Brett Moffitt, driver of the #11 Hattori Racing Enterprises (HRE) Don Valley North Toyota Camry, won everything there was to win at the Samuel 150 at CNB Bank Raceway Park in Clearfield, PA on Saturday, July 14th.
Raceway Park, a .52 mile asphalt oval, last played host to the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East in 1988, so conquering the unfamiliar track conditions presented a challenge for all current series teams. The #11 HRE Toyota team unloaded a fast car and set the pace during the first practice session. Crew Chief Dave McCarty elected to work on race set up, rather than making a mock pole run, so Moffitt’s practice times in the second session were somewhat slower than the first session times.
“Our car was decent in practice,” Moffitt explained. “We worked hard on getting it right on old tires. We weren’t the fastest car in practice, but we knew the car would have to handle on worn rubber.” Nevertheless, there was plenty of speed in the car, and when it was time to qualify, Moffitt posted a blistering lap of 17.880 seconds (104.698 mph), winning his 7th lifetime 21 Means 21 Pole Award by Coors Brewing, and his third pole for HRE in 2012. HRE remained in the spotlight, with Team Manager and four time series champion Andy Santerre’s daughter, Samantha, performing the National Anthem.
Moffitt took the lead at the drop of the green flag and never relinquished it. By lap 7, the top four cars were pulling away, and by lap 9, Moffitt had caught the tail of the field and was beginning to lap traffic. By lap 45, Moffitt’s lead was over a second at the line, with the 3rd place car almost two full seconds behind, but each time the caution flag flew on this short track, Moffitt’s lead was erased.
Adversity struck on lap 61, when Moffitt got a little high coming off turn 4, got into the marbles, and it sucked him into the front stretch wall. “He hit a ton!” exclaimed McCarty. “It lifted the car off the track, but somehow he kept going without any major damage. Under caution, we had Sergio (teammate Sergio Pena) look it over really good, and we finished the last 15 laps before the half way break.”
The fifth caution of the night came on lap 76 at the midway point of the race, followed by the red flag signaling the start of the scheduled 10 minute break. After the wave around, there were 19 cars on the lead lap. “We took a good look at everything during the break,” continued McCarty, “And we determined that there was no damage. We made our changes to the chassis and sent him back out.”
By lap 125, with only 25 laps to go, race commentators began to speculate on the possibility of Moffitt winning another race from the pole and leading it from wire to wire. Moffitt stretched his lead to 1.532 seconds at the line by lap 145, which is a huge lead on a half-mile track, but just when the win seemed to be within reach, the caution flag flew for the 8th time. With only 4 laps remaining in the scheduled length of the event, the track lighting went dark on the backstretch, forcing NASCAR to bring out the red flag while electricians worked on the problem. When the engines were re-fired some 16 minutes later, and with a green/white/checker finish upcoming, Moffitt’s comfortable lead was completely gone. Moffitt managed to hold on for the 9th series win of his career and his second win of the 2012 season. It was Moffitt’s second flag-to-flag win in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East, the previous one being in the 2011 season opener at Greenville Pickens.
“I could not be more proud of Brett, Dave, and the entire #11 team,” stated Team Manager Andy Santerre. “They worked hard today and overcame adversity to get their 2nd win of the season.”
With 7 top tens, 6 top fives, and 2 wins in 8 starts in the 2012 season, Moffitt assumed the season championship point lead, taking a 4 point advantage over the second place driver. Moffitt has now led 22.65% of all laps he has completed in the series. There were 0 lead changes involving only 1 driver on Saturday night.
The Samuel 150 will air at 3:00 p.m. on July 19th on SPEED TV.
Up next for the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East will be the Jegs 150 on Saturday, July 21st, at Columbus Motor Speedway, a .333 mile short track.