It may have taken him 20 races in 2020, but Brett Moffitt has finally driven into a NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series victory lane for the first time this season.
The 2018 Truck Series champion got the holeshot on an overtime restart and cruised away from his GMS Racing teammate Sheldon Creed to win the Clean Harbors 200 at Kansas Speedway. The victory makes Moffitt the first driver to be locked into the Championship 4 at Phoenix Raceway
“It’s pretty incredible,” Moffitt told Fox Sports 1. “This is such a way to turn our season around for our GMS team.”
Although Moffitt may have slammed the door on the competition, another GMS teammate, Zane Smith, had plenty of late-race heroics. A cycle of green flag pit stops near the end of the event gave way to a thrilling side-by-side drag race between the two drivers off pit road which lasted an entire lap.
Moffitt gained the edge, but with just three laps to go, Smith pounced, drawing alongside his foe on the backstretch. However, a late reactionary block by Moffitt sent a dejected Smith pirouetting out of control and subsequently out of contention.
"Hang on to it buddy!" –@KurtBusch
?Around goes @zanesmith77 after battling teammate @Brett_Moffitt for the lead! pic.twitter.com/toPuM8sn0I
— NASCAR Camping World Trucks (@NASCAR_Trucks) October 17, 2020
“It was a bad block by me,” Moffitt noted. “It was my fault. He got around me there in lap traffic when we caught [Todd Gilliland]. I just put everything on the line to run him back down. We got there, and I just tried to throw a block. We are racing for everything right now.”
The day still belonged to GMS, as Creed, Smith and Moffitt dominated the event.
Despite rolling off the grid in fourth place, Creed held the lead by the end of the first lap and cruised away to win the caution-free opening stage ahead of polesitter Chandler Smith.
Sheldon Creed wins the opening stage at Kansas Speedway.
More: https://t.co/phKWVld3pu pic.twitter.com/HAMvohw8cN
— Bob Pockrass (@bobpockrass) October 17, 2020
The action picked up quickly at the start of the second stage when several trucks crashed in two simultaneous accidents, prompting a red flag for track cleanup.
The first incident saw Raphael Lessard lose control of his truck in Turn 4 and slam into Tyler Ankrum. Parker Kligerman was also collected and sent spinning through the infield grass.
Farther behind and unrelated to the first incident, Ben Rhodes, David Gravel and Tanner Gray were collected in a three-truck smashup. Gravel and Gray were forced to retire while Rhodes was penalized two laps for having too many men over the wall while his crew was repairing his No. 99 Ford.
Not one, but TWO separate incidents at @kansasspeedway. @NASCARONFOX takes a closer look. pic.twitter.com/23EwWDsDKN
— NASCAR Camping World Trucks (@NASCAR_Trucks) October 17, 2020
Dawson Cram, Hailie Deegan, Clay Greenfield and Colin Garrett all made contact with each other and sustained damage while trying to take evasive action to avoid the two incidents.
Deegan, who just announced that she would compete full-time in the series in 2021, capped off her first career start with a 16th-place finish after her team repaired the cosmetic damage.
When all the trucks finally got straightened out, it was Creed who would find his way back to the front to sweep the two stages.
While Creed enjoyed his view of a clean track in front of him, the same could not be said for playoff driver Austin Hill and eliminated playoff driver Christian Eckes, who got caught in a brief skirmish coming to the Stage 2 caution.
Eckes sideswiped Hill as they worked around the Jennifer Jo Cobb lapped truck while battling for the fourth position. The clash prompted a confrontation on the caution cool-down period with Hill aggressively cutting in front of his combatant.
Sheldon Creed sweeps the opening stages at Kansas.
Leaderboard: https://t.co/phKWVld3pu pic.twitter.com/uWjEV4dUhh
— Bob Pockrass (@bobpockrass) October 17, 2020
With the tempers and carnage seemingly abated, Creed’s great run evaporated.
With the handling of Creed’s No. 2 Chevrolet going sour, his teammate Smith rocketed past on lap 82 to take the lead. Unfortunately for Smith, fuel tank volumes were depleting and a trip to pit road was calling.
When Moffitt got by him after the drag race, Smith regrouped. Despite his rookie status, Smith collected himself like a veteran, ran down Moffitt and passed him before his wild slide on the backstretch. The 21-year-old finished a disappointing 11th.
Creed held onto second, while Hill, Grant Enfinger and Chandler Smith rounded out the top five spots.
In his first Truck event since Talladega in 2019, veteran Truck driver Timothy Peters finished seventh. Peters was subbing for full-time campaigner Stewart Friesen who had a scheduling conflict and is running a Big-Block Modified race in Pennsylvania.
Clean Harbors 200 Results
The Truck Series returns to action on Sunday, Oct. 25 for the Speedycash.com 400 at Texas Motor Speedway. The green flag is scheduled to drop at 12:00 p.m. ET with TV coverage provided by Fox Sports 1.
About the author
Never at a loss for words, Zach Gillispie is a young, talented marketing professional from North Carolina who talks and writes on the side about his first love: racing! Since joining Frontstretch in 2018, Zach has served in numerous roles where he currently pens the NASCAR 101 column, a weekly piece delving into the basic nuts and bolts of the sport. Additionally, his unabashedly bold takes meshed with that trademarked dry wit of his have made Zach a fan favorite on the weekly Friday Faceoff panel. In his free time, he can be found in the great outdoors, actively involved in his church, cheering on his beloved Atlanta Braves or ruthlessly pestering his colleagues with completely useless statistics about Delma Cowart.
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