Category: Race Central

Race Central Stories

Grant Enfinger comes up one spot short at Daytona

Coming from two laps down, Grant Enfinger almost found himself in contention to win the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series NextEra Energy 250 at Daytona International Speedway Friday night.

“We had a check of a Ford F-150 down here,” Enfinger told MRN Radio.”(Crew Chief) Jeff Hensley and all these boys worked really, really hard before they got here, but worked even harder once we got caught up in that wreck.”

“I had good speed, worked my butt off to get back on the lead lap and just thought we were in position to push (Matt) Crafton, and we just got blocked too much right there and I was going to wreck him if I kept with him. So, that’s when we got shuffled around and just couldn’t get a good run coming to the checkered.”

Enfinger finished fifth and sixth in both stages. It is the 19th top-five finish of his career.

February 15, 2019
Kyle Busch leads third practice at Daytona

Daytona Beach, FL – Kyle Busch led the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series third practice Friday at Daytona International Speedway with a lap time of 44.936, just over 200 at 200.285 mph.

Martin Truex Jr., Ryan Preece, Erik Jones, and Ryan Newman rounded out the top five in this round of practice

Pole Sitter William Byron was 18th quickest which was the third fastest of the four Hendrick Motorsports cars.

Denny Hamlin led the fastest 10 consecutive laps with an average speed of 198.107 mph.

There is one more practice session today from 3:05 p.m. – 3:55 p.m. ET which will be televised on Fox Sports 1. The final Cup Series practice will be held Saturday at 12:05 p.m. ET on FS1.

Complete Friday Cup Series Practice Results

February 15, 2019
Austin Hill survives carnage to win season-opener at Daytona

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – The defending NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series championship team returned and won their third consecutive race, but this time they had a new man behind the wheel of their hot rod.

Austin Hill took over the No. 16 Toyota from reigning series champion Brett Moffitt, who was unable to secure sponsorship to remain in the seat, and held off Grant Enfinger in Friday night’s season opener at Daytona International Speedway.

On the restart of the second overtime, Hill got ahead of the field and threw a huge block to prevent Matt Crafton from getting to the point. Throughout the race, Hill would get out to sizeable leads but somehow managed to keep the pack behind him. It was the same story in the end as he held off Enfinger to win his first Truck race in his 52nd career start.

“Man, this truck was fast, it really was. I knew we had a truck that could compete,” Hill said in Victory Lane. “I got a little scared there at the end. I thought (Enfinger) was going to get me, he had a big run.

“I can’t believe my first win came at Daytona. It’s so surreal. I can’t wait to party with these guys.”

Hill was constantly reminded by his crew to save fuel, but he was still nervous that he might run out.

“We pitted really early, and we already knew it was going to be close and then when we went overtime, I was so scared,” he said. “I just knew I was going to run out off (Turn) 4 and not make it to the line.

“So much stuff was going through my head, but – hey – we’re in Victory Lane.”

Ross Chastain finished third, Spencer Boyd was fourth, and Crafton slipped to fifth.

The first big wreck occurred on Lap 53 of the scheduled 100 lap race when Jordan Anderson got tapped by Sheldon Creed, which collected nearly a dozen trucks. Among those who were taken out of contention included Moffitt, Johnny Sauter, Brennan Poole, Myatt Snider, and Christian Eckes.

Eckes’ truck erupted in flames on Lap 63 coming down the frontstretch to bring out the caution. He was uninjured.

The race resumed on Lap 70, with Hill leading the pack.

On Lap 77, Cory Roper, who was making just his seventh Trucks start, got out of the groove and made contact with Ben Rhodes, causing him to spin and slam the inside wall to bring out another caution. Rhodes ended up taking the lead.

With 13 laps to go, Rhodes remained in front of the field followed by Stewart Friesen and Gus Dean.

The caution came out again on Lap 89 when Todd Gilliland got into his Kyle Busch Motorsports teammate Harrison Burton on the backstretch, sending them both wrecking into the wall off Turn 2.

The race returned to green with seven laps left, but Clay Greenfield and Timothy Peters wrecked on the restart lap.

