IRONMAN: Ageless Crafton still living in the fast lane for NASCAR Truck Series, ThorSport

PERKINS TWP. — He gets asked the question with more frequency.Matt Crafton hasn't missed a NASCAR Truck Series race in 18 years (407 straight starts). He's the only driver in Series history to win back-to-back season championships. He's finished in the top 20 of the Daytona 500, "The Great American Race" — as a last minute injury fill-in.He's also going to be 42-years-old in June. Like any athlete in professional sports, the speculation only grows with age: When is it time to call it a career?"Sometime it will obviously happen, but it's not something I've given a lot of thought to," Crafton said. "It won't be anytime soon."It's easy to take someone at face value when that type of conversation comes up. But consider what Crafton did for his sport, and the Sandusky-based ThorSport Racing team last week.The Ford Performance team was in town on Feb. 8, getting a first-hand look at the new F-150 trucks after ThorSport made the switch to the manufacturer for this season.Crafton, though, was in Volusia, Fla. — preparing to drive in the Dirt Car Nationals at Volusia Speedway Park, located about 30 minutes west of Daytona International Speedway.He got on an airplane, flew into Ohio and attended the meetings with Ford at the ThorSport shop. When the meetings ended, he did a two-minute interview with the Sandusky Register — and was back on an airplane to Florida.And he still drove and competed in the race that night."For him to do that, at this point what can we say about Matt and what he's done for us all these years — he's still that good," ThorSport General Manager David Pepper said. "He's as passionate about racing now as he was the first time I met him and talked to him 17 years ago."For his part, Pepper has never looked at Crafton and started wondering about his age — which he points out is even more of a credit to the longtime driver."I don't visibly look at Matt and think, 'gosh, he's approaching his mid 40s'. You're not looking for an age or a number, but a passion for wanting to do this," Pepper said. "You truly have to love what we do to do this — and that's Matt Crafton."With his consecutive starts streak approaching two decades, and becoming the only back-to-back title winner for an Ohio-based team in a predominantly southern-based sport — Crafton knows his image as the Cal Ripken Jr. of the Truck Series."Oh yeah, absolutely," he said. "I take a lot of pride in that, because it's a Series that I've always loved. I remember in 1995 watching the first-ever Truck Series race, it was Super Truck series."I loved it and was hooked, because it was great short track racing," Crafton added. "I look forward to keep doing it for a long time yet."No one has a better view of Crafton than ThorSport teammate Ben Rhodes, who will be 21 next week — half the age of the sport's elder statesman."It's an iconic truck and number in the Truck Series," Rhodes said. "Everybody knows the bright yellow Menards No. 88 truck and what he's done. Everyone kind of looks to him for results."It started off a little rough with Matt, but now we're friends and I wouldn't have it any other way," he added. "He's a great guy, and we feed off each other very well. I would say at the race track — and even on the track — we work really well."One can't fault Rhodes for being a little intimidated or in awe at times of Crafton. After all, as a kid, he was more familiar with the virtual version of him."I never would have thought I'd have been teammates with Matt," Rhodes said. "I used to play as his character on the NASCAR video games in the early 2000s, so it's safe to say I didn't think I'd ever be on the same track as him — and certainly not as his teammate."But it's still all business for Crafton, especially when it comes to the upcoming season. His philosophy — which has helped him be in title contention for a decade-strong — has always been a simple one.As he headed outside into the bitter cold to head back to Florida, Crafton was expectedly short and to the point about the 2018 season."Dot all the I's and cross all the T's at the end of the day," he said. "Just be there at the end, and be smart."Racer Matt Crafton talks with Register sports editor Mark Hazelwood at ThorSport Racing in Sandusky on Thursday, Feb. 8, 2018.