday led Todd Bodine and Matt Crafton, Hornaday's biggest rival for the championship. Hornaday got a great start and Crafton a better one than Bodine, who moved down the race track to block Crafton -- and even admitted it later.

The unwritten rule on blocking still remains: Block if you want to, but if it doesn't work and you end up wrecked, remember, you blocked a competitor who was probably faster than you.

Crafton was going for the win in another one of NASCAR's secondary series where power-robbing restrictor plates have made it absolutely necessary to seize opportunities to pass whenever they appear. He shouldn't have lifted and he didn't. And he didn't turn his steering wheel, either.

Bodine and Colin Braun were wrecked, several other trucks were involved and after several more caution laps and a red flag came another restart, now with four laps to go.

This time Crafton's move was to the inside of Hornaday, and while it wasn't as cut-and-dried as the other, the dynamic was no different.

• Bodine, Hornaday wrecked, Crafton black-flagged, Skinner wins (Continued)