The race restarted with three laps to go with Rhodes at the point, followed by Hill, and Dean. However, Creed got into Dean, which triggered another massive wreck to send the race into the first overtime. Rhodes did not make it out unscathed, ending his evening.

Sauter held off Friesen to win Stage 2, and Creed won Stage 1 with Hill behind him in second.

Angela Ruch, the niece of 1990 Daytona 500 champion Derrike Cope finished in eighth, the best finish of her career in any major series.

Billy Rock, a crewmember for the FDNY Racing team and driver Bryan Dauzat, was injured earlier in the race in a pit-road incident.

Rock, the team’s jackman, was struck by Dauzat’s No. 28 Chevrolet, which had lost its brakes. Rock was transported to Halifax Health Medical Center for further evaluation, and NASCAR officials said he was “awake and alert.” The nature of any injuries to Rock, however, were not disclosed.

February 15, 2019

Harvick and Logano win Duels at Daytona

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla.— Kevin Harvick and Joey Logano won the Gander RV Duels at Daytona International Speedway on Thursday night to set the starting lineup for the 61st annual Daytona 500 on Sunday.

Duel 1:

William Byron led the field to the green flag and led the first 15 laps until green flag pit stops arrived.

Byron fell back to sixth after the green flag pit stops cycled though with Kevin Harvick taking the lead and never letting it go.

Harvick led the final 44 laps of the first Duel for the second Duel victory of his 18-year career.

There was only one caution which was for the 18 of Kyle Busch getting turned around by Jimmie Johnson. Busch was none too pleased with the contact between him and the seven time champ.

“I don’t want to (expletive) hear it,” Busch told to his team when he got told what Johnson radioed to his team during the race. “Use his damn eyeballs. It’s twice he’s done the same thing in two (expletive) races.”

After the race, unlike the Clash from Sunday, Johnson took full blame for the wreck.

“I firmly believe the Clash was a racing incident. This one was a mistake on my behalf. Everybody makes mistakes.”

Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Paul Menard, Matt DiBenedetto and Martin Truex Jr. rounded out the top five.

Parker Kilgerman beat Ryan Truex by one position to get one of the final two open team places in the 61st running of the Great American Race.

Duel 2

Joey Logano needed to lead just one lap and that was the last one. Logano did just that to win his first career Daytona qualifying race.

Logano led the final and most important of the 60 laps run in the second duel after he crafted a brilliant plan to go from fourth to first, on the final lap.

“You have the whole race to think about making a move, and we were all out there just waiting,” Logano said. “Everyone behind me really wanted to go, and I just knew that I had to wait. The later you can do it, the less the risk if it doesn’t work. I got a good run from the 12 (Ryan Blaney) behind me and went to the bottom and got a good run.”

Alex Bowman started out with the pole for the second consecutive year as he led the field in the first duel, just like a season ago. Like Byron, Bowman led the first 11 laps before his first green flag pitstop of the season, relinquishing the lead to Clint Bowyer. Bowyer then, took his turn to head to pit road for his only stop of the race and he took his No. 14 Rush Truck Centers to pitlane.

That gave the lead to Brendan Gaughan in the 62 who is one of the four teams without a charter. Gaughan, who runs Daytona and usually Talladega in the Cup Series, led six laps before giving the lead back to Bowyer but Gaughan did hold off Joey Gase to get the final spot in the 500.

Bowyer led two times for 41 laps but couldn’t get the job done and will start the 500 in sixth place.

Aric Almirola, Denny Hamlin and Kurt Busch rounded out the top five.

Brendan Gaughan raced his way in which means that Ryan Truex and Joey Gase will be leaving Daytona without racing in the Great American Race.

The 61st running of the Daytona 500 is on Sunday, Feb. 18th, at 2:30 p.m. ET on FOX.

