Brett Moffitt during the Heart of America 200 at Kansas Speedway. (Photo: Patrick Vallely | The Podium Finish)
KANSAS CITY, Kan. — It may be hard to believe for some but Brett Moffitt made his season debut for any level of NASCAR on Saturday night in the Heart of America 200 at Kansas Speedway.
After a successful 2023 campaign in the NASCAR Xfinity Series with AM Racing and getting a win at Talladega in the Truck Series, Moffitt was left ride-less entering the 2024 season.
In late April, it was announced that Moffitt would run multiple races for TRICON Garage driving the No. 1 truck starting at Kansas. Moffitt made the most of his first start, finishing in fifth place.
“The goal was to come here and win, we didn’t achieve that and it’s a bummer,” Moffitt said. “The guys at TRICON, Seth Smith and this No. 1 group brought me a really fast TRD Pro Tundra.”
Moffitt qualified 19th but quickly shook off the rust and moved up through the field. After a chaotic start to the race, Moffitt made up seven positions rapidly to make it up the 12th, running there for most of the stage before getting around Rajah Caruth in the closing laps of Stage 1 to finish in 11th.
During the pit stop cycle under caution, Moffitt lost four spots on pit road and would restart in the 15th position. The setback didn’t bother Moffitt though as he went right back to work.
Stage 2 stayed green from start to end, allowing Moffitt to use the entire duration to gain positions back, and that he did. Moffitt cracked the top 10 very early following the restart and worked his way up to finish the stage in sixth place.
Brett Moffitt racing in his season debut in the Heart of America 200 at Kansas Speedway. (Photo: Patrick Vallely | The Podium Finish)
Like the second stage, Stage 3 went green for its entirety, which would force teams to make green flag pit stops. After losing a few spots on the restart Moffitt gained them back and was in fifth place when the cycle began.
“Just didn’t get track position,” Moffitt said. “At the start of Stage 3, I felt like we were in a good spot and something happened on the restart.”
“I don’t know if someone came down into my right rear quarter or if it was just an aero situation, but all of a sudden I took off right,” said Moffitt. “I thought were wrecking, but thankfully we didn’t.”
Moffitt came down pit road on Lap 96 along with six other trucks. The stop went smoothly and when the cycle was completed Moffitt was able to retain the fifth position where he would go on to finish as TRICON teammate Corey Heim won the race.
“It was a solid day,” Moffitt said post-race. “I expect more, this team expects more, so hopefully we can clean it up and do a little better in the future.”
The next race for Moffitt will be at Charlotte Motor Speedway, which is the last scheduled start right now for the 31-year-old veteran, but a top-five run will help the case for additional races to be added.
“Team to team, manufacturer to manufacturer, they run a little bit different setups and packages,” Moffitt said. “So feeling that out and pinpointing the few little things to fit me and my driving style could be a little bit better. I know we can work on that in sim and before the next one we’ll hopefully be that little bit better.”
Editor’s Notes
Harry Loomis contributed to this article on site from Kansas Speedway in Kansas City, Kansas.
