Brett Moffitt wins NASCAR Truck Series championship with Homestead victory

Though he was no stranger to late race drama during the season, Brett Moffitt didn’t need any of it to claim his first NASCAR championship at any level.

Driving for somewhat underfunded Hattori Racing Enterprises, Brett Moffitt made a name for himself as “Mr. Excitement” during the 2018 Camping World Truck Series season, claiming several race wins with last-lap heroics. Now he can call himself “Mr. NASCAR Champion” instead.

In uncharacteristically drama-free fashion, Moffitt drove away from Noah Gragson over the final stage of the Ford EcoBoost 200 at Homestead-Miami Speedway, winning both the race and his first NASCAR championship at any level. He led a total of 59 laps en route to his sixth victory of 2018, and by far the biggest of his seven-year NASCAR national series career.

The 26-year-old Moffitt hasn’t followed anything like a normal NASCAR career path to get to this point, actually making more starts in the Cup Series than Truck Series to date. He also never even finished in the top 25 in the final standings of any of the top three series prior to 2018.

But there was simply something different about this No. 16 Hattori Racing Enterprises team, as even amid the successes it has en route to the title, there were times it appeared Moffitt might miss a race because of sponsorship trouble. That’s something he acknowledged in his Victory Lane interview.

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“It’s unreal,” Moffitt said. “We all know the story by now where we didn’t know if we were going to race the whole year. I didn’t know if I was going to have the opportunity to compete for a championship even after we got our first win. Everyone pulled together hard here. Back in Chicago, we didn’t know if we were going to make it to the racetrack, and Marcus [Barela] and Fr8 Auctions got us there. We’ve had many partners like that and iRacing all season long that came through in clutch moments and got us to the racetrack when we needed to.”

At Homestead, the 16 not only made it to the track but was clearly the fastest on long runs, particularly after the halfway point. Gragson saw Moffitt go by him in the final stage, then thought he had a tire going down and ended up pitting sooner than planned.

Moffitt came in on the next lap and the 16 crew made no mistakes, sending him back out to easily reclaim the lead. Gragson, who is headed to the NASCAR XFINITY Series next season to replace the retiring Elliott Sadler for JR Motorsports, saw a brief glimmer of hope when the 54 of Chris Windom got into the wall with 2 to go, but when that truck made it down to the apron without bringing out a late caution, there was no catching Moffitt.

“Man, I wanted to go out on top … but it just wasn’t meant to be,” Gragson said after finishing the race in third and the season standings in second for Kyle Busch Motorsports. “Just a bummer. But hey, no bad days, right? We’re going to move on next year to the XFINITY Series. I’m pumped up about that, but this one’s going to hurt for a while.”

Moffitt’s future is less certain, with crew chief Scott Zipadelli saying he hoped “somebody will come on board and keep this thing going” so the team could stay intact for 2019. Maybe Moffitt will attract more sponsors and he’ll get a shot to defend his title, or perhaps he’ll get a look from an XFINITY Series team. For now, though, he’s an unlikely but deserving champion, and he didn’t even have to make his team members, fans or sponsors nervous in the process to pull it off.