Moffitt Scores NASCAR Truck Win And Title At Homestead

As the 2018 season got underway back in February, Brett Moffitt was likely on few people’s lists to win the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Championship.

But Moffitt and his underfunded Hattori Racing Enterprises team proved themselves to be contenders, and on Friday night at Homestead-Miami Speedway, they topped that off with the series championship.

Moffitt swept to the lead on lap 100 when fellow Championship contender Noah Gragson hit pit road. From there, Moffitt would go unchallenged en route to the victory.

It marked the sixth win of the season and the seventh overall for Grimes, Iowa native.

The win and title comes in just the 36th series start for the 26-year-old, the second fewest start for a series champion behind Mike Skinner, who had 20 starts in the series’ inaugural season in 1995.

More remarkable is the fact that the team came oh-so-close so many times to simply shutting down. Scraping by and putting together piecemeal sponsorship throughout the year, the team actually came close to missing the race at Chicago until last minute sponsorship came together.

All those battle paid off on Friday night, as Moffitt drove away from pole sitter Grant Enfinger en route to the victory in a race that ran with no on-track cautions.

“It’s unreal,” said Moffitt. “We all know the story by now where we didn’t know if we were going to race the full year. I didn’t know if I was going to have the opportunity to compete for a championship even after we got our first win. Everyone pulled together hard here.

“Back at Chicago we didn’t know if we were going to make it to the race track and Marcus (Barela) with Fr8Auctions stepped us and got us there. We’ve had many partners like that and iRacing all year long that came in at clutch moments and got us to the race track when we needed to.”

The win and the title comes as Moffitt’s 2019 plans are in question, as he will not be back with Hattroi Racing next year.

Gragson led a good portion of the race’s final segment, with Moffitt hounding him lap after lap. Gragson used the momentum of the high side of the race track to hold the lead as Moffitt pulled side-by-side with him in the corners on every lap.

“(Crew chief Scott) “Zippy” (Zipadelli) and everybody at HRE (Hattori Racing Enterprises) gave me a really fast Tundra and I think we made the bottom work a hell of a lot better than anybody, so that gave me the opportunity to get down there, but doing that it’s really harsh on the tires,” Moffitt said. “I knew we were faster than him. It was just about getting him and getting momentum off (turn) 2 and being able to dive bomb into (turn) 3. The first attempt I did at it, I just wasn’t aggressive enough and got the tires hot and had to go back up to the top and cool them down a few laps and then make another charge.

“I just can’t speak enough about everybody on this race team and how hard they work. Our pit crew tonight did an amazing job. Man, those were a long last 20 laps.”

As the race approached 37 laps to go, Gragson reported to his crew that he thought he had a tire going down as Moffitt bypassed him. He hit pit road a lap later, and would recover to finish in third.

“I gave it all I got. I mean, I had my tongue hanging out,” said Gragson. “ I wasn’t worn. I wasn’t falling out of the seat, but I just burned the front tires off of it. We were loose on the first run and then just made it a little bit too tight for the second run through the center and got snappy on exit. We got my exit really good, just too tight through the center and just burnt the front tires off.

“I thought I had a left front going down. I don’t know what was the problem. It might have just been all in my head, but it just started getting really, really tight, three, four, five numbers of a balance shift tighter. Just really challenging. Man, it sucks when you see that thing driving away from you.”

Meanwhile, Championship contender Justin Haley charged early, but was unable to contend with the leaders most of the night. In the end, he had to settle for an eighth place finish.

“We had a good run at it there at the start of the race,” said Haley. “ I thought we were going to be one to contend for. We had really good fire-off speed all night, and seemed like four or five laps into the run, we would plow tight and then get loose, and about 13, 14 laps into the run we’d get okay again. We just fought balance all night, but still a pretty good day.”

Maybe even more surprising than Moffitt’s charge to the championship was just how badly Johnny Sauter, the 2016 series champion, fared on the night.

After starting sixth, Sauter quickly dropped back as he battled with an ill handling truck. Sauter would run outside the top 10 most of the night, and came home in 12th at the end of the night.

“It was awful,” Sauter said of his race. “Just no grip, and yeah, we laid an egg tonight. I don’t know why, just sideways, and then huge adjustments on the pit stops, and I was like, yeah, whatever, didn’t really feel it. You know, it’s crazy. You’ve got some races where you do a couple pounds of air pressure and a little bit of a track bar adjustment and it’s night and day, and tonight you make huge adjustments, and it’s ho-hum.

