NASCAR Truck Series: Brett Moffitt’s peculiar career path back to full-time
NASCAR driver Brett Moffitt’s career has been peculiar as of late, but a home with Hattori Racing Enterprises could revitalize his career.
Brett Moffitt’s NASCAR career looked to be promising after his K&N Pro East series career took him into the Truck Series in 2013 at the age of 20 with one Xfinity Series start to his name in 2012.
“Honestly my career has gone completely backwards. I went from a K&N driver to a Cup driver and I was filling in for Brian Vickers,” Moffitt said. “And then I ran a few races for Jay Robinson the year before that, to get approved for all of the tracks in case something came up and sure enough it did. Filled in for Brian here at Atlanta and finished eighth which was a really good run.
“That opened the door for more fill in opportunities,” Moffitt said. “When (David) Ragan went to the 18, I went to the 34 off and on and then the 55, basically playing musical chairs but I almost ran the full year. That was with two Xfinity races under my belt and one truck race so that was completely backwards on the path to get there. Hopefully this time we can build in the right way.”
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For Moffitt, the future looked brighter when he finally was tasked with racing in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series in 2015 for 31 races when Brian Vickers’ health was on the fence. Once Moffitt missed the 10th race of the season, he wound up in the No. 34 car for Bob Jenkins’ Front Row Motorsports team to finish out the season.
After that, Moffitt seemingly vanished into thin air, making spot appearances in 2016’s Camping World Truck Series events and five starts in 2017 before Red Horse Racing folded completely, leaving Moffitt with no ride.
“With Red Horse shutting down it was a little bit heartbreaking for sure,” Moffitt said. “I’ve been in a lot of races but not in competitive equipment and they had that there at Red Horse. So it felt like it was going to be a good opportunity for the season. So to get back in a full-time ride was to just keep working.
“You can get down on your luck after that and it was emotional for me and it was hard to get through that,” he continued. “I ended up doing some Cup races at the end of the year last year to make some money and get me through the offseason and buy some more time. That’s really all it takes, staying around.”
However, Moffitt’s career path has brought the now-25 year-old to Hattori Racing Enterprises with a goal to prove himself once more as a driver.
“Fortunate for me, this truck opened up at HRE opened up and it was a game-time decision really if I was going to be in it or not,” Moffitt said. “A couple of weeks before Daytona we got the deal done but it was a big weight off my shoulders just to get to Daytona.”
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The season may have just started for Moffitt and Hattori Racing Enterprises, but the amount of gains that they’ve made in the past year with the recently departed Ryan Truex are exceptional. With an eighth place finish in Atlanta in his past, Moffitt is confident in his return to the track in the Truck Series this year.