Daytona 500 Starting Lineup:

Starting Position	Driver	Team
1.	William Byron	Hendrick Motorsports
2.	Alex Bowman	Hendrick Motorsports
3.	Kevin Harvick	Stewart-Haas Racing
4.	Joey Logano	Team Penske
5.	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	Roush Fenway Racing
6.	Clint Bowyer	Stewart-Haas Racing
7.	Paul Menard	Wood Brothers Racing
8.	Aric Almirola	Stewart-Haas Racing
9.	Matt DiBenedetto	Leavine Family Racing
10.	Denny Hamlin	Joe Gibbs Racing
11.	Martin Truex Jr.	Joe Gibbs Racing
12.	Kurt Busch	Chip Ganassi Racing
13	Bubba Wallace	Richard Petty Motorsports
14.	Ryan Blaney	Team Penske
15.	Chris Buescher	JTG Daugherty Racing
16.	Jamie McMurray	Spire Motorsports
17.	Jimmie Johnson	Hendrick Motorsports
18.	Chase Elliott	Hendrick Motorsports
19.	Ryan Newman	Roush Fenway Racing
20.	Austin Dillon	Richard Childress Racing
21.	Ryan Preece	JTG Daugherty Racing
22.	Ty Dillon	Germain Racing
23.	Daniel Suarez	Stewart-Haas Racing
24.	David Ragan	Front Row Motorsports
25.	Parker Kligerman*	Gaunt Brothers Racing
26.	Kyle Larson	Chip Ganassi Racing
27.	Landon Cassill	Starcom Racing
28.	Erik Jones	Joe Gibbs Racing
29.	Daniel Hemric	Richard Childress Racing
30.	Brendan Gaughan*	Beard Motorsports
31.	Kyle Busch	Joe Gibbs Racing
32.	Corey LaJoie	GO FAS Racing
33.	Matt Tifft	Front Row Motorsports
34.	Michael McDowell	Front Row Motorsports
35.	Brad Keselowski	Team Penske
36.	Ross Chastain	Premium Motorsports
37.	Cody Ware	Rick Ware Racing
38.	BJ McLeod	Petty Ware Racing
39.	Tyler Reddick*	Richard Childress Racing
40.	Casey Mears*	Germain Racing

February 14, 2019

Full schedule for Daytona International Speedway

The Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, the NASCAR Xfinity Series and the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series head to Daytona International Speedway this weekend to kick off the 2019 season.

Please check below for the complete weekend schedule.

All times are Eastern.

Thursday, Feb. 14

2:35 p.m.: Truck Series first practice – FS2

4:35 p.m.: Truck Series final practice – FS2

7 p.m.: Cup Series Duel 1 (60 laps, 150 miles) – FS1

9 p.m.: Cup Series Duel 2 (60 laps, 150 miles) – FS1

Friday, Feb. 15

12:05 p.m.: Xfinity Series first practice – FS1

1:05 p.m.: Cup Series third practice – FS1

2:05 p.m.: Xfinity Series final practice – FS1

3:05 p.m.: Cup Series fourth practice – FS1

4:40 p.m.: Truck Series qualifying – FS1

7:30 p.m. Truck Series NextEra Energy 250 race (100 laps, 250 miles) – FS1

Saturday, Feb. 16

9:40 a.m.: Xfinity Series qualifying – FS1

12:05 p.m.: Cup Series final practice – FS1

2:30 p.m.: Xfinity Racing Experience 300 (120 laps, 300 miles) – FS1

Sunday, Feb. 17

2:30 p.m.: Cup Series Daytona 500 race (200 laps, 500 miles) – Fox

Follow @angiecampbell_ for the latest NASCAR news and feature stories.

February 12, 2019
Jimmie Johnson evades late-race incident to win Advance Auto Parts Clash

William Byron Gives Hendrick Motorsports 5th Consecutive DAYTONA 500 Pole

· Hendrick Motorsports Locks In Front Row for DAYTONA 500 with Byron, Alex Bowman Qualifying 1-2

· Jimmie Johnson, Chase Elliott Complete Top-4 HMS Qualifying Effort

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (Feb. 10, 2019) – Jimmie Johnson. Remember him? Just in case you’d forgotten about the capabilities of the two-time DAYTONA 500 champion – and seven-time Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series champion – he served up a reminder Sunday by making a trip to Gatorade Victory Lane at Daytona International Speedway.

“I’m here to win races,” Johnson said.

In the morning, Johnson won his age division (Men’s 40-44) in the Daytona Beach Half Marathon. In the afternoon, after triggering a multi-car incident, Johnson was declared the winner of the 41st annual Advance Auto Parts Clash at Daytona International Speedway.

