Loudon, NH (September 20, 2009): Brett Moffitt was quiet and unassuming following the Heluva Good! Fall 125 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway Friday evening, but his smile said it all.
Moffitt drove the No. 44 Brettmoffitt.com Chevrolet to a convincing runner-up finish in the second to last NASCAR Camping World Series East race of the 2009 season, and heads into the finale at Dover International Speedway fifth in the point standings.
“The 71 had a good car. We were a little bit better, and I think if that last caution hadn’t come out we would have won,” Moffitt said. “We had a really good car today so I have to thank all the guys on the crew and at ASM for that. We came in (to pit) before most people so that put us pretty far back in the field. We just had to stay out of trouble coming up through. Those last few laps were pretty wild from my vantage point so I’m sure it was a good show for the fans.”
Rain delayed the start of the race, and forced NASCAR to cut back on its scheduled distance due to time constraints, but Moffitt was strong right out of the box. Moffitt moved up from his third starting position to second and remained there until lap 15 when he pitted for fuel.
Moffitt lined up tenth for the restart at lap 18 and quickly moved through the field. He reached eighth by lap 22 and was challenging Derek Ramstrom for fourth by the 29th circuit. A caution slowed his pace and gave him an opportunity to come back down pit road for an adjustment.
Moffitt lined up ninth for the restart at lap 35, but the Grimes, Iowa-native didn’t have any chance to advance when caution slowed the pace of the event once again. He lined up ninth for the restart at lap 46. Moffitt had the chance to advance once again and moved up to sixth by lap 63, and was back in the top-five by lap 70.
The racing got intense around lap 85 when the leaders were three wide heading into the corners – fighting for every bit of real estate. On lap 86, Moffitt used the battles to his advantage and moved up to third just before the caution came out.
The drivers paced one more caution period when NASCAR announced that the final restart would be the only chance at a green-white-checker finish. They would have to shorten the race again to 99 laps because of the darkness that was descending over the track. Moffitt could not stop eventual race-winner Eddie MacDonald from taking the lead and settled for a second place finish at the checkers.
“We’re definitely happy with this finish,” said Moffitt. “We would have liked to win tonight, but Eddie (MacDonald) has been running really well lately so we can’t be too down about finishing second to him.”
Moffitt heads to Dover International Speedway for the Sunoco 150, the series season-ending finale, on Friday, September 25th.