By Seth Eggert, Associate Editor
Despite struggling early in the Heart of America 200, Brett Moffitt rebounded to score a top-five finish in his first NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series start of the season.
The 2018 champion returned to fill out a portion of TRICON Garage’s driver line-up in the No. 1 Toyota Tundra TRD Pro. With his first race at Kansas Speedway, it appeared that Moffitt didn’t miss a beat.
The No. 1 Concrete Supply Toyota struggled for track position in the first Stage. An excellent restart and a caution-free second Stage gave Moffitt the track position he needed. The 31-year-old quickly went to work, battling the Chevrolets of Chase Purdy and Nick Sanchez for position, taking the green-white checkered flag to end the Stage in sixth.
The final Stage of the 200-mile race also went caution-free. However, a chaotic start to the Stage, including drivers going six-wide on the backstretch, put Moffitt behind. He made up the ground throughout the two long runs and green flag pit stops. Following the pit cycle, the Grimes, IA native was fifth, six seconds behind Kaden Honeycutt. With a couple seconds up on Sanchez, Moffitt settled in to take the checkered flag in fifth.
“These guys at TRICON Garage brought me a great truck tonight,” Moffitt said. “We struggled for track position early, which put us in a hole late. Then, I feel like we had a mishap on the last, stage 3 restart. We finally got track position but lost some and went back. I don’t know if we could’ve gotten up to third or fourth, and if we would have had anything for the 91 (Zane Smith) or 11 (Corey Heim), but we were really good. It was fun to race with them and look forward to more.”
The fifth-place finish was Moffitt’s 41st top-five in his career. It came in his first Truck race of the 2024 season and his first since he won at Talladega Superspeedway last year.
Although Moffitt is not competing full-time, the TRICON Garage No. 1 Toyota is. The top-five finish moved it from 19th to 16th in the Truck Series owner points. The No. 1 Toyota is 51-points below the cutline for the owner playoffs and 166-points behind the leader, the team’s No. 11 Toyota Tundra driven by Corey Heim.
Next for the Truck Series is the Buckle Up South Carolina 200 at Darlington Raceway. Scheduled to drive the No. 1 Toyota at ‘The Track Too Tough to Tame’ is Colby Howard.
The Buckle Up South Carolina 200 at Darlington Raceway is scheduled for Friday, May 10, at 7:30 p.m. ET on Fox Sports 1. The race will also be broadcast on the Motor Racing Network and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.