The 75-lap Advance Auto Parts Clash (with scheduled segments of 25 and 50 laps) is a Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series non-points/all-star event. The 20-driver field featured pole winners from the 2018 season, past Clash champions, past DAYTONA 500 champions who competed full-time in 2018 and drivers who qualified for the 2018 Monster Energy Series Playoffs.

Johnson, also the Advance Auto Parts Clash champion in 2005, was battling front-running Paul Menard for the lead following a Lap 48 restart that came after an eight-minute red-flag period due to rain. On Lap 57, Johnson attempted an inside pass with his No. 48 Ally Chevrolet and side drafted the left rear of Menard’s No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Tire & Auto Center Ford. Menard appeared to slightly block the move. The move caused Menard – who had the dominant car, leading 51 laps – to spin. That led to an incident involving a total of 17 cars.

Johnson scooted away from the trouble that brought out the caution. Minutes later the red flag came out because of rain. Soon afterward, NASCAR halted the event after 59 laps to give Johnson his first victory since June 2017. Former DAYTONA 500 champion Kurt Busch finished second followed by Brad Keselowski.

“Knowing the rain was coming – we could see it coming – I knew that was probably my lap to make the move,” Johnson said. “I had a great ride down the back. I got below him before he blocked it. And then I think he came down a little to defend and block.

“Certainly hate to see all these cars torn up. I’m here and making my move. I think it was more of a racing thing than anything. I didn’t drive through a car and cause a wreck.”

For the second-straight year, DAYTONA 500 Qualifying Presented By Kroger and the Advance Auto Parts Clash combined for an afternoon doubleheader. Prior to the Clash, William Byron, driving the No. 24 Axalta Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports (HMS), won the pole for the 61st annual DAYTONA 500 set for Sunday, Feb. 17, with a lap of 194.305 mph on the historic DIS 2.5-mile tri-oval.

Byron’s teammate and last year’s pole winner Alex Bowman (No. 88 Nationwide Chevrolet) qualified second at 194.154. Bowman led the first round of single-car qualifying which pared the field to 12 drivers for the final round.

And if that wasn’t enough for the storied Hendrick organization, Johnson and two-time DAYTONA 500 polesitter Chase Elliott (No. 9 NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet) completed a top-four qualifying sweep for HMS.

The two-round qualifying session “locked in” Byron and Bowman for front-row starts in the DAYTONA 500 and also established the grids for Thursday night’s Gander RV Duel, a pair of 150-mile races that determine the DAYTONA 500 grid after the front row. Byron and Bowman will start on the respective Duel race poles.

Byron’s first Monster Energy Series pole gave Hendrick Motorsports its 13th DAYTONA 500 pole – and a record fifth consecutive in “The Great American Race.” For Chevrolet, it marked their 700th pole position in the Monster Energy Series.

“I think we were realistic; we probably thought we were going to be somewhere in the hunt,” said Byron, 21 and starting his second season in the Monster Energy Series in Jeff Gordon’s iconic No. 24 ride.

“Our guys have done a lot of work … it’s kind of been a hard‑working off‑season for them and there have been a lot of things in the works, so I was excited to get down here and see what we had. We’re looking forward to kind of checking this off and going on to [next] Sunday.”

Byron’s new crew chief is Johnson’s former one – Chad Knaus, who guided Johnson to seven Monster Energy Series championships.

“I couldn’t be prouder of the 24 team and of Hendrick Motorsports,” Knaus said. “This is such a huge accomplishment.”

“I’m so happy for William – and for all our guys,” added team owner Rick Hendrick. “We’re just pumped. This is a great way to start the year … this is ‘the deal’ to start on the pole at Daytona.”

Tickets for the 61st annual DAYTONA 500 and all other Daytona International Speedway events can be purchased online at www.daytonainternationalspeedway.com or by calling 1-800-PITSHOP. Fans can stay connected with Daytona International Speedway on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram,Pinterest, YouTube and Snapchat, and by downloading Daytona International Speedway’s mobile app, for the latest Speedway news throughout the season.

