By: Zach Catanzareti, Staff Writer
For the first time in Brett Moffitt’s career, he led more than two laps in a Camping World Truck Series race.
This came Friday night during the Stratosphere 200 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, as Moffitt led twice for 27 laps, fending off Kyle Busch to lead in the later third of the race.
The strong run — coming a week after victory at Atlanta Motor Speedway for Moffitt– hit a major setback with 25 laps to go when the No. 16 Toyota encountered the lapped truck of Michel Disdier. Moffitt, running side-by-side with another lapped truck in Myatt Snider, was simply stuck, made contact and slammed doors with Disdier’s No. 20. The contact cost Moffitt the lead for the remainder of the race.
“When the [No.] 13 [Snider] pulled out from the pits a couple laps down and side-drafted us for the lead, it allowed Kyle [Busch] to close in,” Moffitt said. “I tried to go to the bottom of a lapped truck and he turned down into us. It’s just frustrating because when you’re out of the race you shouldn’t get in the way of the leaders.”
Losing the top spot just before green-flag pit stops, Moffitt restarted fifth on the race’s final restart with 11 laps to go. Quickly jumping to second, he was once again slowed by a lapped truck, this time Norm Benning, as Moffitt ran second behind Busch.
Coming home third, the night had all the potential for back-to-back wins for Hattori Racing Enterprises No. 16 Toyota.
“It’s just a bittersweet race,” he said.
Leaving Las Vegas as one of the top 1.5-mile drivers in the series thus far, Moffitt was happy to have Kyle Busch to race with. Busch won for the 50th time in his Truck Series career, leading a race-high 55 laps from pole position.
“That’s fun racing with him because he can drive. Half of them can’t,” Moffitt said. “It’s fun because I respect Kyle a lot with everything he’s done. It’s fun to race door-to-door with him.
“People don’t like him coming and racing in the Truck Series, but I love it because being able to run with him there and learn off him is really good for my career and helps me out, so it’s a lot of fun.”