“Proud of everybody at GMS; great season, and coming down the stretch here, we didn’t get it done. Congratulations to the 16 truck. They did a hell of a job tonight, winning the championship and winning the last race, that’s pretty cool. We just didn’t have it.”

Enfinger finished in second, with Gragson third, Stewart Friesen in fourth and Sheldon Creed in fifth.

Matt Crafton, John Hunter Nemechek, Justin Haley, Jesse Little and Ben Rhodes rounded out the top ten.

NASCAR Camping World Truck Series
Homestead-Miami Speedway – Homestead, FL
Ford EcoBoost 200 – November 16, 2018
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1. (5) Brett Moffitt (P), Toyota, 134.
2. (1) Grant Enfinger, Ford, 134.
3. (3) Noah Gragson (P), Toyota, 134.
4. (2) Stewart Friesen, Chevrolet, 134.
5. (13) Sheldon Creed, Chevrolet, 134.
6. (22) Matt Crafton, Ford, 134.
7. (8) John Hunter Nemechek(i), Chevrolet, 134.
8. (4) Justin Haley (P), Chevrolet, 134.
9. (9) Jesse Little, Ford, 134.
10. (11) Ben Rhodes, Ford, 134.
11. (14) Harrison Burton, Toyota, 134.
12. (6) Johnny Sauter (P), Chevrolet, 134.
13. (15) Todd Gilliland #, Toyota, 133.
14. (12) Myatt Snider #, Ford, 133.
15. (17) Tyler Dippel, Chevrolet, 133.
16. (7) Ross Chastain(i), Chevrolet, 133.
17. (19) Cory Roper, Ford, 133.
18. (21) Jeb Burton(i), Toyota, 132.
19. (23) Brennan Poole, Toyota, 132.
20. (25) Jordan Anderson, Chevrolet, 132.
21. (16) Austin Hill, Chevrolet, 132.
22. (31) Justin Fontaine #, Chevrolet, 131.
23. (24) Austin Wayne Self, Chevrolet, 130.
24. (10) Chris Windom, Toyota, 130.
25. (29) Ray Ciccarelli, Chevrolet, 129.
26. (27) D.J. Kennington, Chevrolet, 129.
27. (18) Robby Lyons, Chevrolet, 124.
28. (28) Jennifer Jo Cobb, Chevrolet, 124.
29. (26) Tanner Thorson, Chevrolet, Engine, 120.
30. (30) Reid Wilson, Chevrolet, Engine, 80.
31. (20) Joe Nemechek, Chevrolet, Suspension, 20.
32. (32) Camden Murphy, Chevrolet, Vibration, 11.

Average Speed of Race Winner: 133.684 mph.

Time of Race: 1 Hrs, 30 Mins, 13 Secs. Margin of Victory: 2.000 Seconds.

Caution Flags: 2 for 12 laps.

Lead Changes: 10 among 7 drivers.

Lap Leaders: G. Enfinger 1-33; M. Crafton 34-36; N. Gragson (P) 37-38; M. Crafton 39; B. Moffitt (P) 40-66; N. Gragson (P) 67-98; B. Moffitt (P) 99-101; S. Creed 102; B. Rhodes 103-104; J. Anderson 105; B. Moffitt (P) 106-134.

Leaders Summary: (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led) B. Moffitt (P) 3 times for 59 laps; N. Gragson (P) 2 times for 34 laps; G. Enfinger 1 time for 33 laps; M. Crafton 2 times for 4 laps; B. Rhodes 1 time for 2 laps; S. Creed 1 time for 1 lap; J. Anderson 1 time for 1 lap.

Stage #1 Top Ten: 98,18,16,8,88,24,52,97,41,2

Stage #2 Top Ten: 16,18,98,88,8,52,97,24,2,21

Top 10 in Points: 1. Brett Moffitt – 4040 (6 Wins)*; 2. Noah Gragson – 4034 (1 Win)*; 3. Justin Haley – 4029 (3 Wins)*; 4. Johnny Sauter – 4025 (6 Wins)*; 5. Grant Enfinger – 2284 (1 Win); 6. Matt Crafton – 2280; 7. Stewart Friesen – 2265;
8. Ben Rhodes – 2254 (1 Win); 9. Myatt Snider – 611; 10. Todd Gilliland – 590.

*Championship 4 Contender