February 10, 2019

Reddick Takes Home the Xfinity Series Championship at Homestead

HOMESTEAD, Fla – Tyler Reddick won Saturday’s Homestead 300 and also captured his first NASCAR Xfinity Series Championship in the series season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway. This was Reddick’s second win of the season and gave JR Motorsports its third championship title.

“It’s something I knew was possible all year long and, you know not everyone in the garage probably believed it, our team believed it and that’s all you need. We winning the first race of the year was a huge sigh of relief, no matter what may or horrible things could happen, we were locked into the playoffs, but at the same time I think that looking back, obviously going into the playoffs we look back and see I was too aggressive and tore up a bunch of good race cars,” Reddick said.

Cole Custer, John Hunter Nemechek, Daniel Hemric and Austin Cindric rounded out the top 5.

Custer led the field to the green. Going into the race Custer had led every lap since lap since lap 62 of the 2017 edition of the race.

For Stage 1 on Saturday race, it looked like he did not want to give up the lead. After leading all the laps in Stage 1 he easily won it. Christopher Bell who started second, spun his tires at the start of the stage and finished sixth.

As for the other playoff divers, Hemric finished second and Reddick got third.

Stage 2 felt like a repeat of Stage 1. Custer continued leading laps. He was able to lead every lap in Stage 2 and take the stage win. Bell finished third, Hemric got forth and Reddick finished eight.

Up to that point in the race, there was not a caution out yet for incident on the race track. The first two stages of the race was clean and dominated by Custer.

The pit stops during the stage caution changed the race. Custer lost the lead to Nemechek on pit road and was forced to restart third. Custer was able to take second place shortly after the restart as he headed towards Nemechek.

Stage 3 had the Championship 4 listed from second to fifth and being blocked from the race lead by Nemechek. Reddick ran up against the wall and was one of the fastest cars during the stage.

Reddick hit the wall a few times while he was up top but there was a feel that the contact made him faster. He was able to take the third position from Bell with under 75 laps left in the race.

Bell mentioned on the radio that he felt like was losing the race when he got passed by Reddick. The race ran green towards the next cycle of pit stops so it was crucial for Bell to have started making moves toward the front before that.

Green flag pits arrived with under 60 laps and all Championship 4 drivers pitted around the same laps except for one. Custer who was running second at the time stayed out for many laps after the other championship contenders pitted.

Many people critiqued Custer for waiting so long to pit. He lost a lot of track position for waiting so many laps to pit. Reddick took the lead after the pit cycle.

“I don’t know if the call we made was, you know I would of rethought things but you know we don’t want to be caught a lap down, you don’t want, there a lot of risk involved in pitting early, I mean it is what it is,” Custer said.

Bell took the lead on lap 154 from Reddick. The battle for the championship started to heat up during the last quarter of the race. It looked like Bell’s car improved after his past complaints about it earlier in the race.

Reddick retook the lead with less than 40 laps in the race as a battle with Bell really got hot. He was on his bumper for a few laps when he was able to sneak over him and take the lead.

This gave Custer an advantage after he took the third position from Nemechek and he was able to get up and close to the battle between Bell and Reddick.

Reddick was able to extend the distance of his lead thanks to him running on the top lane. There was still no caution out for incident with under 20 laps in the race. Reddick was cruising fast in the top lane.

Reddick was able to extend his lead and take the victory. This ended the season for the Xfinity Series as they now look forward to a few months off before heading to Daytona in February.

NASCAR Xfinity Series Race
Unofficial Race Results for the 24Th Annual Ford Ecoboost 300 – Saturday, November 17, 2018
Homestead-Miami Speedway – Homestead, FL – 1.5 Mile Paved

