By: Zach Catanzareti, Staff Writer
Four years ago, Atlanta Motor Speedway perhaps put young Brett Moffitt on the radar for many fans of the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series.
Before then, the Iowa native had only 10 national NASCAR starts along with nine victories in the K&N Pro Series East. Following the 500-miler, Moffitt had scored a surprise top-10 finish for the now-defunct Michael Waltrip Racing.
In just his eighth Cup start, Moffitt had a lot to learn given his experience level.
“Going the ass-backwards way of going to Cup first before Truck or Xfinity racing, it certainly wasn’t the way to do things,” Moffitt said. “But I learned a lot doing it. You’re out there with 40 of the best drivers each week and those cars, at the time, were extremely hard to drive.”
Moffitt eventually ran nearly the full schedule for multiple teams that year, finishing 34th in points after 31 starts. Still, his eighth-place run stood as his best result and only top-15 finish.
“Coming to a lot of these tracks for the first time, they were in a Cup car — which was bad and good at the same time,” he said. “There were long races, I had a lot of time to figure out the tracks. Atlanta was one it was definitely the best Cup car I had been in.
“The race started out slow and I learned a lot as it went on and we ended up all right.”
Since 2015, the Cup Series has drifted farther and farther from Moffitt, who has shifted his career to the Gander Outdoors Truck Series since 2016.
“[Cup is] obviously my goal,” he said. “Down the road, I’d love to be in Cup and in competitive equipment. I think I have the talent to get it done there. but if not, I’m super happy about the position I’m in now. It’s probably the best position I’ve been in in my career.”
Hot off his first series title in 2018 with Hattori Enterprises, Moffitt now populates GMS Racing’s No. 24 truck, a ride proven to score victories.
“Timelines went out the window in my career a long time ago [laughs],” he joked of his career path. “When I was 15 or 16, I had a great timeline and that didn’t work out at all.
“I’ve learned to take every opportunity and see the best in it and make the most of it. That’s landed me an amazing position here. All I can do this year is to try and win another championship.”