HOMESTEAD, Fla.: The same team won Friday night’s Ford EcoBoost 200 at Homestead-Miami (Fla.) Speedway, but Hattori Racing Enterprises had a different driver and wasn’t a part of the Championship 4.
While Austin Hill settled in and scored his fourth career Truck Series victory, Moffitt was hoping to deliver GMS Racing its second championship and go back-to-back for the Truck Series title.
Unfortunately for the 2018 Truck Series champion, the GMS Racing team missed the balance on their truck and failed to be a factor in Stage 3 – while Matt Crafton sped away from the competition following his final pit stop and claimed this year’s championship title – his third of his career.
Moffitt finished fifth but ranked third overall in the championship standings after Chevrolet teammate Ross Chastain finished third.
“Not good,” offered Moffitt about his night after the race.
“We missed it on overall grip,” he said. “We had okay long-run speed. But we just couldn’t fire off and run pace, and we couldn’t run the bottom. Scott (Zipadelli, Hattori Racing Enterprises) and those guys have a really good setup for here, and it can run the bottom long and fast.
“It’s proven to be the truck to beat here the last two years, and we just need to go to work. We need to get better here.”
While Moffitt’s team had a solid pit stop during Stage 3, but the four-time winner this season said without a caution, there was no way he was going to catch Crafton.
“We struggled to take off too much, and the gap that the 88 had opened up, you weren’t going to overcome that, and if you did, he was going to drive right back by you because he had to pit so early in the run,” added Moffitt.
“Ultimately, we were good on the long run, so at that point in the run, I was starting to actually close that gap back up some.
“But no, I mean, there’s with the tire falloff here, there’s no way we could have short pitted enough to make it back up. Our only hope after the pit stops were for a caution, and obviously that didn’t come.”
While his 2019 season wasn’t comparable to his championship season where he won six races, Moffitt did earn a career-high 17 top-10 finishes and led 452 laps compared to just 269 last year. GMS Racing announced that the Grimes, Iowa native would return for a sophomore season with the Statesville N.C.-based organization in 2020.
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