Pos	St	Car	Driver	Team	Make
1	4	9	Tyler Reddick (P)	BurgerFi	Chevrolet
2	1	00	Cole Custer (P)	Haas Automation	Ford
3	3	42	John Hunter	Nemechek Fire Alarm Services Inc.	Chevrolet
4	10	21	Daniel Hemric (P)	South Point Hotel & Casino	Chevrolet
5	5	22	Austin Cindric #	MoneyLion	Ford
6	12	18	Ryan Preece	Rheem-Watts	Toyota
7	6	7	Justin Allgaier	BRANDT Professional Agriculture	Chevrolet
8	8	19	Brandon Jones	Juniper	Toyota
9	14	5	Michael Annett	Pilot Flying J	Chevrolet
10	9	2	Matt Tifft	Tunity	Chevrolet
11	2	20	Christopher Bell # (P)	GameStop Transformers	Toyota
12	11	16	Ryan Reed	Drive Down A1C Lilly Diabetes	Ford
13	13	60	Chase Briscoe	Nutri Chomps	Ford
14	7	1	Elliott Sadler	OneMain Financial	Chevrolet
15	15	11	Ryan Truex	LeafFilter Gutter Protection	Chevrolet
16	23	4	Ross Chastain	Florida Watermelon Association	Chevrolet
17	17	23	Spencer Gallagher	Allegiant	Chevrolet
18	18	61	Kaz Grala #	NETTTS/Hot Scream	Ford
19	16	51	Jeremy Clements	Fly and Form/RepairableVehicles.com	Chevrolet
20	21	3	Shane Lee	CMR Construction & Roofing	Chevrolet
21	20	36	Alex Labbe #	Alpha Prime	Chevrolet
22	19	38	Ryan Sieg	RSS Racing	Chevrolet
23	26	35	Joey Gase	Sparks	Chevrolet
24	27	86	Brandon Brown	Coalition to Salute America’s Heroes	Chevrolet
25	22	26	Max Tullman	Eskata/Zoomi	Ford
26	30	8	Tommy Joe	Martins	Chevrolet
27	29	0	Garrett Smithley	KSDT and Company	Chevrolet
28	34	52	David Starr	Shoun Trucking	Chevrolet
29	35	15	Quin Houff	teamjdmotorsports.com	Chevrolet
30	36	76	Spencer Boyd #	Grunt Style	Chevrolet
31	25	66	Chad Finchum #	Smithbilt Homes	Toyota
32	32	01	BJ McLeod	teamjdmotorsports.com	Chevrolet
33	38	40	Carl Long	Thanks	Dodge
34	33	90	Caesar Bacarella	Alpha Prime/MAXIM	Chevrolet
35	31	13	Timmy Hill	OCR Gaz Bar	Toyota
36	28	93	JJ Yeley	RSS Racing	Chevrolet
37	39	39	Angela Ruch	Give A Child A Voice	Chevrolet
38	24	89	Landon Cassill	Visone RV	Chevrolet
39	40	37	Jeff Green	RSS Racing	Chevrolet
40	37	78	Vinnie Miller #	JAS Expedited Trucking LLC	Chevrolet

November 17, 2018

Noah Gragson Falls Short of Truck Series Championship

Noah Gragson was looking to end the year on a high note at Homestead-Miami Speedway before he moves up to the NASCAR Xfinity Series in 2019. However, his night went sour with 33 laps to go. A tire issue on his No. 18 Kyle Busch Motorsports Toyota prevented him from winning the championship and the race after a tremendous battle with Brett Moffit.

He led twice for 34 laps but had to settle for a third-place finish in Friday night’s NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Ford EcoBoost 200.

“I was just way too tight there at the end,” Gragson told MRN Radio. “We fired off pretty good and it was just a battle between having to back out of the racetrack, and not being able to turn. Just devastated for my guys, they worked really hard and this one would have been for them. I give all my credit to Rudy Fugle (crew chief), Kyle Busch Motorsports. Just unfortunate, but on the bright side, I learned a hell of a lot tonight. I raced a Cup rookie of the year for the championship, so that’s pretty cool to say. Just very thankful for the opportunity.”

Gragson finishes the season with one win, nine top fives and 18 top 10 finishes. Next year he will move to the Xfinity Series, replacing the retiring Elliott Sadler, at JR Motorsports.

November 16, 2018
Justin Haley Finishes Eighth at Homestead and Third in Final Standings

Justin Haley had quite the year with three wins which locked him into the Championship 4 after winning at Texas just a few weeks ago. However, the No. 24 GMS Racing team just couldn’t find the magic Friday night at Homestead-Miami Speedway. He finished eighth in the Ford Ecoboost 200 and third in the year-end standings after battling a loose truck all night.

“When we fired off and just about five laps into the run, we lost all speed. I think Johnny (Sauter) had the same issues,” Haley told MRN Radio. “I think the GMS camp just missed a little bit tonight and we win together, lose together.”

“Unfortunate night, but really good season. Everyone at Fraternal Order of Eagles and GMS has me an opportunity to run at the championship, definitely means a lot. So, going to hang our heads high and move on to next year.”

Haley believes they did the best they could trying to win the championship.

“It obviously could have gone better, but I say we made a solid run at it” he continued. “I’m not the best at running Homestead and I’m not the best running the board, so probably a little lack of driver here tonight as well.”

Haley finishes the season with three wins, nine top fives and 18 top 10 finishes with 60 laps led.

November 16, 2018
Brett Moffitt Wins Race and Truck Series Championship at Homestead

The Cinderella story came true and the cream rose to the top as Brett Moffitt won the race and the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series championship after a career-high six wins in the series. It’s Moffitt’s first championship of any kind.

“Well I say, Zippy, and everybody at HRE gave me a really fast tundra and I think we made the bottom work, a helluva lot better than anybody,” the 2018 Truck Series Champion said to MRN Radio. “So that gave me an opportunity to get down there, but doing that is harsh on the tires. I knew we were faster than them, it was just about getting them and getting momentum off (Turn) 2, 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 to cool them down a few laps and make another charge, but I can’t just speak enough for everyone in this race team and how hard they worked. Our pit crew tonight did an amazing job and man those were a long last 20 laps.”

Stages of 30/30/74 laps made up the 134 lap race.

Grant Enfinger and Stewart Friesen started on the front row. Playoff drivers Noah Gragson started third, Justin Haley fourth, Moffitt fifth and Johnny Sauter sixth.

The first stage went 30 laps caution free and Enfinger led them all to take Stage 1. Gragson was second, Moffitt was third, Haley was sixth, and Sauter was 13th.

Stage 2 began on lap 37 and went to lap 60, and once again was caution free, but this time with a little more drama. Gragson took the lead on the restart, but Moffitt passed him just a few laps later to win Stage 2. Gragson was second, Haley eighth, and Sauter 10th. The playoff contenders were reporting their trucks were either tight or loose.

The final stage resumed with 67 laps to go and Moffitt and Gragson were on the front row.

Gragson led in the beginning but had to fight a hard-charging Moffitt who kept right with him for the lead. There were a couple of close calls, but eventually, Moffitt took the lead with 35 to go, which put Gragson back in second.

Unfortunately, a tire issue caused Gragson to pit earlier than expected and caused him to lose a ton of ground, which ultimately cost him the championship. After the pit stops, Moffitt recycled as the leader and was unchallenged for the rest of the race, going on to win his first ever Truck Series championship.

The team came close to shutting down right before the Chicagoland race, and Moffitt emphasized how important it was to have sponsorship or else they wouldn’t be here.

“It just speaks to how badass our people are, no matter what’s going on whether it’s diverse or not, or troubles or not,” Moffitt told MRN Radio. “They keep working and preparing to go to the racetrack week in and week out, whether they know they’re going or not, and that just says a lot.

For Moffitt credits his success in the Truck Series to his prior experience in the Cup Series for making him a better driver.

“Well I kind of blame my Cup career for being so good in the Trucks early on,” the Hattori Racing driver told MRN Radio.” “When I was Cup racing, I really wasn’t developed and I had to learn really quick, and the hard way essentially. Coming to a racetrack in a Truck, everything is a little bit easier and calmer, you’re not fighting as many handling characteristics as the Cup cars and in the Cup Series, you’re racing the 40 best guys in the world. It helped my learning curve. It wasn’t the ideal way to do it, but these Trucks are a little bit easier for me to adapt to.”

There were two cautions for 12 laps during the race and 10 lead changes among seven drivers.

This was Moffitt’s sixth win of the season and the seventh of his career. He led three times for 59 laps including the final 29 laps to become the 2018 Truck Series Champion.

Playoff drivers:
Noah Gragson 3rd
Justin Haley 8th
Johnny Sauter 12th

November 16, 2018